Arief Nagara, 13, makes quick work of Meadowlark Lemon (8B)

Arief Nagara, who previously has sent 15 boulders 8A or 8A+, has in just two brief sessions completed Meadowlark Lemon Stand (8B) in Red Rock.

What made you want to try Meadowlark Lemon Stand?
I wanted to try Meadowlark cuz it didn’t seem too reachy. It also seemed like it was my style because I’m pretty good on sandstone slopers, and just sandstone in general. I was inspired to try it because my friend Analise did it. Even though she’s much better than me, I thought that maybe I could have fun trying it.

Can you describe your quick ascent?
The first day I tried it, there were some people there with a rope on it to try the topout. After I worked on the bottom for a while, I decided to try the finish on a rope. It’s a pretty scary finish since you’re pretty high up and you have to rock over onto a slab and put all your weight on a tiny, greasy little edge, and reach up super far to the next hold. While I was up there on a rope I had an idea for how to get to the round pinch thingy over the lip. So when I came off the rope, I tried the idea I had and it worked! It even made that sequence feel kinda easy. So on the first day I got all the moves except the first. I later watched the video of Dave Graham doing it, and I saw that he did an intermediate bump for the first move. So the next day I tried that and I was able to do that beta. So I gave it a couple send goes, and on my second try, I sent it! I was super surprised that I was able to do it so quickly.

Did you check the 8B+ sit start?
A few days later I went back to get some photos with my camera. I tried the sit very briefly and I did 1 move but it got dark before I could try it more. It feels pretty hard since the second move is a pretty big span. But it’s pretty cool and I maybe could do it if I worked on it a lot, grew a few inches, or got a bit better at scaling rocks.