Jon Cardwell FA’s Scorched Earth (9a)

Jon Cardwell, who did his first 9a back in 2008, has done the FA of Scorched Earth in New Mexico. ”Bolted by Tom Ellis. Beautiful route, super technical and complex! Took a little while to decipher the cryptic crux and then it was a battle with the sun.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
The route was an existing project that I was shown by a good friend of mine. It’s a very unique route, not only for its quality but the very technical and cryptic movement. It’s also completely natural which is always a nice bonus. Figuring out the sequences took a couple days and after that I could climb it with one fall more or less every try. It was just a battle against the sunny conditions. It’s also one of those routes that’s pure power endurance where every move is difficult once you enter the hard climbing so it leaves very little margin for error.

Is there a reason this is your first 8b or harder route since climbing your first 9b a year and a half ago?
Well, I can’t say it’s due to not trying! However, last year was big for me, I bought my first house, got married, among other things. I traveled a bit less but i still carved out time to train and try some projects. My motivation for climbing is always there and as I get older I just sort of go with the flow. I put another 6 weeks into my big project at the Fortress, the extension to wind up bird and actually ended up getting really close. I hope to finish that one later this year, it’s something that’s the cumulation of everything I’ve learned over the years. I also have quite a few more projects here in NM, and that’s pretty much been my climbing goal since moving back, to bring my experience and seek out those kind of routes, something that doesn’t really exist here. Turns out finding cutting edge first ascents isn’t that easy!