Matt Segal Sends New Trad Line “Smart Went Crazy” In Eldo

Matt Segal, who is probably most well known these days for his first free ascent of a route in Eldorado Canyon, CO’s Kloof Alcove called Iron Monkey (5.14), recently returned to the Kloof Alcove to add another heady trad route called Smart Went Crazy.

Before he could send the route though, there were the inevitable mind games that come into play when climbing hard moves high above questionable gear:

I tied in and was super shaky, I just had this vision of my body smacking the slab as hard as the bag did. I couldn’t fully commit but went for it anyway. I ended up backing off two times before I actually dropped the clutch. When I finally decided to give it my all it felt way to hot on the tiny crux crimp and fell on the first move of the crux section. All the gear held and the fall wasn’t that bad… I was pretty psyched I didn’t get any farther since that fall may not of been so nice.

Not nice how you might ask?  Here is what happened when they let the crash test dummy loose from the crux:

Feeling more confident with the knowledge that the gear would hold a fall, Segal returned a couple of days later to snag the send.  As for the difficulties he encountered, Segal had this to say:

Its funny… the fist thing everyone wants to know about a new route is the grade; everyone wants a number. I’m never sure about grading, but I guess the grade that the first ascentionist gives is just a suggestion, and the consensus comes after it’s seen repeats. When I try and grade something I always take into consideration the beginning and the end of the experience. I Try and remember how hard it was the first time I tried it, then remember how hard the actual send felt…

For this one… I’m thinking the crux feels like a solid V10 boulder problem (maybe even V11) So…I’m going with 5.13+(8b) as for the seriousness, I think it deserves R/X, I fell at the beginning of the crux and was fine but I think a fall at the end would not be good.

On the subject of Segal’s Iron Moneky, Matt Wilder has been working it of late.  Fresh from his recent bouldering successes in Hueco, he was suprised to find out how hard Iron Monkey was for him:

I’m sure that this route is very hard for me. I think it really just exploits my weaknesses. Other people have suggested 5.14a but I can’t imagine it being easier than 14b. For me, it really feels like it has to be 14c. Of course I have little basis for assigning a route grade. I can only say for sure that the Fly in Rumney which gets 14d would be much easier for me than this climb. In V grades, the whole crux section feels like V13. I’ve tried this climb for more than 10 days and still haven’t linked the first difficult moves into the dyno and I’ve only done the dyno 4 times. That’s probably the longest I’ve spent on any one pitch or problem. Of course for others, the climb is easier – for example Daniel Woods did the crux move second try.