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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 28, 2010 - 01:05pm PT
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I see on the Metanoia trailer that there have been many attempts to repeat Jello's Metanoia, but I have no idea how many "many" is.
Is Jello the only one that can tell us how many, when they occurred, and whom was involved?
Were there team attempts?
Solo attempts?
How high did they get?
Where is the crux?
That trailer is flat out amazing.....
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 28, 2010 - 02:51pm PT
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He's the guy that is slated to repeat in Jeff's film, but I don't know if he has a bonified attempt yet or not.
I know he got weathered out for the filming....
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Dec 29, 2010 - 01:17am PT
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Hi Survival-
When I saw the "..many have tried..." comment up on the screen, I had it changed to "Strong climbers have tried...", which is more accurate.
In the 8 or 9 years following my climb, I got querries about the route from about a dozen climbers, most of whom seemed to be eastern european and several of whose names I recognized from significant alpine or Himalayan climbs. Slavco Sveticic, who was a great soloist, indicated he wanted to repeat the climb the way I did it.
I provided information to them and got word back from one party that they could find no way to climb up the First Band where Toni Kurz died, where Metanoia goes, so they went over to the normal route and climbed up through the second icefield, and again got lost trying to find the start on the upper headwall, so they went down.
Another party made it up the A4 behind Kurz' imaginary rope, but didn't want to climb the unprotected slab above. In 1993 I met Slavco on the west face of Makalu where he was part of a big Italian Team sieging (unsuccessfully) the west face, and I was doing a solo route up harder terrain in the center of the wall just to stay away from them.
I was also unsuccessful, but Slavco was sitting on a rock on the morraine at the bottom of the wall as I came down. He was smoking a joint and offerred me a hit and motioned me to sit a while. We ended up spending a very pleasant couple of hours talking about the freedom and responsibilities of solo climbing such large routes. Slavco had already climbed the Harlin Route on the Eiger alone, and he really wanted to do Metanoia, so we spent a lot of time discussing details. Sadly, Slavco died not too long after that. I don't think he ever got a chance to get on Metanoia.
Stevie Haston also got beta from me to giveto some of his British friends, but I never heard about an actual attempt.
Finally, although the weather last winter was never settled enough for Ueli to start up, things looked good to him this autumn. On October 10 he started up, but somewhere on blank, snow-covered slabs above the A4 on the First band, he slipped and took a 30-meter fall. Wisely, he came down to wait for icier late-winter conditions.
So, not "many" climbers have tried, but certainly, some "strong" climbers have tried...
-WeakJello
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 29, 2010 - 06:03am PT
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Thanks a ton Jello! I really got to wondering about it. I mean, that route has been there a long time now, a real problem for guys who have an itch to not leave things unrepeated.
Of course those are attempts that you know about. I'm sure it's possible that there have been a couple attempts by people that didn't contact you at all?
You must have really been on your game sir, wow.
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Johnny K.
Mountain climber
Southern,California
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Dec 29, 2010 - 11:56am PT
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The conditions would have to be pretty spot on in the later part of the season to pull it off,correct Jeff? That is amazing Ueli tried in august! O_O
Hopefully we will see this documentary and Ueli go for another attempt!
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Dec 29, 2010 - 08:15pm PT
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Here you go, Bruce:
Red line - Metanoia
Green = 1938 route
Blue = Harlin direct
Orange = Czech Direttissima
Yellow = Japanese Direttissima
-Jello
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 29, 2010 - 09:21pm PT
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Thank you sir. What a beautiful line!!
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Cloudraker
Big Wall climber
BC
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"Of course those are attempts that you know about. I'm sure it's possible that there have been a couple attempts by people that didn't contact you at all?"
Possible but unlikely
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