Online Premiere of Monument, a Film about an Iconic Canadian Crack

Among the climbers in the film is Peter Croft, who made the first ascent of the climb back in the 1980s

Gripped August 17, 2023

Monument is a film about the massive roof crack sitting under the cliffs at White Bluff, Ontario. Peter Croft made a burly onsight first free ascent of the route back in the mid 1980s, and now in 2021 two climbers, Jared Nelson and Evan Peplinski, make redpoint ascents of the monumental roof in one day.

The film pays homage to the first aid ascension team, and recounts stories of Crofts’s onsight in 1987 with interviews from Peter Croft, David Smart, Jared Nelson, and Evan Peplinski. Smart, one of Ontario’s leading route developers in the 1980s, said, “The monument was always wet the season Croft made the first free ascent, but he wanted to go down to the crag and look at it. Lo and behold, it was dry. I had given up trying to free climb it after years of effort, but Peter Reilly was still working on it, although I didn’t think he was close to doing it without hanging. Croft, who had onsighted the Phoenix 5.13a trad in Yosemite that summer, thought he could do it first try with no falls, and he did. Then he did it again to clean it. There were some fixed nuts, but I don’t think he would have had any problem placing cams. It was a really astounding first free ascent.”

The film premieres on La Sportiva’s YouTube channel (watch below) at 1 p.m. EST on Aug. 17. Don’t miss this one!