BJ Tilden FA's The Ritual at age 42

BJ Tilden has done the FA of The Ritual (9a) in Ten Sleep Canyon (WY). "Another hard and awesome one in the temple! Not as hard as Pneuma (9a) but seems solid in the grade. Different style but just as high quality." (c) Matt Pincus

Can you tell us more about your latest 9a?
I tried this route a couple of days two years ago and thought it was really cool. I didn’t get back to it last summer, so it was really on my mind for this summer. It took ten days this year. All of which were day trips from Lander to Tensleep. Leaving at noon and getting home at midnight. The route definitely turned out to be harder than I originally thought. The upper boulder is very high percentage in isolation. I was pretty much 100% on it from anywhere on the route, but it was a different story from the ground. The rest in the middle is really not that great, and the route stays on you all the way to the anchor hold.

Interestingly enough, the 42-year-old has his highest score on 8a since he started logging routes 21 years ago. In the 8a 40+ ranking game, Tilden is #2 after Daniel Fuertes.