Crack of Infernity 5.8+R

Climbed on July 1, 2025. 

Fun Rating: Absolutely Superb

Man…offwidth, huh?

I discovered fairly early into my time climbing outdoors that I have a taste for the unusual, the esoteric - the wide. I remember making a post in the MP forums (a mistake, I know) asking for bolted chimney recommendations in the Red River Gorge prior to my learning to climb on gear. Options at the time were sparse and outside of Dragon’s Mouth there wasn’t much on offer. All this to say that even from my earliest beginnings on real rock I’ve been seeking out and searching for wide climbing. All I’ve really ever wanted was a hug from the wall, some pressure around me, to fit myself into tight vertical spaces. I wonder if there’s some aspect of neurodivergence there, my love of weighted blankets and heavy quilts would imply a throughline of some kind, certainly. Outside of the physical aspects, I’ve touched on my desire to make something more punk of myself, to seek out the unsought and love the unloved in my own way.

Me in my happy place.

Not surprising, then, that Crack of Infernity was a climb that caught my eye in the guidebook on my early trips to Red Rock prior to moving here or starting up the JHAT. Lacking a picture anywhere, and with only 2 ticks on MP prior to Zak and I getting on it, this is a route that felt close to Echolalia for me in terms of mystery and an air of adventure. I’m glad that I didn’t make a real effort to find and climb this one early in my trad career based on the grade, as this is solid and Herbsty 5.8+ (read: hard and scary). The route is made up predominantly of wide cracks and chimneys of many sizes, mostly in the 6-7 range for the wide bits and mostly squeezy in the chimneys. It starts with a fun wide corner into a traverse, then makes its way up a right facing wide crack in a corner that goes from 4” to about 9” at its widest before tapering to nothing and requiring either a scary tentative move up the corner or a scary insecure ramp on the outside of the crack. I chose the ramp and all was well, though the amount of sand that was exfoliating off of the footholds gave me the heebie jeebies given how far below me my last piece was.

After that the route follows a few more pitches of mixed wide and chimney. As we reached what would be our final belay the rock quality in the chimney system deteriorated wildly. I decided to try to climb the wall behind us and do a slab traverse to see if we could gain the top of the route that way, and as I pulled up to standing about 15’ off the belay a huge thunderclap reverberated throughout the canyon. I looked down at Zak (because of course it was Zak doing this with me in July) and we both immediately agreed it was time to bail. 3 double rope raps using bolted anchors later, we were at the top of the Threat for our last rap and walk out. We agreed that we had been incredibly lucky that we only got sprinkled on, especially given the route would essentially be a water funnel had any serious rain hit us.

Marginal gear before the squeeziest squeeze of the climb.

Walking out I had time to reflect on the climb, and I found myself chewing on the whys and wherefores of wide climbing. I spend a lot of time thinking about offwidth and chimney climbing, more than the vast majority of climbers I would wager. I’m sure any regular readers of this blog, if there are any regular readers of this blog (I don’t have analytics set up because that’s not really the point of any of this) will be incredibly unsurprised by this statement. I’ve spent a decent amount of time bloviating about it in text already, but given I’m writing about the JHAT I feel that philosophizing about wideness is both appropriate and necessary. 

The concerns I hear from people I talk to, and that I read online, typically fall into one of two categories: claustrophobic fear of being stuck and the feeling of insecurity in a wide crack. I find it interesting that these are nearly polar opposite concerns. I understand them both, however, given the nature of offwidth as a crack that is “off of a pleasant width.” I typically find that my biggest pauses come before committing to entering an OW in the first place. The initial establishment inside a wide crack comes at the cost of a loss of security that you may feel on the holds prior to, or the jams leading to the offwidth itself. Once you can find a chickenwing, thigh lock, or solid kneebar you’re generally very secure. This is where the other side of the coin comes into place, especially on vertical or uneven cracks. A solid kneebar can easily turn into a kneebar that cannot be removed, as evidenced by the infamous poop-crack incident, easily searchable online, or any number of other rescues involving canola oil and pulley systems.

Zak deep in the heart of the big chimney pitch.

This specific line of thoughts was prompted by a conversation Zak and I had about the wide corner. I remember him calling down to me at the base of the route saying he was just going to build an anchor at the base since “you’ll have a lot more fun than me on this pitch.” In the end that was absolutely true, and speaks to a level of  knowing himself and me that is commendable in my eyes. Even so, that moment between slapping a foot into the bottom of the OW about waist-high and finally locking a chicken wing in after I was able to tentatively stand up on it was rather nervy for me. I always feel like I’m somehow not going to be able to find a stack or jam or squeeze and somehow pitch out, even though that rarely ever happens to me. As soon as I was established and had a nice heel-toe cam for my outside foot, it was all over but the laughing, also as usual.

A toasty team selfie.

This post got away from me a little bit, falling in between a route description and something more speculative about an aspect of one of my hobbies. I suppose that this is to be expected given the lack of an editor on these posts and the fact that it’s just me doing this because…well I don’t actually have a concrete reason for doing this other than the fact that I enjoy the process and pseudo-therapeutic nature of getting all of this out of my head and into a format that will then exist separate from me. Maybe someday I’ll look back on all of this as a waste of time, or go back and clean all of this up to compile into my own (far inferior) Red Rock Odyssey. Maybe a Red Rock Long Walk, or Red Rock Diversion.

Ugh, I’ll definitely need to workshop those.

Summer Hiking.