The Cobra Crack will be featured in Wide Boyz 2. Your subscription to our award-winning print magazine or donation will help us continue down a path that is uncompromised, and keep the website free for climbers like you. The trip culminated in the historic first ascent of Check out the video below of Whittaker working out the beta on Privacy Notice: Our site uses cookies for advertising, analytics and to improve our sites and services. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookies. At around 2pm, a cold, misty wind blew up the canyon, a harbinger of the rainstorm forecasted for that evening.
Even when the rack was short a cam because Pete had forgotten it in the car, Tom was nonplussed and warmed up casually while Pete sprinted the hour-long hike we’d just completed.Pete returned, Alex and I took our places above the route, and Tom tied in. By Rock and Ice | for easy placement below the crux. What I’ll remember most, though, is watching two consummate professionals do what they do best: bite off more than they can chew, and chew it anyway.A quick description of the route: It begins with a 20-foot long 5.12+ stemming groove leading to a hands-free stance on a small ledge. It was a lot of fun, and not too different from filming friends at the boulders, except that everything is dialed up a notch: the gear, the need to capture the right moments, and of course the seriousness of the route. After their success climbing the world's hardest offwidth, the Wide Boyz, Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, embark on their next crack climbing mission. For ore information, including how to change your settings, see our
Pete Whittaker has repeated the Cobra Crack (5.14) in Squamish, Canada.
It was a lot of fun, and not too different from filming friends at the boulders, except that everything is dialed up a notch: the gear, the need to capture the right moments, and of course the seriousness of the route. Tom fell going to the mono three times. It did rain Sunday night and the following day, but not so much as to soak the route. Would they have enough opportunity to finish the route off before they went home?
The climb: Cobra Crack, 5.14a. The sun was out on the first two attempts, making the crack feel greasy. Sonnie Trotter did the first ascent without the undercling-mono, but most subsequent ascents have utilized both the mono and a wild, bouldery sequence for the final crux. Climbing inspiration, supported by you.
When he cruised his way through the crux, there was no victory whoop, no World-Cup-Fist-Pump, no profane expressions of disbelief.
Alex would kinda-tyrolean over to just above the upper crux and film from there. Their goal is the mighty Cobra Crack in Squamish BC, considered to be the hardest finger crack in the world. Wednesday was another day spent in the tree, filming Tom for three more tries. Amanda was on the ground, getting the wide angle shots. They trained hard and wanted very much to succeed, but the route was far from guaranteed.
Wide Boyz II – Slender Gentlemen is the story of Pete and Tom’s mission to climb Cobra Crack, and, you’ve got to hand it to Hot Aches, they know how to tell a good story. Another 5.12+ section follows, with a decent rest on a juggy flake. A quick placement of the nut and they’re off into the final crux: long pulls through some hard jams on steepening rock.
The cam he’s falling on is not there on redpoint burns!Alex and I jugged up into a tree while Tom and Pete warmed up on The Earlmaker, then top-roped sections of the route to further warm up and dial in the sequences. They gain the mono with the right hand, make a long reach to an index-down lock at the lip, pull through to a pinky lock above the lip with the right, and throw the right heel above the right hand.
That first day, Pete made it through to the mono on all three attempts, falling a move higher each time. The Wide Boyz are some of my favorite role models in climbing because What I will take away from this experience is that As a parting shot, I want to let you in on a little secret: If you’ve been to Squamish and climbed Wormworld Cave, you’ve bouldered harder than both these slender men.