di Elena Corriero
\n\u201cI do believe that the time can be reduced by a lot.\u201d says Mayan Smith-Gobat, commenting on her record breaking ascent of the Nose, two days ago, during a practice run. Mayan and her partner Chantel Astorba broke the record recently set by Jos Meiris and Quinn Brett, lowering it by 9 minutes from the previous 10 hours and 19\u2019.
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\nBut how close can women get to the men’s time? \u201cI believe that the women’s time could go down to around the 4 hour mark easily, but it may take a while before it goes below that\u201d, answers Mayan. \u201cWomen are generally not as keen to take risks as men, and going under that time would definitely require some risk!\u201d
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\nRisks are inherent in speed climbing, as Mayan point out when explaining the technique they used for their ascent. \u201cWe lead the wall in blocks – each taking a bunch of pitches and only switching leads 4 times in total. We also decided to use a technique called "short fixing": when the leader get to the anchors they pull in the rest of the rope, then tie it off and immediately start leading again. This is a bit risky, as the leader is at that point facing a huge fall, but saves a lot of time – we can actually both keep moving all the time.\u201d
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\nHow can you deal concretely with risk and danger on a speed climb? What do you do to make your climb safer? \u201cIt is all just a matter of assessing how much risk there is and how much you are willing to take\u201d, says Mayan Smith-Gobat. \u201cI am comfortable climbing with what they call "the death loop", and while in this situation I simply put myself in a soloing mindset – there is no option of falling off and I only do what I know I can do safely, otherwise I pull on gear. However\u201d, she continues, \u201cthere is risk involved and I believe that this is partially why not many women do this type of thing.\u201d
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\nBut what is the point in a speed climb of a big wall? \u201cWhat is the point in climbing at all?\u201d she asks back. \u201cWhat is the point in running a race? What is the point of trying to win anything at all or beat any record?\u00a0I do not really know the answer to these questions… I think it is something to do with our human nature to want to win, our egos.\u201d
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\nMayan and Chantel are now working on a speed connection of the Nose and the Half Dome, to be climbed directly afterward, within 24 hours. Something that has never been done by a female team. But success is well within their reach. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
di Elena Corriero \u201cI do believe that the time can be reduced by a lot.\u201d says Mayan Smith-Gobat, commenting on her record breaking ascent of the Nose, two days ago,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8066],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-boulder"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n