“Get Railed” V14 R 📸: @westmountainmedia — This one is the stuff of dreams, and nightmares. It starts out with a big comp-style coordination move, a massive lock-off to a perfect crimp rail, then a hard tick-tacky crimp sequence that gets slightly easier the higher you go, but the holds get smaller and sharper. The higher you get, the higher the odds get of you landing either on the boulder to the right that’s covered in sharp chicken-heads, or to the left completely off the landing platform... It was high on the list of climbs I wanted to do this season, but after one short roped session with @paulrobinson87 early on in the trip, I wrote it off as too much of an investment. Weeks later I spotted Paul when he sent it with style. I got psyched and tried it again, and was able to do the opening sequence. @keenantakahashi and I had a few top rope sessions, sorting beta and linking sections. On a cold, dry morning we hiked out to roadside with all the pads we could carry. Keenan hiked the rig on his first ropeless try of the day. It was very inspiring but I was nervous as hell and overcaffeinated. My heart-rate maxed every time I booted up and I had to do 5+ minutes of deep breathing before pulling on the wall. I kept botching the first move- a move I could previously do 90% of the time, and then got through it only to let go from the upper crux twice- pretty much the last safe place to drop from. The sun was coming and my window to give tries was closing. My goal for the day became to just give this move 100% from the ground. On my next try I stuck the move and started questing into the upper sequence. Pumped, numb and sliding, I grabbed the last left-hand side-pull razor a little high, looked down at the pad on the adjacent boulder, and thought about jumping to it. Then I thought about how upset with myself I would be if I did that, how scary that would be, and heard encouragement from Keenan and Katie, and decided to get my foot up and go for it. The move felt different than it ever had on the rope but I pulled it off and stood up safely on the slab, adrenaline bursting out of my ears. It was a moment I’ll never forget but that I’d rather not repeat for a while.