What an awesome day on the Ledge Saturday for the annual Black Diamond Tradathon. Not sure on the numbers, but I would say around 80 or so climbers were dotted on routes above Africa and Fountain Ledge. You could hardly have asked for a better weather day as well!
Lots of people were climbing all sorts of things, from moderate routes through the scale to Clinton working his insanely hard Atomik Sky.
One of the more impressive things I saw that day was Luke and Sebastian (12 and 14 years old respectively) climbing Escalator. I witnessed Luke leading the top pitch (16). His style, composure and gear management was really impressive. Well done dudes!! You two are going to go far.
The social was also pretty cool, with good chow and interesting talks and visuals by Mike Scott, Gosia Lipinska and Richard Halsey.
Then of course the raffle . . . what can I say? I still can’t believe I won! When I woke up this morning, I quickly checked if the cams were still on the chair in the lounge where I left them – I was afraid it might have all been a dream. Wow, I was really blown away – 7 new ultra-light BD camelots!!! Now that is an amazing prize!!
A huge thank you to Simon, Deidre and team from RAM for organising and hosting. An awesome job and an awesome event.
And thanks to all of you who were up there making it such a great day with a good vibe and excellent cups of tea.
See you all next year . . . where???
Tony
All pictures by Tony Lourens.
Alessandro on the final pitch of Fountain Edge.
Luke leading and styling up the final pitch of Escalator.
Abseil with a view!
Richard Halsey opening his new route on the day!
