From the inspiring to the tragic, ‘Adventure News of the Week’ presents a wrap-up of top news in the world of exploration and adventure. Here’s what you missed this weekend and a few things to look forward to.
Climbing News
Expert alpinists Simon Gietl and Roger Schaeli set out last week to tackle the Alps’ six great north faces, but there’s a twist. Not only will the pair aim to summit all six major peaks, but they’ll also access each location by fair means, which includes human-powered flight.
“They intend to travel only by human power between the mountains, trekking, cycling and paragliding,” said ExplorersWeb. Follow the North 6 journey on Instagram.
Scottish climber and father of the free solo, Dave MacLeod, just ticked off a gripping first ascent on Ben Nevis, reported UK Climbing. He dubbed the wiry gritstone trad route ‘Mnemosyne’ and grades it at E9 6c/8b+.
Placing pieces of pro on Mnemosyne kicks the grade up a notch, he said, “because they are very fiddly and time-consuming to place right in the middle of hard fingery climbing. It’s around 8a to climb straight through, but two or three grades harder to place the gear.”
Check out the uncut send footy below.
Cycling News
Lots going on in the cycling world this week.
Polar cyclist Lorenzo Bartone and his partner have set off on a multimonth tandem bike tour of southern Italy. According to Lorenzo, the course is something of a thank-you tour. The team will make stops along the journey to personally thank those who contributed to Bartone’s ‘Cycling the World’ fund. Follow their trek through Bartone’s Instagram.
UCI’s last MTB World Cup sesh of the season kicked off in Snowshoe on Friday. The elite competition ran the MTB gamut: downhill, cross-country, and cross-country short track races all made the setlist. In Friday’s XCC run, Victor Koretzky and Evie Richards took top men’s and women’s spots, respectively, with Richards coming in just 7 seconds after Koretzky.
Saturday saw some fierce competition in Downhill 1 and Downhill 2 races, where series frontrunner Vali Höll clenched first in women’s for both DH1 and DH2. In the men’s column, Reece Wilson beat out Loïc Bruni in DH1 but couldn’t carry his performance over to DH2, where Bruni claimed gold by fractions of a second.
UCI rounded out the season finale with Sunday’s XCO comps, with Christopher Blevins snagging his first win of the weekend — the first men’s XC win in 27 years for Team USA — and Evie Richards claiming her second.
Endurance News
