Alex Honnold Sends First 5.14d with Arrested Development

Alex Honnold has send his first 5.14d with a tick of Arrested Development on Mount Charleston close to his home in Las Vegas. In the past, he’d sent Supermanboy 5.14c and Superman 5.14c at Check and Gren Mile 5.14c at Jail House. After his send of Arrested Development, he said on 8a.nu, “First of the grade, pretty exciting. Maybe it’s 8c+ [5.14c] but I’ll let someone more qualified decide. Totally my anti-style – very satisfying to finish.”

Honnold has kept track of his sends on 8a.nu over the years, including his 30-pitch free solo of Freerider 5.13 on El Capitan. He noted, “Solo! 3:56 on route. The end of an epic life dream. Such an experience. Logged it as a boulder problem – thanks 8a!”

Last year during the world tour of Freerider, Honnold told 8a.nu, “I’m happy to do some kind of interview for 8a at some point, though we should wait a few months for all the crazy movie travel to be over. I’m hoping to be the first (and maybe only) climber to send 9a and go to the Oscars in the same year. If I ever manage to climb that hard you should do a proper 8a interview.”

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Yesterday I successfully completed the first Oscars/9a link up – going to the Oscars and climbing 14d in the same year. It’s been a pretty crazy year – @freesolofilm has wildly changed my life and I’ve spent most of the year traveling for events while doing my best to train in various gyms around the world. Which has all been an incredible experience but a big change from my normal lifestyle. The last few weeks I’ve gotten to focus on real climbing again, trying a sport route that I’d tried a few years ago and found to be impossible for me. Super satisfying to come back after a year like this and actually manage to climb it. A big thanks to @latticetraining for helping me with a training plan for the year – I don’t think I could have stayed motivated and on track without them. And a big thanks to @sannimccandless for the support (and video!). So exciting to climb a new grade – realistically something I may never get to do again. Unless I work on 5.15… we’ll see…

A post shared by Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold) on Sep 13, 2019 at 10:46am PDT

The first ascent of Arrested Development was by Ethan Pringle in 2012, it was bolted in the late 1990s by Joe Brooks. It climbs up to the right of America’s Most Wanted 5.13c at the Robber’s Roost cave. Pringle said the crux is a two-move V9 after 5.14a climbing that leads to 5.14b climbing.

“I’m going with a grade of 5.14d for this one, considering the time I spent on it with perfect conditions and how refined my beta had to be for a flawless ascent,” Pringle said on his blog.

Jon Siegrist also sent Arrested Development and said on 8a.nu, “Actually used a figure four. Enormous move at the third bolt was my crux.” Watch Pringle make the first ascent of Arrested Development below (starts at 6:50). Both Pringle and Siegrist logged the route as a 5.14d.

Arrested Development