Hazel Findlay Sends Classic Conception 5.13 Splitter Crack
Hazel Findlay has climbed Conception, the 70-metre 5.13 splitter first freed by Dean Potter in 2003 who opened the once two-pitch aid route known as Acromaniac. Findlay found out about the route because Steph Davis posted a video on Instagram from her send. Last fall, Adam Ondra onsighted the pumpy crack.
Potter renamed the route Concepcion after the late José Pereyra’s mother. “The last time I saw José we had planned on spending the winter climbing in Utah,” he said after his first free ascent. “Then he went to Mexico and died [in a rockfall accident at El Potrero Chico]. When I got the news I was pretty disturbed. The next day I went out and found this amazing splitter.”
Concepcion starts in a thin seam and widens to a hand-and-fist crack at the top where Potter bypassed the original anchors and led the route as a big 70-metre pitch. It begins with a V9/10 boulder problem featuring a jump to a flaring pin scar, followed by a second crux of similar difficulty at 15 metres, with a long crank on tiny crimps. Then the crack leans awkwardly and widens too wide for fingers and not big enough for hands.
Davis on Conception
Adam Ondra on Conception