Earlier this month, a team of four Canada-based climbers made the first ascent of the longest bolted route in North America.
Thirty-three pitches long and roughly 3,000 feet tall, “Guaranteed Rugged” (5.10d) involves as much rock climbing as most El Capitan routes — and it doesn’t require a single cam.
The first-ascent team, which includes Lisa Newhook, her fiance Brent Nixon, plus friends Sean Draper and Kate Naus, wrapped up the project on May 22. “Guaranteed Rugged” — named for nearby city Lillooet’s official tourism slogan — is located in Marble Canyon, a soaring limestone formation near the south end of the Marble Range in British Columbia.
Nixon and Newhook began bolting the route in February 2020 after warm conditions shut down their ice climbing aspirations. The pair noticed a massive sunlit headwall from the highway. Before long, Nixon was on lead, bolting the first few pitches in a pair of mountaineering boots.
33 Pitches, $3,000
After a few initial bolting sessions, the daunting scale of the objective began to set in, and Nixon and Newhook recruited Draper and Naus to assist with the workload.
Over the next 2 years, the foursome cleaned tons of choss and drilled hundreds of bolts all on lead — except for a few filler bolts they later placed on rappel to minimize sketchy runouts. All said and done, the team estimates a total expenditure of over $3,000 in tools and hardware.
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33 Pitches of ‘Sportaneering’
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