BRC Elects New Committee Lorna Hepburn, President of the Brisbane Rockclimbing Club reports: "This will be my last newsletter as club president. It has been a challenging and rewarding 3 years, but it's time to move on and give someone else the opportunity to take the reins. Also saying their goodbyes to committee duties are Keith, Maxine, Duncan and Domenic. They have all done a great job and will be a tough act to follow." A new committee was elected at the AGM on December 9 2000 (results on right). --Originally reported by Lorna Hepburn at http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/6530/ newsletter.html	Steve Waite - President 3217 6532  E-mail brisbanerock@yahoo.com Kim Polistina - Secretary 3272 9316 E-mail k.polistina@mailbox.gu.edu.au James Pfrunder - Treasurer 3379 8580 E-mail jpfrunder@hotmail.com Graham Baxter - Committee 3371 4130 E-mail jbaxter@powerup.com.au Mike Brett - Committee 3217 2581 E-mail vegitant@yahoo.com
Screaming Elvis Cowboy Strains His Groin   The last few months have seen the pace of development at Harvey's Marbles once again quicken, with a host of moderate to hard problems added. Effort was concentrated in three areas, the Upper and Lower Terraces and the Embankment. Madoc Sheehan has developed a serious love affair with the embankment, and added a host of hard problems to the area. The best of these is Elvis V5, a blank vertical to slabby 4m wall that is ascended using two holds, both situated at half height, and a hold-your-breath rock over mantle. He also added the desperate Left Cocky V4, a powerful problem that will work your legs harder then your arms. Sheehan also added four other problems to the area graded either V3 or 4. Next to Elvis, Steve Baskerville added the superb overhung arête Screamer V5. Found by Darrin Carter, the arête features technical footwork and powerful moves between poor pinches and slopes.   At the upper terrace a lower start to Groin Strain was added upping the grade to V4, and a handful of easy problems were added. There was a similar story in the lower terrace, with Aaron Jones solving the long attempted arête R of Namtel, conservatively giving it a grade of V3. The problem is heavily featured and the crux was solved using a desperate slope and a heel rockover. Nearby, Carter showed he had a great eye for problems discovering the sit start Cowboy V4. Unfortunately, despite showing unbelievable determination in working the problem 'till he removed his fingertips, he fell just short, and once again Baskerville used his extra reach to steal the problem. Some easier problems were also added to the area.    Some easier problems were also added to the area, including 2 V2's and a V3 to the Cow Paddock. Further North at Emerald Creek Baskerville added a new V4/5 to the Trackside Boulder.    Harvey's continues to produce more classic problems, and despite the total number of problems being close to 200, there is still enough potential to ensure the flow of new problems will continue for years to come.   --Steve Baskerville	Above: Steve Baskerville on the first ascent of Cowboy V4, 2000
Nicole sends V15? At the forefront of extreme bouldering, Fred Nicole has further stamped his authorotah. This time, in a granite area at Cresciano in Switzerland, where he's added a sit-start to a problem already graded V14.  The hype is that there is no doubt that the sit start adds an extra V grade, making this 21 move problem called Dreamtime the first problem in the world to be given V15.  Hopefully someone will be able to repeat the problem to confirm the grade. --LS	A Goal Completed  Between June 2000 and January 2001, Lee Skidmore systematically ticked each of the 11 grade 24 routes at Kangaroo Point as a training exercise. Most were redpointed, one was pinkpointed, and any natural gear was placed on lead. In addition, most routes were done at night. The routes were:  Miasma (FFA), Nic Chips Diffs, Brisbane Bitter, Punks in the Gin, Honed and Buffed, Wages of Fear, Pig City, 42 Wheels, Dollarman, Brisbane Bitter VS and Tode Mode. Lee says: "We all bag KP, but setting myself a goal like that really motivated me to climb there, and it's improved my climbing a great deal. I recommend others who are having motivation problems do something similar."
Top class new route for Llewellin In November 2000 local Queensland climber Gareth Llewellin along with Brent Edelen (USA) and Jakub Gajda (Czech) climbed a new route near the town of Basaseachic in Chihuahua, Mexico. Blades, Scars and Stars VI 5.10 J3 A3+/A4 772 meters (2575 feet) ascends the west face of El Gigante (The Giant) and took 11 continuous days on the wall after 3 days of fixing. The canyon in which the Giant lies is rarely visited and only one party had previously climbed this formation which is slightly larger than El Capitan in Yosemite Valley, California. The logistics involved in climbing in this remote area were cruxy. Starting from a town only 10km away, a full week of effort was required just to arrive at the base of the route with enough equipment for the ascent. Because no porters were hired, packs of up to 52kg were carried by the party on its hike back to civilisation. This was the thirteenth big wall route (of grade V or VI) for Llewellin during 2000 including 10 grade VI's and 8 El Cap routes. --Gareth Llewellin	Mr Cranky reviews Vertical Limit This extract is from a review by a non-climber of the movie. It was rated "as good as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick". "According to the film, the so-called "vertical limit" is the altitude above which a human being cannot survive for very long. Until one of the characters actually explained that, I thought it was the altitude above which egotistical actors finally found it necessary to wear a hat. You can pretty much toss out the notion that this is going to be any sort of realistic mountain climbing movie once you realize that you can't stuff an actor in a hooded parka and face shield and expect him to do anything other than demand to talk to his agent. Thus, Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell) and his mountain-climbing friends are wandering around the base camp of K-2 -- at what one would presume is 17,000 or 19,000 feet -- in regular clothes. As if. O'Donnell looks like the kind of pansy who throws a fit when the bubbles in the hot tub stop." --Mr Cranky (read the whole review)