Climbing History
A selected history of climbing and mountaineering through the climbers, climbs and media.
4165 Climbers
8066 Climbs
21479 Ascents
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Century Crack | E10 Trad climb at the White Rim
A 40m long off-width roof crack in the White Rim: an outrageous adventure into horizontal suffering, and the hardest off-width in the world at the time of the first ascent.
Century Crack was discovered by Steve 'Crusher' Bartlett who aid climbed it in 2001 (Chocolate Starfish, A1), before showing it to Stevie Haston, who put in some major efforts to free climb the route. Weighed down by an enormous rack of large cams and Big Bros, Stevie made progress, but stripping the route after each attempt left him wasted for days.
Around 2009, aspirant 'Wideboyz' Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker got wind of the project and started a relentless two-year training regime in the cellar of Tom's house, doing countless laps of inverted shuffling, sandwiched between two planks of wood.
In October 2011, released from the cellar and blinking in the unfamiliar daylight, Tom and Pete set off on an off-width tour of the US, where they made short work of most of the existing hard cracks. They worked Century Crack, then – leaving the gear in place – tossed a roll of tape to decide who would lead first. Tom won the toss and after a monster effort pulled the first free ascent out the bag. Pete was next up and also succeeded.
However, the route had been lead on pre-placed gear and Stevie Haston was not impressed. Tom and Pete returned in November 2011 to do the route placing all gear on lead. This in some ways made the physical climbing easier, as cams did not have to be climbed around, but to minimise the amount of gear carried they chose to run it out well into the no-fall zone.
Going back down to re-climb Century was a very strange experience for me. I couldn't decide whether I was psyched to do the route for myself or whether I was doing for others. Comments had been made about the pre-placed gear we used and this only seemed to add to my desire to return to the White Rim.
Pete was first up on "Century Round II" and as he set off along the 120ft section of roof with only 6 cams racked for this part, I did wonder if we'd bitten off more than we could chew. By halfway he'd spent most of the time in a deck-out situation and my heart was in my mouth – partly for his boldness, but also for the thought that I'd have to do the same next go.
As Pete rounded the final alcove section to reach the lip, he really started to grunt and shout – at the same time I belayed, totally gripped… Just a few minutes later, he groveled his way through the final slot to glory and a well-stocked medical kit.
After watching Pete's insane efforts, I actually felt strangely calm about the whole affair. I'd already resigned myself to repeating the route and had also resolved the level of risk in my mind. I knew that if I focused solely on the climbing, then the run outs and the ground would soon fade into nothing and it would simply be a matter of pain tolerance and tactical breathing. In a haze of disassociation I followed in Pete's steps to make a cleaner ascent of Century Crack and also to clear in my mind the doubts I had about the route. [1]
References
[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2011/11/wideboyz_climb_century_crack_placing_gear-64870
A 40m long off-width roof crack in the White Rim: an outrageous adventure into horizontal suffering, and the hardest off-width in the world at the time of the first ascent.
Century Crack was discovered by Steve 'Crusher' Bartlett who aid climbed it in 2001 (Chocolate Starfish, A1), before showing it to Stevie Haston, who put in some major efforts to free climb the route. Weighed down by an enormous rack of large cams and Big Bros, Stevie made progress, but stripping the route after each attempt left him wasted for days.
Around 2009, aspirant 'Wideboyz' Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker got wind of the project and started a relentless two-year training regime in the cellar of Tom's house, doing countless laps of inverted shuffling, sandwiched between two planks of wood.
In October 2011, released from the cellar and blinking in the unfamiliar daylight, Tom and Pete set off on an off-width tour of the US, where they made short work of most of the existing hard cracks. They worked Century Crack, then – leaving the gear in place – tossed a roll of tape to decide who would lead first. Tom won the toss and after a monster effort pulled the first free ascent out the bag. Pete was next up and also succeeded.
However, the route had been lead on pre-placed gear and Stevie Haston was not impressed. Tom and Pete returned in November 2011 to do the route placing all gear on lead. This in some ways made the physical climbing easier, as cams did not have to be climbed around, but to minimise the amount of gear carried they chose to run it out well into the no-fall zone.
Going back down to re-climb Century was a very strange experience for me. I couldn't decide whether I was psyched to do the route for myself or whether I was doing for others. Comments had been made about the pre-placed gear we used and this only seemed to add to my desire to return to the White Rim.
Pete was first up on "Century Round II" and as he set off along the 120ft section of roof with only 6 cams racked for this part, I did wonder if we'd bitten off more than we could chew. By halfway he'd spent most of the time in a deck-out situation and my heart was in my mouth – partly for his boldness, but also for the thought that I'd have to do the same next go.
As Pete rounded the final alcove section to reach the lip, he really started to grunt and shout – at the same time I belayed, totally gripped… Just a few minutes later, he groveled his way through the final slot to glory and a well-stocked medical kit.
After watching Pete's insane efforts, I actually felt strangely calm about the whole affair. I'd already resigned myself to repeating the route and had also resolved the level of risk in my mind. I knew that if I focused solely on the climbing, then the run outs and the ground would soon fade into nothing and it would simply be a matter of pain tolerance and tactical breathing. In a haze of disassociation I followed in Pete's steps to make a cleaner ascent of Century Crack and also to clear in my mind the doubts I had about the route. [1]
References
[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2011/11/wideboyz_climb_century_crack_placing_gear-64870
Pics + Vids
Featuring 10455 pictures and videos. Try searching for a climber, climb or summit to see pics and videos.
Jonathan Siegrist on Me, I Eat Dust 9a+
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- All sport ascents of 9b or above
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Podcasts
Featuring 4252 podcasts. Try searching for a climber to see podcasts with them, or check out some of these podcasts:
- Eric Jerome on The Careless Talk Climbing Podcast (2025)
- Dan Mirsky on TrainingBeta (2014)
- Mick Fowler on Jam Crack Podcast (2018)
- Jeff Smoot on The RunOut Podcast (2022)
Library
Featuring 15399 items in the library. Try a search to see what you can find, or check out these library items:
- Autoroute (2002) Film
- North America, United States, Alaska, Chugach Mountains, Pt. 6,000' of Mt. Yukla, Gank'd and Slayed (2007) Journal
- Meirionnyd (2002) Guidebook
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Norwegian grade 8-
Norwegian grade 9
The first route to breach the south east face of El Capitan by the all-star team of Robbins, Pratt, Frost and Chouinard. After several exploratory attempts by Robbins with Glen Denny and Frost the ascent was accomplished in one push with no fixed ropes. This was the first time a route had been established in this style on El Capitan and in marked contrast to the extensive fixed ropes employed on the multi-month ascents of The Nose and Dihedral Wall. It was graded A5 and regarded as probably the hardest in the world of its genre at the time of ascent.
We all felt similarly about the climb — it was not an appealing wall. It did not have the elegance or majesty of the southwest face. The treacherous dark rock, the difficulty of retreat due to great overhangs and long traverses, the absence of a natural route, and finally the apparent necessity for many bolts rendered us not happily enthusiastic about the venture. A large part of our individual selves did not want to attempt this face. But another part was lured on by the challenge of the greatest unclimbed rock wall in North America.
References
[1] https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196533100/The-North-America-Wall
An incredible ascent as Leo was extremely close to onsighting the entire route at a time when any free ascent on El Cap was notable.
However, on the first pitch he grabbed a quickdraw at the end of a runout section on his first attempt before lowering back to the start of the pitch and reclimbing it. He also pulled on the first bolt of the second pitch to clean and inspect the holds on the hard section off the belay before then climbing it clean on his first attempt. [1]
Undoubtedly the best climb and greatest adventure I'd ever been on by several orders of magnitude.
This was Leo and Patch's first big wall, climbed with a borrowed portaledge and other big wall gear.
References
[1] Alpine Journal 2002 50-53 Houlding El Nino
[2] On The Edge Issue 84, page 46