The Phoenix 5.13a

The Phoenix is a narrow, overhanging finger crack at Upper Cascade Falls in Yosemite Valley, graded 5.13a. It is widely credited as the first 5.13 trad climb established in the United States, a route where the difficulty comes from sustained, precise finger jamming on steep rock with no rest, protected entirely by gear placed in the crack rather than bolts.

History

Ray Jardine, with John Lakey, made the first ascent in 1977. Jardine, a former aerospace engineer, had just invented the spring-loaded camming device he called Friends, and used them alongside nuts and pitons to protect the route's upper, more consistent crack after working the moves by hangdogging, a then-controversial practice of resting on gear after falls rather than lowering to the ground between attempts. Jardine called it the hardest thing he had ever done. The first ascent is remembered as much for demonstrating what Friends made possible on thin, parallel-sided cracks as for the grade itself. British climber Jerry Moffatt made the first onsight of the route in 1984. Alex Honnold's ropeless ascent on June 11, 2011, at age 25, took about 8 minutes and was, at the time, among the hardest free solos done in Yosemite Valley.

On film

Alex Honnold Solos The Phoenix (2011) is Reel Rock's original document of that June 2011 ascent, filmed by Peter Mortimer. Alex Honnold Solos The Phoenix (5.13) - Behind The Scenes (2022) revisits the same climb, built around a later account by Honnold and Mortimer of how the original footage was shot rather than presenting new climbing.