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Kevin Ryan, Dave Vuono's climbing partner in Mallorca, climbs his way across the ceiling of a cave over the waters of the Mediterranean. Photo by Dave Vuono |
Comments (1)Vuono Dives Into Deep Water Soloing in Vermont, Mallorca
Adventure Slide Show Series
By Olivia DwyerPublished: December 30, 2009
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In 2006, Dave Vuono was working through the crux of a climb in Australia when he saw Dave Nettle scaling a buttress in the distance. The bravery of this far-off, ropes-free figure gave Vuono the motivation to finish his climb. He went over to Nettle’s camp that night, introduced himself, and the two have been friends since.
Nettle officially invited Vuono to the Tahoe area to share his rock-climbing adventures from Vermont and deep-water soloing off the cliffs of Mallorca, Spain, in last night’s Dec. 30 edition of the Adventure Slide Show Series. However, the rock climbers have found plenty of time for their other favorite pastimes during Vuono’s visit, including backcountry powder and swapping stories. They fielded a few questions from Moonshine Ink before the slide show last night.
MI: Is there any kind of East Coast-West Coast rivalry with rock climbers?
Vuono: There’s nothing but love.
Nettle: What’s it like coming to school? It can be kind of weird — like the first day of kindergarten.
Vuono: Vermont is a really nice area of the country. It’s kind of a great unknown. If you want to be a climber in New England, you’ve got to be tenacious. It can be frustrating. There’s bad weather, summers are hot and humid.
Nettle: Clearly what’s back there that we don’t have here is four different kinds of biting insects.
Vuono: I’m not one to show up at the crag and start with the hardest routes. I’ve never had any trouble showing up at someone else’s home crag.
Nettle: Right on. It’s, “You drove all this way, you’ve got to check out this route.” … Climbing has become a much more global activity. You see very few crag fossils — climbers that lurk at home. Travel has become as much a part of the charm as climbing.
MI: You’ve both made travel part of your climbing experiences. What are your favorite places to climb around the world?
Nettle: Let’s go back and forth. Dolomites, Northern Italian provinces.
Vuono: Tasmania, Australia.
Nettle: Patagonia — the rock and the women.
Vuono: Spain in general. All across the country there is sport climbing bar none.
Nettle: The Bugaboos, in the heartland of Canada. Wild yet attainable.
Vuono: Marshfields, Vermont.
Nettle: Since we’re being regional, I’ll have to go with the Sierra Nevada backcountry. Even leaving out Yosemite Valley.
[Proving the global nature of the sport, the waitress, Alyssa, chimed in with a few of her favorite spots.]
Alyssa: Where do you guys climb?
MI: Pick a country!
Nettle: Where are your favorite places to climb?
Alyssa: Summerville Lake, West Virginia. … You don’t even know you’re in West Virgina. Red River Gorge [Kentucky]. You could go months there.
[Nettle is now planning an East Coast road trip with these gems in mind.]
MI: What’s the climbing community in Vermont like?
Vuono: It’s interesting climbing in Vermont because you’re surrounded by good climbing. The Adirondacks [in New York], New Hampshire, the Marshfields. … You have people that focus on one particular kind of climbing, and in Vermont we call them crusties. Because Vermont is such a small climbing community, it took a long time to develop. I published an article in Rock and Ice and it caused an uproar — it was like I’d given away the crown jewel. They basically have their own private cliffs and to them it was their own private crag. It was like an ego trip in a way.
Nettle: One change of attitude opens so much up in a sport that keeps you young at heart and opens the door to travel.
Vuono: There’s been a certain paradigm shift. [Now] climbing in New England is the shit, it’s awesome. A few years ago was kind of the Golden Age.
Nettle: There’s always that feeling of born too late … [but] people are still breaking barriers.
Vuono: There is that feeling that it’s all done now.
Nettle: The potential is out there; you just have to have the vision. It can be enhanced by predecessors or shut down.
MI: A few years ago, the film “Big Lines” featured Chris Sharma deep water soloing in Mallorca. Is that what inspired you to make your own trip?
Vuono: A lot of inspiration comes from Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer, guys going out there and revolutionizing climbing movies. Skiing movies and surfing movies are so sick, there’s big money behind those shots. … It’s so cool to see the progress of climbing and the vision to make climbing into a popular sport.
We went to Mallorca for a couple of reasons. There’s a lot of deep water soloing on Lake Champlain [in Vermont], and to me, to have it in your backyard is so cool. The other part was watching films. The seed was planted with films, and once we started to go explore Lake Champlain’s deep water soloing it [became], “We’ve got to buy tickets, go to Mallorca, it’s going to be awesome.”
MI: What is it like to attempt the routes that you saw Sharma doing in the movie that inspired you to travel to Spain and make your own attempt?
Vuono: It’s definitely a novel feeling to see something on film, aspire to go there, and then the feeling when you’re climbing it. Deep water soloing is intimidating. You’re doing the moves you would never normally do without a rope.
MI: Does it hurt when you fall and hit the water?
Vuono: It all depends on how you fall. There’s a saying from [rock climber] Klem Loskot, “You’re afraid to fall, but when you do, you realize how soft the water is.” And it really is the case.
MI: How does climbing give you balance in your life with your “day job” earning a Ph.D. at Colorado College of Mines?
Vuono: It all comes down to perspective. Climbing gave me a new perspective. Perspective to me is engendered by travel. When you travel, you see how society is and realize how it’s not sustainable and that a lot of our practices are bad for the planet, which we can’t live with out.
The overall connection I get when climbing, when I’m in nature, when I’m suffering — the learning I gain from being in these positions gives me perspective.
The eighth annual Adventure Slide Show Series, a free event sponsored by The Back Country, takes place in Bar One at Squaw Valley every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. through February 10. Next week, Mike Schwartz, the owner of The Back Country, will share his own adventures ski touring right here in the Sierras. Past speakers in this year’s series include Kip Garre and John Morrision. See a full schedule of slide show speakers here.
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