Paige Claassen vs 'To Bolt or Not to Be' (5.14a)

A close study of technique on the route that calibrates American hard grades, and the camera placement is why. Paige Claassen travels to Smith Rock in 2013 to attempt To Bolt or Not to Be, the 5.14a Jean-Baptiste Tribout climbed in November 1986 as the first at the grade in North America, and Louder Than Eleven stays close enough to see hand shapes and foot placements.

This is for climbers who care about steep bolted testpieces built from many hard moves rather than one crux. The route demands precise footwork, body position and efficient linking, and the film shows the transitions between crux sections and where the falls happen. Skip it if you want the route's history. Alan Watts's bolting, Tribout's ascent and the long list of repeats are not here.

What works is the fall points. You see where a sustained 5.14a breaks a strong climber, and that is more instructive than the send. Fizzix Productions keeps the score out of the way. What it gets wrong is that ten minutes on a route this important with no context reads as a training film.

Margo Hayes Makes History is the other film here about a woman on a grade-defining route, Biographie at Céüse, with Reel Rock's full apparatus. That film has stakes and history. This one has the moves. If you climb, you may learn more from this one.