Daniel Woods, 22 of Longmont, Colorado, has wasted no time repeating two iconic boulder problems established by Bernd Zangerl. While visiting Silvretta, Austria, he climbed  Memento and Anam Cara, two testpieces of the area and given V16.

Woods tells us, “Since Bernd Zangerl established both Anam Cara and Memento, I have always wanted to try these lines."  The problems were established in 2005 and 2007.

He spent two days piecing together Anam Cara for its fourth ascent and then managed an impressive one-day ascent of Momento for its seventh ascent, both September 6.  Woods registered the grades at V14 and V13 respectively.

He describes them:  "Anam Cara is a short four-move problem revolving around a desperate quarter pad undercling. It has a very thrutchy climbing style. Memento is the opposite. A few moves of incut crimps lead you to the final freak dyno. Sticking this jump was one of the coolest feelings in climbing I have had in a while. I am impressed with the area of Silvretta.”

Also on September 6, Courtney Sanders, who is Woods' new wife as of last summer, did her first V11, Niviuk, according to 8a.nu.  Sanders is 23 from Nashville, Tennessee and has been climbing for two years.  8a.nu reports, "18 months ago she did her first 7A+ so we are talking some kind of record progressing to 8A."  (Since this article was published, Sanders added two more V11s to her ticklist with sends of Zwiederwurz and The Shining both on September 9.)

The Silvretta Mountains are located in the central eastern Alps and border on Tyrol, which is Zangerl's hometown.  Zangerl has established cutting-edge boulder problems in the Silvretta region as well as the landmark V15 New Base Line in Magic Wood, Switzerland. He became best-known for claiming the second ascent of the famed Fred Nicole V15 Dreamtime, in 2001.

For more on Woods and Sanders' trip, click here.

[Daniel Woods on Anam Cara V14. Photo by Courtney Sanders]