Legacy (9a) by Paige Claassen

Paige Claassen, who previously has done four 9a’s and who 13 months ago gave birth to her first child, has repeated Legacy (9a) in Rocklands, Insta video. She sent it after only three mornings top-rope soloing with a mini traxion and one day with a belayer. ”Not sure a route grade really suits this line. Three very hard moves off the deck lead to sharp 12d climbing. I can only imagine someone will boulder this someday. Maybe in 20 years, my kid will flash it. Unfortunately she won’t be able to onsight, as she saw me working it once. But rulebook says you can’t onsight a boulder so… maybe it’s a route. Regardless, the block is a square and I’m glad I only had to loose 4 days of skin on it. Shoutout to the men on the internet nagging over my mini-trax tactics, hopefully you can also impart your wisdom on all the guys who work boulders on a grigri.”

It was found and tried by Dave Graham as a scary almost 10m highball. Later Fred Nicole bolted it and tried it for five years. In 2019, Giuliano Cameroni got permission to try it and made the FA and then Nicole made the first repeat a few days later.

How was the experience working it?
It was a nice experience, much shorter than expected. I worked it on mini trax for 3 days by myself, which gave me a nice chance to focus on my performance and beta details without distraction. I find it quite hard to focus on climbing when we're out with the baby. I did all the moves and felt ready to link them, so just needed a belay. Arjan went out with me while his mom stayed with the baby and I did a few warmup burns and then sent quite quickly. It was a surprise as I thought it would take many days of falling off the bottom. It is only 3 hard moves right off the deck, then sharp crimps to the top, but not very hard.

What made you start trying it and how is Rocklands for a family?
I wanted to try it because I don't really like bouldering, and prefer to be on a rope. So this was a nice combo, and I knew I wanted to try before I came to Rocklands, so it was the project I had in mind for the trip. Rocklands is great for the family, but our backs are definitely sore from hiking her around with all the extra gear.

How did you prepare for the trip?
I wasn't able to prepare very seriously, as I felt pretty wrecked from lack of sleep and baby care. So I just did the best I could, which was 2-3 times a week on the Kilter board for an hour or two.