Weekend Whipper: Fifty Footer on Gear
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Knut Bjoernebye clocks airtime on Kvinner og Barn Først (“Women and children first”), a Norwegian 8+ (5.13a) gear route at Lier, near
Oslo. “The gear is generally good, but at around 30 meters the crack disappears and you’re left with a 5- to 6-meter runout through the crux,” a section
of technical face climbing, Bjoernebye explains. In the video he’s only one meter from easier ground and two meters from another placement. He estimates
the fall to be around 15 meters, or nearly 50 feet.
“The fall is completely safe,” he says. “The piece I fell on was a bomber grey Alien, which has never ripped (even though it does show some wear).” The
Alien was backed up by a number 3 Wallnut, and Bjoernebye says that the several pieces below would probably keep him from hitting the ground,
if both the Alien and Wallnut failed. “Although that would make the fall one of absolutely ridiculous proportions,” he says.
“Considering how steep and clean the wall is, it was actually a pretty fun whip to take, although it definitely did feel a bit spicy being up there. Wicked
line, that I was lucky enough to send this past Friday, after taking the whipper six times or so in total.”
Happy Friday and get after it this weekend!