Stranger Than Fiction | E10/8c Trad climb

The top half of the route is a steep finger crack, so to be able to get purchase with his feet through that section Mason opted to tape his foot up and climb that section with one shoe only.

References

[1] Interview with EpicTV, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHbGH_VWD8g

Brittany intended to repeat the line placing the gear on lead but picked up an injury.

There’s this style of projecting where you give up everything, camp underneath the climb, and stay there ‘til you send. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be how I could approach this climb. And it also felt like the route deserved better than that. There’s a sense of entitlement when that’s the approach, right? ‘Oh, I’ll just siege it!' For me, that wasn’t the way. I had to be the most balanced, stable form of myself to send this. I needed to show up with my life dialled.[3]

Lor opted for the same taped-right-foot beta that Mason Earle used on the first ascent.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CzkPSKKJvjD/

[2] https://youtu.be/HmrZXS_6d2A?t=48

[3] https://www.climbing.com/news/lor-sabouin-repeats-5-14-crack-utah/

As it's not had many ascents I'll give my thoughts on the grade to add to the general consensus over time. For me it felt tough 8c, harder than Cobra [Crack], easier than Recovery [Drink]. With pure cracks like this hand and finger size does always play a part though. This crack does take in a range of bad sizes so the cruxes are likely to be slightly different for everyone.

However, what can be said is it's such a classic for the hard global crack circuit, and you really need to know your pure jamming techniques for this one. Thanks Mason Earle for the vision and the fight right to the anchor. [1]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0Cl6HrvwK-/

[2] https://open.spotify.com/episode/19Qi2hObiFY843FSwzN0vp?4v-Ppg

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGQfQpjpq8I