Dave Graham (climber) - Rumney

Rumney

• On 2000-04-01, Graham had the first ascent (FA) of The Fly (9a/5.14d or 8B/+) in Rumney, New Hampshire. Rumney is where Graham initially trained and established himself as an elite rock climber with his two friends Luke Parady and Joe Kinder. The three youths were instrumental in each others development as climbers. Graham also established some of the other hard testpieces at Rumney, such as China Beach (5.14b), Jaws (5.14c), and Livin' Astro (5.14c) at the Waimea crag. Holds had broken on Jaws, making the problem a project again. On 2007 October 14, Vasya Vorotnikov had the FA of Jaws II, this Jaws with the broken holds, and proposed a grade of 9a+.
• Known for his finger strength, Graham initially would be able to rely a lot on this strength to do routes. (Malcolm Smith has stated that "no world class climber has weak fingers but many get away with weaker bodies.") Graham has since continued to refine his technique and has a rather distinctive climbing style. For example, in the article about Daniel Woods in the September 2006 issue of Climbing, Kinder remarks that Woods is a very powerful climber and climbs squarely with the rock, and one does not see any of those "sassy Dave Graham drop-knees." In a 2005 interview on 8a.nu, Charlotte Durif stated "Le style désarticulé de Dave Graham est un spectacle fou. Il y est tellement généreux et sincère." This translates roughly as "the contortional style/method of Dave Graham is a crazy (in an amazing and fantastic way) spectacle/vision. It is so/really rich and sincere/well thought out."