Brian Squire sends Paint it Black (8C)

Brian Squire, who last month did his first 8C after having done a dozen 8B+’s, has sent Paint it Black (8C) in RMNP (CO).

Can you tell us more about the process of climbing this line?
To be honest, wasn’t really too much of a process, planned to come out here for a little while to try to send and then just did it first go. Parked the car at 9am warmed up on it and then was back at the whip and driving out by 10. Tried it once last year but then got rained out for the rest of the season. It’s gotta be one of the best anywhere, perfect start holds, unreal wide pinches at the bottom and some techy core tension straight out the prow of a jutting roof over the river. I used a little different beta than everyone else to my knowledge. The crux revolves around a left foot switch from a heel hook to a toe, then you do a difficult left hand flip to a terrible sloping pinch where most of the weight is in the thumb. I switched my heel to a toe earlier in the boulder so the heel to toe switch wasn’t difficult and that way worked very well for me. I also managed to squeeze my way up Zef (8B+) the day before as a pit stop on the drive out as well which was a good confidence booster.