Silly question but...

A friend of mine and myself have been searching for possible first ascents (frozen waterfalls). we've done plenty of research and have found 0 documented climbing in some areas.

is there some way of making the first ascent official?

sometimes local climbing guides will have contact info for new route details, but there is no "official" registry of FAs. Also posting the TR on a local climbing forum will get the word out and possibly show that someone else has already climbed the route...

Is there a guide book for the area? If so, contact the author. He or she should have a good idea if it is a first ascent and if it is will put it in the next ediditon of the guide. I have a couple of FAs that I really did not know if they had been climbed before. I simply told my friends who were writing guidebooks about the areas and they included the routes and myself as the first ascentionist.

Define "Official"?

FA's are a personal gig IMHO.

You did it.... move onto another.

Just put a route description on Summitpost, Supertopo or anything - you can be pretty sure that if anyone had ever done the thing before you did, someone will sooner or later use the opportunity to inform you about that and make you look stupid (that's the price).

Petro wrote:Just put a route description on Summitpost.

Exactly and great point to help us all here and add to the beta available on SP!

Incidently, SP is where I have been doing just that for the past five or so years.

ExcitibleBoy wrote:Is there a guide book for the area? If so, contact the author. He or she should have a good idea if it is a first ascent and if it is will put it in the next ediditon of the guide. I have a couple of FAs that I really did not know if they had been climbed before. I simply told my friends who were writing guidebooks about the areas and they included the routes and myself as the first ascentionist.

There is no guide book (we've looked), we have just been studying maps upon maps upon maps and have found some that look promising.

The Chief wrote:Define "Official"?

FA's are a personal gig IMHO.

You did it.... move onto another.

i guess official was another way of saying making sure no one els has done it. im not really a first ascent junkie, although it is nice. i just dont want to go around claiming it when someone els has.

AdamsKerr wrote:i guess official was another way of saying making sure no one els has done it. im not really a first ascent junkie, although it is nice. i just dont want to go around claiming it when someone els has.

Call it yours till someone comes along and says different.

Ya got pics... post em up!

as soon as they get done ill post tons of photos. ill have to wait till january and february.. not cold enough here yet