Tom Randall Tackles Concrete Offwidth Roof Crack
The Berlin bridge project is likely the most difficult concrete crack he's attempted yet
Roof crack aficionado Tom Randall has a new project – a 60-metre concrete offwidth crack running along the underside of a bridge in Berlin, Germany. Randall is no stranger to climbing cracks on the underside of roadways. In Summer 2021, he and fellow Wide Boyz member Pete Whittaker made the FA of the 800m Great Rift 5.13, perhaps the strangest “trad” climb in the world. The pair spent four days and three nights climbing a 70-pitch horizontal crack on the underside of an elevated highway.
Randall’s Berlin bridge project poses some unique challenges. He’s attempting to climb its 60-metre length in one very long pitch. It’s impossible for Randall to physically carry all the large cams to safely protect himself while climbing the very difficult pitch. Instead he’s trying out a new approach.
“So it’s a new tactic I’ve not tried before…basically go free solo and be careful, but then when you want to get a 20-30s bat-hang rest, put a cam in to make yourself feel somewhat chill,” he explained on Instagram. “Once the rest is done, take it out and carry it along for the next ‘rest’ in another 5-10m! I’ve never thought about climbing such a long roof with a single cam on me, so it’s weird trying to get your head round it.
“I wasn’t really bargaining on this offwidth being a riskier one, but desperate times call for sketchy methods. I’m fairly confident that if you fell on the middle 30m section over water you might be able to throw a pancake shape and break your fall into the shallows, but it’s [definitely] a bit nerve wracking on the intro and outro 15m sections [where it’s not above water]. It’s been a while since I had to get into a good headspace, so it’s been a good challenge to get properly relaxed even when repercussions are more serious.”
As for the grade, it sounds like Randall believes its likely in the 5.14 range. “[My] current link was about [5.13d/14a] but foot pain probably being more of a limiting factor than pony-pump. So maybe hard [5,14a] feels absolute max in current trained state…back to the cellar it is.” You can watch Randall project the concrete roof crack in his Instagram video embedded below.
