french climbers still [heart] smith

The French are back. Pierre Bollinger has made the first ascent of an old project at Smith Rock, in the Aggro Wall area, with the new route “Shoot’m Up” (5.14b).

The French have a long-standing relationship with Smith Rock, near Bend, Oregon. In 1986 Jean-Baptiste Tribout and Jean Marc Troussier arrived at Smith and “in five weeks blew the place apart, repeating most of the hardest routes, and climbing six new lines” according to the Climber’s Guide to Smith Rock by Alan Watts. After 10 days of work Tribout put up To Bolt or Not to be, the first 5.14 in the United States.

This ascent sparked a flame in U.S. climbers, to reach the same levels as the Europeans. Some reevaluated the ethical restrictions that they placed on bolting routes, at that time done by hand. They felt that in order to keep up they needed to start using power drills. Debates flared, and in the end sport climbing in the U.S. grew, with power drills used.

Shortly after the Tribout and Troussier left for home, Chris Grover took a Bosch Bulldog, a cordless hammer drill, to Smith. He got on his favorite climb Churning in the Wake and at the top drilled the first bolts at Smith Rock. The challenge of preparing new routes using 45 minutes to hand drill each bolt was over.

Numerous new routes went up. In 1987 Scott Franklin repeated To Bolt or Not to Be and put up his own 5.14a, Scarface.

In April of 1992 Tribout returned to Smith Rock and put up Just Do It on the east wall of Monkey Face (5.14c), again the hardest route in America.

Florent Wolff, the climbing writer who sent us the information and photos states, “Funny that many years after Jibé Tribout ... a French climber can still make a FA in Smith Rock!”