Up The Rocks

In the evening of May 21 the event opening party was held in “Friends” bar in Yerevan. The party started introducing the chronological facts of rock climbing in Armenia since 1940s - that’s when an honorable member of Up The Rocks, Aghvan Chatinyan, has successfully started it’s climbing carrier at the alpinism school of Soviet Union.
It was followed by the slideshow reporting the period our elder generations’ climbing activity and nowadays, presenting the recent climbs. Later, Will Nazarian and Katy Anderson shared a nice slideshows of their climbing experience in US and Europe. The party ended with bear and Latino dance cheer ups.

In the next morning, May 22, the event crew went straight to Hells Canyon, location that was not included in the itinerary but was kind of a small surprise for warm-up and climb of new bolted sport routes. It’s located about 70km from Yerevan, on the way to the Noravanq Canyon. The rock formations of the Canyon were developed by Alexey Trubachev in 2006 who set up 6 sport routes there. Recently, Jared Nielson, Jason Stevens and Mkhitar Mkhitaryan have bolted 17 sport routes.
In the evening, event crew was transported to another destination: bouldering site above the village Chiva.

Go to Photo Gallery!

west setor topo(right) by Jared Nielson west setor topo(right) by Jared Nielson

west setor topo(left) by Jared Nielsonwest setor topo(left) by Jared Nielson

The list of the new sport routes in Hell’s Canyon
	Route name	Grade	Height	Route setter	FA
East Sector:
1.	Redemption	5c/5.9	20m	Jared Nielson	Caroline North
2.	Hell's Diamond	7a/5.11d	30m	Mkhitar Mkhitaryan	Will Nazarian
3.	unnamed	6b+/c?	40m	Mkhitar Mkhitaryan	project
West sector
4.	The Maple way of drilling (in the cave)	-	15m	Jared Nielson	project
5.	Cliff Chicken	6c+/5.11c	20m	Jared Nielson	project
6.	Institutionalized	6c,+/5.11b	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
7.	Death Spank	6b/5.10c	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
8.	Centipede	6a/5.10a	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
9.	Side Swipe	5c/5.9	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
10.	Frost Bite	6a+/5.10b	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
11.	Fire and Brimstone	6b+/5.10b	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
12.	Spinal Crack	6b+/5.10d	20m	Jared Nielson	Jared Nielson
13.	Screaming Khorovats	5c/5.9?	15m	Jason Stevens	Jason Stevens
14.	Cheese and Wieners	6a/5.10a?	15m	Jason Stevens	Jared Nielson
15.	Ignorance	6a/5.10a	15m	Jason Stevens	Jared Nielson
16.	World Famous Nobody	6b/5.10c	15m	Jason Stevens	Jason Stevens
17.	Estragon and Sissy Bolts	5b/5.8?	15m	Jason Stevens	Jason Stevens