5 May 2021
Ace of Spades 9a+ by Jonathan Siegrist
Jonathan Siegrist has repeated James Litz' Ace of Spades 9a+ in Poptire. Actually, Litz did not grade so the proposal came from Daniel Woods who did the first repeat and Jonathan agrees. (c) Matt Pincus
"I first came to this crag in 2017 and I had a really good trip, I climbed everything in the cave more or less but I just did not have the bouldering power to really imagine being able to try this route. My climbing has changed a lot in the last several years as I have gotten much more powerful (at least for my low standard!). So it was nice to come back and do this route in a couple of days.
As for James Litz, he is an incredible dark horse and has been a fixture for hard bouldering first ascents in the US for many years. These are his hardest routes, and in many ways his opus, or at least it would seem. I am not sure how much he climbs any more but he is one of those names that command respect from those who know who he is."
8a interview with James from 2018, talking about his possible 9b FA.
"I first came to this crag in 2017 and I had a really good trip, I climbed everything in the cave more or less but I just did not have the bouldering power to really imagine being able to try this route. My climbing has changed a lot in the last several years as I have gotten much more powerful (at least for my low standard!). So it was nice to come back and do this route in a couple of days.
As for James Litz, he is an incredible dark horse and has been a fixture for hard bouldering first ascents in the US for many years. These are his hardest routes, and in many ways his opus, or at least it would seem. I am not sure how much he climbs any more but he is one of those names that command respect from those who know who he is."
8a interview with James from 2018, talking about his possible 9b FA.
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