I put up a new route in the Black Canyon with the help my friends Jack Jefferies and Cody Sims.
My other friend Erika Napoletano was nice enough to write an article about it that got published in Rock and Ice’s web site. Here it is!
“Feeling my sphincter tighten as I scan the pegmatite for the slightest nubbin, it’s probably better I haven’t realized I accidentally kicked-out my last cam as I passed it. Getting through the crux moves was just the beginning … there was plenty of puzzle still to work out and the angle of the wall is not forgiving with time. The climbing will get easier (lie), but the fall only gets bigger too (not a lie). Why did I sign up for this again? The stress of not wanting to slip-off even the easier moves wears me down and tightens my muscles. I need to stay loose. I need to keep the flow. I need to catch my damn breath. I think I’ve been neglecting to breathe for the past twenty minutes now. Just a tricky little traverse left. That blue alien is looking small and dubious. Where’s the damn belay? I feel as mentally tired as I do physically…The belay – finally! Glad to have squeaked past that one.â€
- Random thoughts from Jason Nelson on the First Ascent of Pent Up
If a crux pitch named “Mexican Standoff†doesn’t get your attention, then the overhanging headwall comprised of discontinuous seams that takes thin pro and leaves you with what Jason Nelson describes as a “pumped and puckered†feeling should.
On June 7, Nelson and fellow climbers Cody Sims and Jack Jefferies established Pent Up, a 700-foot, seven-pitch 5.12c route in Black Canyon. What’s in a name? Apparently Nelson had been eyeing new routes in the Black too long without enough action and Sims was in a similar situation (his tale one frustration with the female gender as opposed to walls of quartz monzonite). Jefferies needed to let loose a spirit repressed from living in the Manhattan monster for too long, as soon he would be too fat, too rich, and too old if he didn’t get out of the city. Driving home after the ascent, the group brainstormed some names, and Pent Up was only thing that seemed to collectively gel. Though they couldn’t decide if “pent” was actually a word, they lacked the requisite energy to whip out the Scrabble dictionary and see if they’d hit a triple word score.
Initially scouted a month ago by Nelson after an aborted climbing trip, the scouting trip was an adventure all its own involving scrambling down gullies and up to rock islands, thunder storms, an inch or two of hail, and a slip-induced slitting of Jason’s wrist. After studying the digital photos, his impressions were that the top of the line might be thin but that the bottom offered quite a few options. Those options turned into one logical line and that little thin section ended up being two seriously sustained pitches. Nelson (who lives about an hour away from the Canyon’s South Rim) remarked in jest, “When I heard Jack and Cody were coming to visit, I knew I’d have a team that I could sucker into it. It was Cody’s first route in the Black and Jack had only done two routes prior. Neither of them knew any better.â€
The first ascent took the group 3 days of arduous work. As anyone who’s climbed in the Black knows, straying from the Canyon’s trade routes is nothing short of adventure. The bottom half of the route was done ground-up and the top half had to be worked from above. The team encountered a dirty route on the ground-up portion that took cleaning along the way and the top half presented the opportunity to free the shared the last pitch of Count Your Lily Pads (III 5.10 A2), a 10 ft. off-width roof originally aided by John Kaandorp and Steve Demaio on their 1983 FA. Two weeks later, Nelson still can’t look over his right shoulder after falling out of an inverted arm bar while trying to match it with a knee bar on this pitch. “Maybe try some different beta,†he says. “I think being 6′4″ might have been a little prohibitive for that one.â€
Nelson describes the crux (the aforementioned Mexican Standoff) as an exciting but reasonably safe pitch. Arête grabs, small crimps, and double heel hooks on either side of a buttress comprised the crux, followed by sustained climbing up the overhanging headwall. Sims sent the crux first and Jason pulled the rope and followed with his own send. “I was pumped, scared and barely got through it. I felt lucky to be able to send it as this was the important part of the route I had envisioned,†he reminisces. “I hadn’t had much luck working out the crux moves on TR. Photographing Cody send the pitch gave me the inspiration I needed to go for it.â€
Three days, three climbers and four bolts later, the final project yielded not only some liberated emotional brew and killer views, but some first-rate, steep climbing with spacious, comfy belay stations. Jason and Cody went on to attempt another new route which they abandoned due to sketch rock quality and oppressive heat. Jefferies is moving back to Colorado as of press time and looks forward to more time in the Black. Fears of him getting too old, too fat, and too rich have subsided.
Pitch One: Blocks ‘n Bushes (5.6)
Pitch Two: The Painted Corner (5.9)
Pitch Three: Mr. Crumblies (5.10)
Pitch Four: More Fun Ahead (5.10)
Pitch Five: Mexican Standoff (5.12c)
Pitch Six: Seams and Arete (5.11)
Pitch Seven: Big Brother (5.11, 10’ OW roof)
