Slayer 5.13c

Slayer climbs the left side of a large black arch on the south face of the Black Peeler buttress in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. It opens with a strenuous, leaning 20 foot 5.11 hand crack, then moves into powerful underclinging split by kneebars before the route steepens into an extended stretch of sequential kneebar shuffling and thin hands jamming beneath the overhanging arch. The finish is unusual for the canyon's granite: a transition into chimneying inside the arch itself to reach a hidden, no hands anchor. At roughly 110 feet, the route rewards sustained body tension and comfort in awkward resting positions over raw finger strength.

History

Brent Barghahn made the first ascent on November 7, 2018, equipping the line himself with a mix of trad gear and bolts, including doubles of cams from 0.75 to 4 inches and 10 bolts over more than 40 meters of climbing. The route is graded 5.13c on Barghahn's own record of the climb, though at least one route database lists it a notch harder at 5.13d. Its defining feature, roughly a hundred feet of kneebar shuffling under a roof, is unusual enough in the canyon that it has become one of the more talked about hard trad lines there, and rubber kneepads are considered standard gear for an attempt.

On film

100 feet of Kneebars: Slayer 5.13c (2018), made by Brent Barghahn, documents his first ascent of the route. It follows the premise that gives the film its name: a hundred feet of kneebar shuffling under a roof, into a crack in the back of the arch, shot and edited by Barghahn himself as the climber who established the line.