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Strong Chik - now Josune cranks 9a+


mousey

24-Jan-2005
11:36:32 PM

wouldnt it be awesome if we had that kind of support here eh?

Onsight

25-Jan-2005
12:14:46 AM

Indeed it would.

Onsight

11-May-2005
11:09:11 PM

BUMP.
Here's some more news.

Read this and weep - or cheer - as the case may be! (I reckon this is fantastic!)

From 8a.nu:
>9a+ by Bereziartu!
>About a month ago Josune Bereziartu told us "I'm going to St. Loup to try some hard >route..." . Now we know what she meant!
>It was Bimbaluna, 9a+, first climbed by Francois Nicole. This was the first repeat. It >goes without saying, this is the hardest route ever climbed by a woman.
>More about this later.

In theory 9a+ would translate 36 in Oz grades - if we had any.

Goodvibes

12-May-2005
8:44:06 AM

That is really inspiring. She has jumped to a whole new level of late. I guess she really likes climbing at Saint Loup, or perhaps the Nicole brothers are just soft lol. She has also become the only other women besides Katie Brown to onsight 8b (31) with her ascent of Steriod Performance, one of Dai Koyamada's routes in Japan.

Poor old Francois Nicole didn't get much press coverage for the FA.


manacubus

12-May-2005
11:02:16 AM

With nothing to back that up it sounds like useless slander to me.

Take!

12-May-2005
11:12:49 AM

Agreed.

I believe a few Australian women could be attaining those grades too, just a matter of focus and the belief that its possible.

Very inspiring stuff for both women and men.

climbingjac

12-May-2005
12:04:38 PM

I agree too. I'm not thrilled that we Australians are even subscribing to it as a possibility. That really ticks me off. Here's a girl who's obviously putting in a LOT of hard work, and that's the reaction she gets??? If this was my website I'd remove all the posts that even suggested it.


nmonteith

12-May-2005
12:18:37 PM

The mod squad won't be censoring peoples opinions. There is plenty of rumours on this website already.

Onsight

12-May-2005
12:34:10 PM

Others might disagree but I don't think brushing the comment under the carpet just cause we don't like it is the solution Jac. (Retro edit - I see Neil agrees).

On 12/05/2005 manacubus wrote:
>With nothing to back that up it sounds like useless slander to me.

Agreed. That's a crap thing to suggest Tel.

I think it simply stems from the fact she's awesomely talented and extremely dedicated, is going about things the right way and has been doing so for long enough, lives in good part of the world for hard sport climbing, and has been well supported in what's she's doing - particularly for the last few years.

On 12/05/2005 Take! wrote:
>I believe a few Australian women could be attaining those grades too,
>just a matter of focus and the belief that its possible.
Not to mention a few Aust men eh?
Anyway, I think it actually takes more than simply just focus, belief and talent – opportunity and support does come into play at the top level. Some of Australia’s top climbers (men and women) have pulled off significant achievements whilst working four or even five days a week and I’m sure they could do even more if situations were a little different.

12-May-2005
12:41:32 PM

the drugs dont work, they just make you worse.


ShinToe Warrior

12-May-2005
1:04:11 PM

On 12/05/2005 KP wrote:
>the drugs dont work, they just make you worse.
fuelling strange urges to eat much protein powder, pump iron and flex muscles in front of lots of people ;>)

Take!

12-May-2005
1:42:39 PM

Onsite - Agree totaly, financial wellbeing (support) is part of being able to maintain focus, sorry I didn't articulate it too well.

"Not to mention a few Aust men eh?"
Ha - I sooo note the irony of that response.


nmonteith

12-May-2005
5:48:03 PM

There have always been people in every sport who appear to be way ahead of the pack. The Micheal Jordans, Tiger Woods, Schumachers ect. Climbing grades are just one small way of measuring sucess. In Australia we had our own superstar with Garth Miller in the mid 90's. He outclimbed everyone - and was onsighting routes that Australia's other top climbers were having to dog to death. Just because she climbs really well doesn't mean she is a cheat. That is the classic tall poppy syndrome. IMO performance drugs are ok anyway... see this previous topic.
http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=DisplayTopic&ForumID=1&MessageID=11070&PagePos=&Sort=&Replies=46&MsgPagePos=0


Eduardo Slabofvic

12-May-2005
5:57:29 PM

On 24/01/2005 JCP wrote:
>wouldnt it be awesome if we had that kind of support here eh?

We do. It's called "New Start". Check out the recent budget papers for details.

Dave C

12-May-2005
6:07:42 PM

Josune Bereziartu's performance has a lot to do with the people she climbs with. If you spent all your time with the current crop of Basque strong-men (this includes Josune's husband) you could be ticking 9a+ as well! Spain as a whole is definitely producing the strongest climbers at the moment (eg Dani Andrada) so the presence of a Spanish woman at this level shouldn't be that much of a surprise.
I seem to recall that at one stage in the 80s Lynn Hill was similarly well ahead of the pack in terms of women's climbing. I suppose it may indicate that in a smaller population (of female as opposed to male climbers) it is always more likely that one individual will stand-out from the pack.


ShinToe Warrior

12-May-2005
6:09:59 PM

Eduardo, I suspect that today's prospective pines dweller may find it more challenging to move to nati
and qualify to receive the Government's de facto climbing sponsorship than in years past (some guff
about moving to an area of higher unemployment than the one they left), although perhaps as Take! says,
it's
>just a matter of focus and the belief that its possible.
>

Onsight

16-May-2005
10:35:54 AM

> It's called "New Start".
Eduardo, ha ha, very funny… (quaint). If only it were that simple.

Tel – I think you missed the point there entirely…
Anyway, yes, Josune is significantly ahead of the other women and I think most of the reasons for that have been raised — talent, motivation, focus, scene, training, access to training and the right routes (location), and resources and financial support (she been full-time professional for at least two years). I could think of a few other reasons as well. And as stuck in the US pointed out, I’m sure this sort of standout performance is more noticeable due to the relatively smaller numbers of female climbers about (and the reasons for that are an essay unto itself). But I’m not sure you aren’t making assumptions that nothing similar has happened in men’s climbing (1x9b+ and 1x9b, no?).


Eduardo Slabofvic

16-May-2005
12:51:44 PM

On 16/05/2005 Onsight wrote:
>> It's called "New Start".
>Eduardo, ha ha, very funny… (quaint). If only it were that simple.

Shinto is onto the right idea. I am a climber, I make my living from climbing (guiding, albeit not a lucrative one), therefore I need to be near the crag to take the punters up the rock. Oh dear! There’s not enough punters to go around to make up 40hrs/week, oh well, I guess I’ll just have to work on my skill base to ensure that I remain competitively advantaged in the market place.

I should start a thread on the tax advantages of being a climber.

Onsight

16-May-2005
1:27:34 PM

Sounds like we were talking about different things Eduardo. It’s nice making a living off climbing I guess, or simply living near a great crag, but I was talking about what’s required to become a world-class sport-climber these days. And that’s totally different.


Tel

16-May-2005
3:07:17 PM

I have removed the post the were publicly on this thread. There is little I can do to retract what was said.... I do aplogise to all
tel

There are 43 messages in this topic.