Ann Tiempetpisal ticks Lethal Design (8A+)

Ann Tiempetpisal has done Lethal Design (8A+) in Gateway Canyon. ”I’ve heard this called anything between 7C and 8A+. It’s the first climb I’ve done harder than 7C so I have no basis for weighing in on grades and decided it doesn’t really matter to me. It’s morphological neutral and seems to be the same difficulty no matter the beta; my 5’2” spike crimp beta, the 6’4” person pulling straight up through the underclings, or the 8 year old grabbing invisible holds - that’s pretty neat. This process was an uncommon experience for me and I had a lot of fun. Thanks, everyone :)”

Can you tell us more about the ascent and the process behind?
I first tried the climb 2 years ago when my friend encouraged me to work it with him; he sent it shortly afterward and I came back last season to work it myself. It was a bit challenging to project a climb 1800 miles away; I flew out for long weekends, was rained out 3 trips in a row, I got sick for 6 months. It was feelings like I wasn’t supposed to climb this boulder, that I didn’t deserve to because I wasn’t properly respecting climbing since I hadn’t sent the grades below it.

I moved to the area but didn’t go back until a month ago when I went to support another friend. I was able to match my high point and resumed working the boulder however, I didn’t rest properly, overworked myself, and became very mentally negative. My partner told me I seemed stronger but looked as if I no longer believed I could send. I decided I needed to either get my head back in the right place or stop trying the boulder. I wasn’t ready to give up so I decided to tell myself every day that “today is the day” until I sent. Coincidentally, the first day I did, it was!