9 Mile Cigarette is a 5.13 Trad Climb in the USA
Watch as the crux of this five-pitch route gets a repeat in a new short film
Arizona has some classic trad test-piece routes, but more are being opened all the time. A few years ago, Joel Unema made the first ascent of 9 Mile Cigarette in Insomnia Canyon, a five-pitch 5.13- that was recently repeated by Forest Altherr.
The route is named for a lyric in the John Prine song When I Get to Heaven that goes, “Yeah, I’m gonna smoke a cigarette that’s nine miles long,” listen here. “Zach Harrison and I went out for the first day of real climbing on it, and had a great time in pretty warm conditions,” Unema said on his blog Grass Routes Climbing. “The bottom four pitches of the route are quite shady and inside a gully so they stay pretty cool in summer. That day we sent the first three pitches and did some cleaning work and anchor moving on the upper pitches. The first three turned out even better than I had hoped, with varied climbing on cracks of all sizes, usually with some feet and face holds mixed in.”
The pitches go at 5.12, 5.11, 5.12, 5.13, 5.12. A couple weeks after visiting with Harrison, Unema returned. “I came back with Wilson Cutbirth to lead pitch 4, the crux, and pitch 5, the slightly sandy but still-hard topout pitch,” he said. “Conditions were crisp and I was able to send both pitches quickly.”
Watch a new film by JimBo Films with Altherr on the crux pitch below.
9 Mile Cigarette
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