Mari Salvesen gets into The Zone (E9) to end 2024
- Tuesday 31st December 2024
Mari Salvesen has ended the year with a bang, a pretty rare repeat of The Zone (E9 6c) on Curbar in the Peak District
Originally climbed by John Arran back in 1998, The Zone features super thin wall climbing followed by delicate climbing on the arête and wall above. The route is “protected” (or not as the case may be) by a nest of skyhooks; typically these are tensioned down to (hopefully) increase their fall-holding capability!
“Psyched out of my mind,” Mari said reporting her ascent online. Mari’s jubilation is not unfounded, she joins a fairly select group of climbers to repeat the Curbar testpiece. Prior to Mari’s ascent on December 30th, The Zone has had a handful of repeats – amongst those known to have repeated it over the years are Oli Grounsell, Nathan Lee and Ethan Walker (all 2013) as well as Jim Pope and Joe Mullet (2023) and Pete Whittaker (2024). The Zone is not only Mari’s first E9 but her ascent is believed to be the first by a female climber.
Mari Salvesen is well-known for her crack climbing exploits but her ascent of The Zone, a bona fide hard grit route, is indicative of the all-round climber that she is. Mari first tried The Zone with Pete Whittaker back in January. It eluded her on that occasion and even when she returned to it this autumn it still didn’t go down without a fight as Mari said:
‘It lured me in but never quite gave in. Two days ago I suddenly couldn’t link the top even if my ankles depended on it, which they could well do. Going for it eventually came down to intuition. Or maybe it was just skin, prime conjons and a raging @latticetraining plan I don’t know he-he. Either way, head went quiet and I climbed it.’
To round off the day Mari also made a swift ascent of Linden (E6): ‘With some daylight left I watched @benh1975 cruise Salix (E7) so I figured I’d give Linden (E6) a go after a quick toprope. That was not quiet at all, I was gripped and exhausted but just held on because what else is there to do.’
Watch a WideBoyz video of Pete repeating The Zone and then making the first ascent of Zone Out (E8 6c) below...