Seven of the All-time Greatest Climbing Punts
Punting can be heartbreaking. But it’s also kind of funny. We all do it.
The post Seven of the All-time Greatest Climbing Punts appeared first on Climbing.
Strictly defined, the verb “to punt,” in climbing lingo, means to fall in easy terrain after the crux. A perfect punt, for instance those exemplified by the videos of Ray Hansen and Liam Andrews-Bancroft below, generally involves a climber ruining a limit send by falling on objectively easy terrain for no good reason at all. It’s heartbreaking. But it’s also kind of funny. We all do it.
In my opinion, the severity of any given punt depends on three main factors.
- The difference between the difficulty of the climb and the difficulty of the move you fell on. When a V2 climber falls on a V2 move, that’s just falling; when a V14 climber falls on a V2 move after climbing V14 to get there… that’s punting.
- Whether conditions or similar external factors contributed to the punt. When Carlo Traversi fell off the V1 topout of Echale (V14), it was certainly a punt, but the topout was also covered in ice and snow, so we can’t say the punt is purely Traversi’s fault. If he’d fallen there without the snow and ice? Then he’d be a legendary punter.
- Whether the climber is able to get back on the horse and send the problem afterward. This is controversial. But I believe that true punts ought to have a tragic finality to them. When Louis Parkinson (@captaincutloose) plummeted off the slab above Steppenwolf (V13), for instance, it was an all-time punt. But his status as a punter is minimized by the fact that he went on to send the problem. A real punter would never make it that far again.
I will also submit, if only for the sake of this article, that the word “punt” is, like most words in the English language, elastic. Its definition shifts when transformed from verb to noun. It’s not punting, for instance, if you fall repeatedly on the relatively easy intro of your project simply because you have redpoint jitters. But it might make you a punter. Similarly, I believe that the impossibility of sending shouldn’t get in the way of a true punt designation. Indeed, I believe that, as Chris Sharma demonstrates in video #4 below, it’s possible to “punt on the dog.”
What follows, then, are several of my all-time favorite punting videos. This is in no way a final or unbiased list—nor is it universal. Punters are out there punting all the time. I can’t keep track of it all. To keep things fun and fair, I have included my own all-time best (i.e. least flattering) punt—a 7/10 on the punt severity scale.
1. The best punt of 2024 (so far)
This absolute heartbreaker comes from Ray Hansen, a talented climber originally from central New York. After he makes his scrappy way up The Sound of Violence, a V14 in Joe’s Valley, Hansen mantles onto the slab, essentially no-hands territory, only to—and there really is no other word for it—un-send.
Almost by definition, true punts are self-inflicted; but some punts are more self-inflicted than others. Ray Hansen’s foot slip on Sound of Violence may have had real consequences for his ego (though his reaction is surprisingly mellow), and it certainly was an all-time great punt, but the fall itself was the consequence of a small and understandable mistake that just about any one of us could have made. He was tired! He had just battled through 25 feet of overhanging crimps and was now standing on a thin slab with his feet out of sight below the lip. You can tell from his posture that he doesn’t trust his feet, but he doesn’t have the right body position to adjust them, so he commits, and it doesn’t work out. You could argue that if Hansen had rehearsed the top a bit more, this wouldn’t have happened; but I think it’s just as easy to argue that these sort of mistakes simply happen sometimes.
Posting on Instagram about his punt, Hansen wrote “Consider this my application to take the title of worst punt of all time from @liamab [Liam Andrews-Bancroft].”
But I think Andrews-Bancroft (see below) still tops the scale. Hansen gets points, however, because—in true punter style—he was unable to send the problem again.
Punt Score: 9/10
2. Biggest tactical punt: Liam Andrews-Bancroft on Squoze (V14/15)
Before I begin, I should note that Andrews-Bancroft is an excellent rock climber who has successfully scaled a lot of hard boulders, including The Nest (V15) in Red Rocks, which he sent very quickly, and Insomniac (V16) at Lincoln Lake, which he quietly knocked down last year. He’s also not punted on the vast majority of hard boulders in New England, and he made several first and second ascents that I personally dismissed as impossible at my former home crag of Great Barrington. I have a ton of respect for him. He often writes sage things on Instagram that I very much agree with. And he’s also a good sport about punting—rightly seeing punting as an undervalued part of the sport; indeed, he later made a video called, “Highpoint!”: 20 Minutes of Non-stop Punting. It’s pretty legendary.
But to the punt in question… Unlike Ray Hansen, who had about a millisecond to correct his foot-placement error, Andrews-Bancroft’s punt is the protracted result of a fundamental bouldering mistake: He failed to rehearse the “easy” topout.
His rationale was that he’d watched numerous beta videos of people topping out either Squoze and or Sleepwalker (which share the same exit) and noticed that everyone makes the mantle after the jug look easy. But when, on his third day of effort, he battled all the way through Squoze to the jug beneath the slab, he found himself unsure of what to do. In the video below (his commented climb begins at 4:33), he ends up battling with various bad betas for an agonizingly pumpy minute. It’s amazing. He even says, “This is a nightmare,” while still on the wall. Ultimately, too exhausted to try anything else, he dangles from the final jug and lets go.
A nightmare indeed. Especially because, to my knowledge, he has yet to successfully repeat the climb.
Punt Score: 10/10
3. Unluckiest punt: Gérôme Pouvreau during the 2004 Petzl Roctrip
This video of the 2004 Petzl Roctrip to Millau, France, is dear to me for many reasons, one of them being that I’ve never not laughed when Gérôme Pouvreau takes a 50-foot whipper when he breaks a hold while clipping an anchor. When I first watched this as a beginner, circa 2005, his fall terrified me less because of its size than because it meant that if Pouvreau wanted credit for “doing” the climb, he now had to channel his inner self confidence (something I didn’t have back then) and try to re-do a route he had basically already done. What pressure!
Does Pouvreau’s fall truly qualify as a punt? I think it’s debatable. On the one hand, punting is mostly about falling after the point at which you think it’s reasonable to fall—something that Pouvreau literally says to the cameraperson as he does the last easy moves toward the anchors. On the other hand, punting implies agency or culpability on the part of the punter—and blaming a broken hold entirely on Pouvreau feels a bit tenuous.
Still, the punter trusted that choss.
Punt Score: A spectacular 6/10
(The true punting gets going about three minutes in.)
4. Least conventional punt: Chris Sharma on 3 Degrees of Separation
This one’s tenuous too. But as I said before, language is elastic, and if you’ll allow me to briefly extend the definition of “punting” to mean “fucking up in ridiculous ways while trying to rock climb,” then I’d like to submit this video of Chris Sharma working on 3 Degrees of Separation. Was he sending? No. Was he even doing a serious link? No. But does it look ego-bruising in the very loveliest of ways? Yes. It’s one of the greatest climbing fails ever caught on film.
Punt Score: priceless
(Tune in around minute 2:30. Stick around for Dave Graham’s reaction.)
5. Greatest staff punt: Steven Potter on Bierstadt
Yes, I punt too, and often, though I don’t usually share my videos. But to celebrate the spirit of punting, here we go.
This punt comes to you from Mt. Evans, Colorado. I don’t live in Colorado, but I did a summer semester at CU Boulder way back in 2010, and during that summer I got utterly shut down by the classic Bierstadt (V9 or 10). I couldn’t use the holds. I couldn’t fathom a sequence between them. I didn’t see how I’d ever get strong enough to do it.
Ten years later, when I learned I’d be spending a few weeks in Denver, I made it a goal of popping over to Evans for revenge.
This punt was on my first day of effort—indeed, it was one of my first real tries on the problem after sorting out what I thought was my beta. I’m still not sure exactly what went wrong. Maybe I was just so delighted by how much stronger I’d become in my 10 year absence that I forgot I still had to rock climb. Maybe the can’t-do spirit of my youth reached back across the years and grabbed onto my pants. Either way, I didn’t send it that day. And, thanks to weather and skin, I had to siege the climb for two more days before finally matching this high point and taking it to the top.
The move I fell off, by the way, can’t be harder than V2.
Punt Score: 7/10
6. Greatest almost punt: Giuliano Cameroni on La Rustica
I’m dipping into my own writing archives for this one, because I still find myself thinking about this video. In September 2021, I wrote about a Mellow video in which Swiss crusher Giuliano Cameroni, attempting Jimmy Webb’s La Rustica (V15), gives us yet another masterclass in why you should rehearse top outs.
Upon reaching the lip, Cameroni finds himself staring up at a chalkless and mossy headwall. He tries to be elegant, but that plan quickly devolves. His heel skids on some moss and he nearly craters. He straddles the blunt arete and squeezes with his thighs. Eventually (grunting) he beaches himself on the slab and uses his bare chest to maintain friction.
There are some “ohs” and some “ughs” and some expletives. The whole thing goes on far longer than you think it should.
When Cameroni finally gets down from the boulder, still panting, he looks up at where he’d been, then down at his apparently inadequate landing zone, then back up, then back down.
He shakes his head in what may very well be self-disgust.
As one Youtube commenter puts it: “That topout was easily the most relatable thing I’ve ever watched on this channel.”
Agreed.
Punt score: not applicable! Cameroni for the win!
Best punt from the Weekend Whipper archive
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