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| Name: |
Sam Chinnery |
| Age: |
23 |
| Occupation: |
Rope Access Hang-about/ Cabinet Maker |
| Base: |
Edinburgh |
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| Description: |
Sam is a strong mountaineer with big ambitions - another of the "new breed" of young, adventurous climbers. At 23 he has already achieved so much...
Although Sam began climbing about eight years ago, it wasn't until going to Edinburgh University that he was introduced to the joys of Scottish winter and has been hooked ever since. He finds winter climbing so appealing " because it is about so much more than just how strong you are or how bold you want to be. It's about determination, timing, suffering and a good bit of guess work. So on the rare occasion you do actually get up a route it's quite special".
Winter achievements include: Solo of Cascade (VI/6) at Stag Rocks (1996); 1st on-sight free ascent of Nocando Crack (VII/8) in the Northern Corries (1997); the 3rd ascent of The Citadel(VII,8) on the Shelterstone (1999); the 2nd ascent of (VIII/7) and the 1st all-free ascent (3rd overall ascent) of The Needle (VIII/8) on the Shelterstone, (2000).
On rock, he has climbed up to E5 and has put up new routes, including Child of the Sea (E5), a stunning 110m arete rising straight out of the sea on Pabbay.
Inspired greatly by hard technical climbing in the Greater Ranges, Sam aims to get on one big trip a year. He sees the potential of transferring his ability of hard Scottish mixed climbing to routes in the Himalayas and is really keen to pursue this idea over the next few years. He dreams of "finding a route like Citadel but going on for 1500 metres!" and believes the potential for young Brits to get out and do brilliant routes of a moderate height is huge - "we just need to stop failing on everything!"
To date expeditions have included a successful trip to the Cordillera Real and Apolobamba regions of Bolivia, where amongst other achievements, they made a first ascent of a variation to the Fench route on the West Face of Illampu (6200m) at ED3 950, 1200m. In 1999, they abandoned an attempt of the unclimbed North Ridge of Latok III (6990m) in the Choktoi area in Pakistan due to dangerous approach conditions although went on add a new route on the West face of a 800m high granite spur known as Indian Arete, at A3, HVS.
More recently, "horrible loose overhanging rock" led to an aborted attempt on a new line up the North Face of Loboche in the Khumbu region of Nepal. However, he and Jules Cartright went on to make first British ascent of Christophe Profit's line on the North Face of Kwangde, " the climbing was brilliant, 1200m of thin ice runnels through steep granite".
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| Finest Moment: |
"I think finally reaching the top of the west face of Illampu in the Andes at
3am after 24 hours of climbing. It was one of the first big routes I had done and foolishly thought we could do it in a day. A freezing bivi at 6000 metres was the result but I was just so glad we got up it!"
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