Ethan Pringle Sends Blackbeard’s Tears, World’s Second 5.14c Crack

Ethan Pringle has made the first free ascent of Backbeard’s Tears 5.14c at the Promontory in California. This was the first route climbed at the seaside crag at 5.11 A2 by Matthais Holladay nearly a decade ago. Holladay noted the route would make a hard free line and strong climbers have attempted it over the past few years. If the grade stands, it is the world’s second 5.14c crack after Beth Rodden’s unrepeated Meltdown 5.14c in Yosemite.

Pringle wrote on Instagram after his ascent, “I finally clipped the chains after freeing all 110 immaculate feet of Blackbeard’s Tears yesterday at the Promontory, placing all 15 cams and one stopper on lead. This is definitely one of, if not the coolest and most unique FAs I’ve ever done in my life. I’d fantasized about how this fabled crack climb might look and feel for weeks before I saw it at the start of the month.

“When I first laid eyes on it, my jaw hit the floor. On Sept. 2, I rapped in and installed an anchor right below the very top of the wall. I knew as soon as I saw the line up close that it was going to have some bad ass climbing on it and it did not disappoint. After 10 days of the usual kind of hard work and of course a fair amount of blood, sweat, a few tears right there at the end, I nabbed the red point.” See here for a photo of the send. Pringle is known for his many hard sends, including the second ascent of Jumbo Love 5.15b in California.

I broke the hold my left hand is on in this picture and was momentarily devastated. I promptly found beta without the hold that was way easier and breaking the hold turned out to be a blessing in disguise… I guess life is like that sometimes!! I don't mean to brag but, I haven't been this excited about a rock climb in a long long time! Ermagherd! More work on it tomorrow. I honesty can't remember who gave me this photo… @afoxfoto? @stacybloo? Anyway thanks! Jimmy above me capturing the magic while his shadow uses my head as a foothold.

A photo posted by Ethan Pringle (@ethan_pringle) on Sep 6, 2016 at 5:44pm PDT