Can you and your film crew reserve a single route, if not an entire mountain—literally tying it up (with fixed ropes and camera operators) for not just a day, but an entire summer?

Do you believe that when someone else’s goals or presence seemingly conflicts or compromises your own climbing goals that you have more of a right than that person to be there?

Especially when the goal involves a certain “prize” such as a first ascent or even a first female ascent?

Determining how to answer these questions are issues that professional climbers haven’t really had to wrestle with—at least not publicly. Yet, yesterday, in a lengthy blog post, Sasha Digiulian stewed over those questions after fellow professional female climber Nina Caprez asked her not to come to Orbayu, the 5.14 big-wall route located on Naranjo de Bulnes (2,519 meters) in Northern Spain and established by Iker Pou and Eneko Pou in August 2009.

“I have told several media outlets and friends about my plans to try Orbayu with Edu Marin, my climbing partner from Bellavista. Iker Pou established the route a few years ago, and since, the route has seen few ascents, and no women.

We had arranged media and aligned our sponsors with the project proposal, yet this morning I received a message from a friend of mine from Switzerland, Nina Caprez, informing me that this has been her dream project and that her and her boyfriend, Cedric Lachat, have plans to rig the route with static lines and equipment for the film crew in June, and then they will be on the wall and try to complete it by August.

“I have tremendous respect for both Nina and Cedric as professional climbers. Due to this respect for them, I have decided that I am not going to intertwine myself with doing this route this summer because their film agenda already seems pre-baked.”

The reason, explains Sasha, that she decided to write the post is, first and foremost, to let her sponsors and affiliates know there was a legitimate reason why she was backing away from the Orbayu project. After securing funds and preparing logistics to shoot her own film, Sasha’s Orbayu goals involved much more than just her and her climbing partner, Edu Marin, traveling to Spain and roping up for a 5.14 romp in the mountains. Thousands of dollars (ostensibly) in funding and film-crew support, not to mention everyone’s plans and time commitments, were now in flux for Team Sasha … all because Team Nina said she called it first.

Note that Nina and Cedric had also put in a lot of work securing funds and promoting their upcoming ascent of Orbayu, even crowdsourcing the film’s budget. In other words, it was a coincidence that both made these plans, and both put in a lot of work to realizing them.

Let’s step back for a second and interject some much-needed perspective on this (non)quagmire. First of all, there is the obvious irony of two female climbers vying for the same random big-wall project, with both putting in a lot of effort in terms of preparation to secure a film crew to document their respective, hopeful first female ascents.

Of course, these are decidedly not issues that 99.9% of other climbers have to think about or deal with. It’s easy, therefore, to dismiss the issue as juvenile squabbling. Yet if one can swat away the faint hints of cattiness wafting through the air, there are some interesting issues at the heart of this now public collision of two power climbers gunning for the same first female ascent.

As Sasha observantly notes in her blog, professional climbers have an obligation to create media—particularly, films—about their ascents. This is correct. Step outside the world of competition climbing to the world of real rock (the only one that matters to most), and you won’t find stadium seating beneath today’s most cutting edge objectives. For better or worse for pro climbers, if their ascents are to mean anything to a wider community, those ascents need to be filmed, edited and broadcast on film tours, television and the Internet. If you can’t watch it on Vimeo and you can’t share it on Facebook, it may as well have never happened.

(This is nothing new, by the way. Climbers have been reaching out to big sponsors and creating media in order to fund their ascents since the end of the era of nationalistic, government-funded conquests and explorations of the greater ranges after World War II. After which nation-sponsors were replaced by corporations.

For example, the 1963 American expedition to Everest was funded by the American Tobacco Company, National Geographic, Life and Rainer Beer.)

This is good for the rest of us, of course, because we get to view inspiring climbing footage daily, footage that takes us around the world and makes us feel like we’re part of the action.

But with that film comes the need for a hook. A storyline. Or, as Sasha eloquently put it, “that extraordinary special factor.”

“This extraordinary factor includes the line being undone before, or for women, undone by other females.”

Herein really lies the issue: It’s not just that you have to chose a hard project that will shoot well, look beautiful and that you believe you are capable of actually climbing—it also has to be a great story! Once you begin to take stock of all these factors, you can begin to see how the wide world of rock might begin looking smaller and smaller to today’s professionals. What trip or expedition hasn’t already been done? What story hasn’t already been told? Are those “extraordinary special factors” that need to align for a climbing project becoming rarer than the black rhino?

Most of all, is a first female ascent even valuable if you don’t invite other females to try the route with you?

Mo’ Pros, Mo’ Problems, I guess. I reached out to Sasha to find out more.

What first drew you to Orbayu?

After finishing Bellavista last August, Edu Marin and I decided that we needed a project for the next summer. Returning to try Panaroma [Ed.: another Huber 5.14 on the Cima Ovest] was an option—it was wet when we were there, and it may be permanently slightly wet!—we wanted a change of location because Panaroma and Bellavista share all but one pitch. So Edu told me about Orbayu. I watched the video produced on it, and was hooked. The line looks amazing, and I love Spain!

Explain what goes into planning a route such as this for you as a professional climber. Do you feel like you need to bring sponsors on board for any big projects/goals? Give us a glimpse into your professional life.



During the school year [Ed.: Sasha attends Columbia University in New York City], I really have limited time to climb outside. Every trip I make is very low key and may just be for a day or two. The windows in which I have more time to climb outside are December-January, and the summer, June through August. So, when I am planning out longer trips, I like to include my sponsors so that they can be a part of my climbing journey.

Generally, I think that as long as you are working with a good film crew that you share good energy with, then filming is not intrusive. I am interested in creating videos around my pursuits as a professional climber because I want to share my experiences with the world. When other people find these videos inspiring, that is a bonus to making content.

My ultimate goal in climbing is to share my passion with a wider audience and help make climbing a more well-known sport. Promoting an active life outside, chasing personal dreams, and putting yourself on the line are values I believe are worth sharing with other people.

To prepare for a trip/film, the process begins with an idea. Then I will discuss my project with my sponsors. Depending the scenario, the film crew will develop a production schedule. We will then go to that destination and follow either the preplanned objective, or, as it worked out in South Africa, change plans depending on what I am most inspired to do once I am there. The most organized film projects are when I have a specific route I have in mind to go and try, and we can plan the trip around this goal. Though, in the past I have also chosen locations that I want to visit first, and then the route has come subsequent.

Either way, I think that filming and capturing media around my proudest accomplishments is important not only to document my feats, but also to share my love of climbing and experiences with the community.

What specific arrangements had you made for climbing and filming this route? How many months had this been a plan? How much thought, time or preparation had been put in?

With Orbayu, actually, I had done a media tour with my publicist around the build up to this climb. I was in NYC meeting with several media outlets including ABC and NBC, both interested in the climbing realm, project pushing, and telling new stories. So correspondents have shown interest to accompany me on a journey in which I have a set goal. I had also green-lined the approval with my sponsors and with a film crew.

Explain what happened when Nina contacted you. How did she hear about your similar goals? What were her concerns with you coming as well? Did she give you the dates that she has “reserved” this wall?

Nina and I had both expressed interest in the route in online publications. SHAPE magazine recently published my plan to go to Orbayu in August. Though there has also been slight miscommunication about the route regarding the grade—which has now been confirmed 8c not 9a.

Nina told me that Orbayu is her dream line and that she and Cedric have been working toward arranging a film crew to document them climbing the route. In June (this month), they will be rigging Orbayu with static lines for filming and protection. I am not sure, actually, but I believe they will be there starting June and going until end of August. I know because I told her that we were planning to go August 10-30 and that was a conflict. Being there on the wall as two separate groups filming would be crowded.

Really, a solution would be if we both went without media. Nina asked me to kindly respect that this is her project and to find another one. She did recommend that I go and try Adam Ondra’s testpiece that he completed in Switzerland, WoGu, and also to try Yeah Man. I appreciated the redirect.

Why does Nina get the right to do this route before you?

In the greater scheme of things, it’s not worth having drama around a route when I can go after a bigger goal. Orbayu was a route that I wanted to try in August, but I can go another time when it’s not an issue—and have an enjoyable experience on it. Since Nina asked me to respect her project, then, yes, I am “throwing in the towel.” I’m not going to try it this summer, not because I doubt any sort of success, but because I don’t want to fight over a rock climb.

Do you think that she is right that doing two film projects at once would be impossible?

Totally. I think that we both would need to be respectful and create windows of opportunity. What would be ideal is that we both go without media and just are both there working on the route and climbing without media. I am fine with this, but it is not an option in this case.

What do you think the larger issue is here? Do you think it’s about whether or not someone has the “right” to reserve a route for a film project?

I think that the larger issue is this: when there is media involved in a climb, there is an added pressure, and climbers tend to get protective over something that they do not own. No, no one has the “right” to reserve a route. But, someone has the right to profess their concern because people can say whatever they want, and that’s what has been done.

Do professional climber have a right to ask average, everday climbers to stay off a particular route while they are filming?

Honestly, I really don’t think so. That is elitist and selfish. Sure, it is easy to get tunnel vision if you are a professional athlete looking to create a film on a route and want other people not to be on it at the same time as you because it interrupts the film. But having the actual right to ask people not to climb it is not very fair. With a multi-pitch route, the issue is complicated because a wall becomes crowded very quickly with multiple people on it at once. It’s not like a single pitch when you just lower to the ground and another person tries it.

With this, I think that sharing the route is important.If you want to film the route, have a designated window and then be flexible to other people having a run at it, too.

Maybe instead of repeating Orbayu, you should just go do something else?

Haha. That’s the plan. Edu and I are going to go to Switzerland and try out WoGu and Yeah Man. I’ve never climbed outside there, so this is the silver lining.

What is more important to professional climbing, in general, these days: Actual achievement, or media creation? Ideally, of course, the two come together. But they aren’t necessarily dependent on each other. Would you say that the state of professional climbing today leans too heavily on media creation, with not enough emphasis on actual groundbreaking achievement?

Social media and marketing are large components to a professional athlete’s career. Though, the athlete needs to deliver, too. Without groundbreaking achievements, then the buzz is not really grounded in anything. So, sure, this can be stressful.

Now I am in University and have limited months to actually get outside and go climbing. I love to go out and have fun, but I also want to be pushing myself physically and to be realizing new boundaries of achievement. So, I guess the answer to twofold—create media around achievement. For instance, looks and hype alone are not going to take you too far.

Why can’t you push Nina harder to let you both go and do it together?

You know, I could say “Hey, whatever, I’ll be there too and we can duel it out,” but then I am abandoning a large element of what I love about climbing—the encouragement of those around you, the positive energy, the tranquilness of being outside and striving for your personal goals. Dealing with a junk show of hanging lines and people trying to film, feeling like I’m “in the way,” and not really respecting someone else’s proclaimed project, whether it’s my project too or not, isn’t exactly my goal in climbing.

I respect both Nina and Cedric, so if they don’t want me to be there on the wall with them trying the route, too, then I can go elsewhere. There is plenty of rock to climb in the world … it’s just too bad when there are people who want to climb the same thing at the same time and I think that this is something that we will be seeing more often in the future. BD athletes Adam Pustelnik and Nico Favresse make first repeat of Orbayu (8b+/8c) in Naranjo de Bulnes, Spain from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.