Born from the Climbing Life: Episode 4—Drifter’s Escape—The World’s Hardest Trad Climb

This weekend we're gonna climb Daddy Issues together. His sense of humor has not changed that much, has it? June temps. Here, do you want this? I can't quite say exactly when, but from a very young age I've been basically obsessed with climbing. I grew up in the Bay Area and on weekends I would often go up into the mountains with my parents. I do think maybe some of my school friends thought it was a little weird that I was like disappearing every week into the mountains, but I don't know, that's just how it was. You gotta look cute for the camera. Until pretty much I was in college, my dad might have been the only person I did multi-pitches with. Did you just take my knot for the first time? You know how everyone has dad lore? Like my dad lore was him spending a decade projecting the Salve. I don't think I really had a specific moment where I learned about that, I was just like, oh yeah, that's what my dad did. I remember the day that he passed me, it was crystal clear that I'm slowing him down, and then suddenly I was just like, okay, dad chugging, dad supporting. I think about it when I'm huffing and puffing, it's like, you know, five years sooner I could have kept up with them. Is that a hold? We just missed, you know, like the climb went just as the kids passed me, and it's good because they get to climb with their peers and friends now. Climbing is something you do for your life, if you love it, it's a lifetime thing, and he really used it that way. I think the reason that my climbing tends to be a lot more varied is just because I haven't found my own Salve yet. Mom says enjoy. I believe I first heard about Connor when he did his free ascent of the nose at, I think it was 14, right? And I was very impressed. So I met Connor spring 2023, and I knew him by reputation, of course, he did the nose when he was a child. Yeah, I don't know what was my first impression. Just like a shy, nice, nice young guy. Super good at rock climbing. He was like, I'm coming up to Squamish, like, I don't really know anyone there. And he started just literally climbing everything. Watching him climb through some of the things that took me at least a decade to climb in, you know, three weeks. I'm like, oh, okay, here we go. Don't tell him about all my projects. I need to show him a few things, but wait for him to finish this one first. Yeah, school ended yesterday. And now I have the next seven months or so. There's a climb in that I was trying last summer. And it's kind of been keeping me motivated to train all year. And so we'll see. We'll see. There are some kind of like notorious partnerships in climbing, you know, Tom Randall and Pete Whitaker, Tommy and Alex. I don't think I have someone like that consistently climbing with every single weekend. Finding partners for your objectives is actually a challenge. I can do the interview like this. Just like, like that. I don't think that'd look good. I think it would look great. Wait, maybe I can just bring the distance actually. Conor's obviously comes from, I'd say, a more traditional climbing background with his parents teaching him the ropes. It's good. Now he can get influenced by different people. I haven't tried to get Conor to come to Whistler with me. I'm going to bring him on a double date. Climb with Conor and climb with Ethan is definitely pretty different. I feel so fast with my running pack and shades. Definitely very different dudes. They kind of come from, I'd say, two different trajectories of climbing. Wouldn't you want to follow a guy that looks like this? Ethan's really, really good at climbing and dialed in his movement. But he's not so dialed in the systems. And Conor's, you know, how many times has he climbed El Cap? I don't think Jim would let him be not dialed. So Conor's pretty dialed. Ethan's definitely the more skater, surfer dude, inspired climber. I see how he places there now. Punk rock philosophy of just be like, I don't need that other stuff. Let's just go for the top. We're kind of polar opposites in some ways. Let's get this banger on for D. But opposites attract and there's also a lot in common, which helps. What are you guys cooking for dinner? I hopefully see like decades of Conor and I climbing together and I hope the dynamic like never changes. It's pretty cool. These guys are hanging out and I'm sure they'll push each other quite far. About 20 to 30 years ago, there was a huge jump in the level of crack climbing. I think that's because Europeans who had a sport climbing background learned how to climb and then they had that sport climbing fitness that they brought to crack climbing. And I think we've reached a point where to push it one level further, we need the bouldering aspect as well. So we first met last summer, right? Yeah, last summer. DDA was doing a little slideshow and he was talking about his future crack projects in Squamish. He showed some photos of the twin cracks and we were both just like, yo, what is that? I think a week or two later, I went up by myself, wrapped in and fixed ropes and just started working it and basically told Ethan like, dude, you have to come up here and try this thing with me. It's so good. All I knew was that it was an old age line. Wrapping into it was thinking like, surely someone's tried this. It's too good to go unclimbed for so long. Okay, I like that. DDA kind of mentioned it as like this next level thing, like maybe it could be 515. People saying, oh, it's too slammed. It's impossible to free climb. I think a lot of people have been looking for the next step in hard track and it's right there. If there was anyone in the world right now capable of climbing 15A on gear, it's probably Connor. After knowing where it was, I couldn't go anywhere in town and look up at the chief without immediately spotting it. It's like right in the center of the whole thing, like perfect white shield. At the start, there's kind of just this one crack. When the first crack kind of pinches down and gets a little bit narrow and the wall gets steeper, a second crack opens up, but it's still just a seam. At the very start, you're kind of doing these technical lie back moves and then becomes these bouldery moves, climbing between the two seams. Getting these really technical finger locks and foot cams, crimping the sides of them. Fields is modern. It's not just straight in crack climbing. It's varied. It's engaging. The challenge of it comes in merging the crack climbing moves with the face climbing moves and kind of efficiently climbing between them. Yeah, now you can get the foot in there. Good. Pinch. Yeah, come on. Wow, that's so wild. Yeah. There's no easy moves on the climb. A mix of balance, precision, and power. And then in the end, it's going to have to be power endurance to climb the whole thing in one push. So ******* tense, so hard. It's crazy. To climb the drifter crack, you're going to have to have like a flawless technique. I've never linked where you are, ever. I've done the single moves, but like never linked. And it feels super hard and Connor just does it every time. And you're like, like, I know you're good in this style, but it's also ******* nails. Like, never seen anyone climb like that. That's all I know. At the second bolt, there's a bit of an intro crux. It's not too bad when you know what to do, but you definitely could drop it there. You kind of pull around the corner, do a bit of a run out, and then you're into the crack. Eventually, you kind of reach out left to this ledge rest that you can't really sit on it. You can't really stand on it. You're just kind of perching over a heel hook. And I'd say it's about 13C to that ledge. You're kind of getting your ass pretty tired, honestly. Like, Connor was giving lead rips last year. He's like, yeah, my like left butt cheek's really tight today. I think it's from resting. And I was like, 100%. Right after that ledge, you have probably the steepest part of the wall, the middle crux. The crux kind of revolves around this left-hand pinch where you're pinching between two seams. Your foot's in this foot cam and you move right hand to this kind of blocked side pull hold. I did some slightly different beta at first. And then there's a foothold I was using that broke. And then I was trying other footholds. And I realized it was just easier to not put my right foot on anything in pogo. Kind of a wild revelation when I realized that that was going to work. On a move on October Track, it's like the iconic thing, I think, to kids our age interested in triad climbing. And I think that pogo is going to be like it. Like, that's going to be the move people talk about us. They're like, holy ----, I want to try drifter's escape one day. Like the min pins with the pogo. And you're doing it over an offset cam, like this tiny little thing way up there. Once you get through that section, you get a pretty bad rest and launch into the top crux, which is a little bit more technical than the lower crux. That crux kind of revolves around this left-hand pinch finger lock thing where I get my middle two fingers in the hold and I bend my fingers so that the back of my knuckles almost forms a finger lock. You have to like stand really high on some foot cams, really trust your feet, and do a pretty big right-hand move to a good side pull. And then you mantle onto this ledge and it's done. You made that link before? I don't think I'd done that link before, yeah. And that was the meat of the hard climbing. And it felt pretty chill. But it's gonna be hard with coming from the bottom and placing gear. I think both those factors will add some difficulty. So definitely a long ways to go, but that was encouraging. That is some well-toasted toast. What? I don't know. Probably some veggies. Just gonna get this ******* rig done. Gonna get this ******* rig done. Just try to fall higher up today, how about that? I feel like that's a better goal. Last year when I was trying it, I definitely felt that I needed to increase my strength threshold in order to do it. This year I just felt like I was able to kind of fit in the body positions a bit better and use a little less power, which I think ultimately might have made the difference. No, that's bullshit. He trained for this. And he said he felt way stronger this year. And he's way stronger this year than last season. Like seeing him this year, I'm like a totally different climber. There was kind of no move on the climb where I was 100% sure I wasn't gonna fall. It really keeps you engaged the entire way. You can't really relax. But you also kind of have to in order to conserve energy. It's this cool little balance. This is a solid day. First time getting through the crux one from the ground. By far the best that climb has ever felt on lead. I felt like I was flowing. And he pulls up ready to burst. That was encouraging. No blood yet. Yet is the key word. Definitely gonna give another go today. Another day on the ledge. Yeah, I didn't rest long enough. I also just felt kind of humid that time. This is such a sketchy piece. Oh, ****. I think I'm done. Another day. ------- wet. Conditions feel pretty great. Oh, ****. ****. I was so psyched. I was like, oh, I get to witness this climb. He's gonna do it. It's so cool. Come on. ****! He kind of always has another go. Oh, my God. Connor's like, I'll tie in for a fourth go. Whatever. Nice, Connor. Come on. Let's go, dude. That was it. So good. I mean, you could fall higher. But imagine that's like the last red point move. Someone else is gonna give him the lucky belay. I'm gonna be gone at work. Oh, snap. I should text work that I'm not working today. It's a bear. Hey, bear. That day I was like, oh, sick. I'll just get on quick. I'll do a little bit of climbing beforehand. Amazing condition. Get down. Connor goes for his first lead burn and everything stopped. And I was like, oh, ----. I hope I didn't just use up all the conditions. Every attempt could have been the attempt that I sent. And as soon as you think that, you're not set up for success. ------- damn it. Yeah, you can just lower me. OK. It felt so warm and humid that time. We saw the storm clouds and you were like, huh, that doesn't look too good. And I was like, oh, yeah, like it's coming from the north. So we should get a north wind, which will like circumvent through the sound and create a lot of wind for us up here. Just kind of bullshitting the whole day. But I was like, this is looking grim. And there's some pretty good conditions for an hour on the fixed rope. I don't really have high hopes with this weather. I just kept telling Connor, like, don't stress about it. Like, the conditions could change. That's when I've done all my hardest things. Me just complaining about conditions. And then all of a sudden, you're like, huh, I guess I just needed some ---- condies to kind of let go of that. I guess. Yeah. Have fun. Try hard. Miss Connor? Where is that wind? That's like Connor on 515, you know? Like, there's margin. 515 is not limit for Connor. Holy ----. Drifters is the hardest gear pitch I've ever done. And it's a pretty solid step above anything else I've done. Nothing really comes close. It felt good today. I mean, there's probably never going to be a true summit of hard track climbing. Everyone's going to want to push the next hard pitch. Aesthetically, I don't think it's going to get much better than this one. I would say I'm still very much kind of finding my own identity and my own path. But I think having that guiding principle of this is what I want to do. Has been really helpful. And I'm sure will continue to be for years to come.