Weekend Whipper: Why (Sometimes) You Should Run It Out Above Sharp Roofs

Readers, please send your Weekend Whipper videos, information, and any lessons learned to Anthony Walsh, awalsh@outsideinc.com.

Jeremy Larkin was projecting More Monkey Than Funky (5.11c) in Joshua Tree recently, a 15-foot roof crack that transitions into a vertical head wall. The route is a historic one—established in 1976 by the one and only John Bachar—and has been the scene of many spectacular whippers (including this memorable punt 12 years ago).

Larkin climbs slow and steady through the initial horizontal section and finesses a smooth no-hands kneebar at the lip from which to place a cam. But as he powers up the vertical crack above, a light rain begins to fall and slickens the 5.10 top-out holds.

He slips off and careens back toward the roof lip. Thankfully his belayer, Robyn Dobruck, pays out extra slack to help him tuck beneath the roof, and his face is saved from disaster. The videographer, Greg Frankfurter, noted that if Larkin had placed his last cam any higher, or if his belayer hadn’t given out the extra slack, he very well may have smacked his face against the wall.

While this may be true, if Larkin had placed a cam at chest height and gotten a hard catch—instead of climbing above his cam and getting a soft one—he would have likely avoided the roof encounter altogether.

Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.

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