Laying In The Light v15 (FA)

May 28

On a random Tuesday afternoon in April, I ventured back out to the Godzilla Boulder to try a silly linkup project I had been trying on and off for a few years now. It’s been a minute since I’ve tried it last, going into the session I was expecting to re-learn moves and wire muscle memory again, for the billionth time. I hauled the five pads I brought in two trips. Parking has always been a problem at this boulder but I chose risk a new spot. By the time I had my pads setup a slight breeze started to pickup. I began to warmup and that breeze turned into pretty strong winds.

This project was a linkup starting on “Godzilla”, the namesake line of the boulder, and linking into “Flashing Lights”. I had First Ascended Flashing Lights in September of 2021, it was my hardest and best FA at the time and still holds a special place in my heart. When I first climbed it I graded it v14, thats a hefty grade in the Northeast. For the longest time people wouldn’t grade anything harder than v13 for one reason or another, it became some sort of joke. I was nervous saying something I did could be this hard but decided someone had to start pushing it! In the end, I’m glad I did. While it may not be the hardest v14 ever, it seems like it held its grade relatively well and inspired people to try hard!

Ever since climbing Flashing Lights that day, I have been trying this linkup. A ~v10/11 traverse stands between the start of Godzilla and the start of Flashing, a traverse I became so familiar with I could likely do with my eyes closed. I could make it through the traverse on most attempts only to be stopped by the first move of Flashing. This was the theme for most of my sessions. Try from the start, fall on the same move, try to do the move, dial in the other moves, try again, fall on the same move, skins bad, go home. It had become such a predictable cycle I started to get bored. Finally, one random summer day in June of 2022, I had stuck THE MOVE! I made the next few moves. . . And fell on the last hard one! That was enough for me, I had to do this traverse linkup one day.

From that moment until present day I would check back in on the project to see how my fingers were feeling. It was such a crimpy line it basically felt like doing a hang-board workout every attempt. Before I went to Africa in 2023 I checked in, felt better but not good enough. In Africa I managed to sent “Monkey Wedding” v15, maybe this linkup is harder than I expected. In 2024 I checked in leading up to my Bishop trip, I went on to send “Lucid Dreaming” v15 that season. This damn traverse is proving to be more of a epic than expected.

Now, back to that random Tuesday afternoon in April. With the wind picking up and the holds feeling good I sat down and gave my first try. Through the traverse, setting up for THE MOVE, sticking it! Dry Fire! Fuck! On that first go of the day, it was already clear I had leveled up and this was a real possibility now. I rested twenty minutes and tried again. Through the traverse again, setting up for THE MOVE, complete miss! Thats alright, I still got one more good go in me. Another twenty minute rest and I was pulling back onto the start. As I got through the traverse this time something felt different. Wait, thats not true it felt the same as the other burns. Why am I still climbing? Before I knew it I was back at the last hard move again, the one I fell on in 2022. This time pumped out of my mind and completely numb, perfect. I forced myself to go for it and held on! Before I knew it I was hanging from the victory jug in disbelief.

To propose v15 for a climb in the Northeast is scary. After years of sandbagging, I think its fair to start calling things what they likely are. Just because it may not be the hardest v15 ever, doesnt mean its not v15. In my opinion, the grading scale has to work on a spectrum and if there are going to be climbs that are hard for the grade they are given, there should be climbs that are a little easy for their given grade too. I’m not necessarily sure where this climb falls on that spectrum, having been my longest project ever but also knowing some people may disagree on the math of the sections, but I know for me it felt like a v15.

A little edit featuring the climb, banter, and some rambling.