Becca Frangos sends Driven, her third 5.14 of 2020
And appears on the cover of our autumn issue
West coast climber Becca Frangos has sent Driven at Horne Lake for her third 5.14 of 2020. Frangos appears on the current cover of Gripped magazine sending her first-ever 5.14 with Leviathan 5.14a at Acephale.
On Sendage, Frangos updated her page with this about Driven: “Fell more times than I would have liked after the crux haha its really not over til its over. A spicy boulder problem for sure, was psyched to find may own beta to make the typical big crux span doable.”
In 2000, Canadian crusher Mike Doyle gave Driven the grade of 5.14b on Sendage, followed by Sean McColl in 2004 who also graded it 5.14b.
Driven has been many strong climbers’ first 5.14. Top Squamish boulderer, Luke Zimmerman, said: “After 17 years of climbing, my first 5.14. What an amazing journey to get here and what an amazing route. Had to work hard for this 23 tries over six days.”
And Canadian now-5.15 climber, Elan Jonas McCrae, said: “Second try of the day. First 14, the ending stretch was a struggle as I was already pumped. Cool moves and I sent it just as I was beginning to doubt myself.”
In an interview with Frangos about Leviathan here, Frangos told us: “It’s quite short, like a lot of stuff at Acephale. I want to say it’s around 22 metres. The start of the route is pretty hard right off the ground. Once you find your sequence though, it starts to feel easier, but it is by no means easy, like 5.12d to 5.13a climbing. Then you get a decent kneebar rest to clip an extended draw right before the crux, which is maybe 40-degrees overhanging. The way the Dan, Mike and I do it, I don’t know, I’m not great at putting grades on stuff, but the crux is probably like V11.
“It then eases off quite a bit for the next three quarters of the route. Good holds, you get it all back, and then there is this big jump one draw from the anchor. Quite a few people don’t actually have to jump it because they are normal sized, but I did. The last draw goes over a lip, and it is kind of a tricky slab, probably a V5 boulder, which probably doesn’t seem that bad, but, pumped, it’s pretty sketchy. Yesterday I was like, ‘Oh god, I’m, gonna fall at the top with my face in the anchor haha.’ It’s definitely a very bouldery route.”
After Leviathan, Frangos moved from the Rockies back to Vancouver Island for university, where she sent her first 5.14b with ASDATO.
Frangos broke down ASDATO into three sections for us here, in which she said, “The the third crux is probably also a V8, it felt harder than the second crux. On my red-point attempts, I never fell on either of the first two cruxes. It was only the third crux that I was falling on. When you put them all together, things get pumpy.”
Rock climbing season in Canada isn’t over yet and many climbers are still working on their 2020 projects. Stay tuned for more sending news.
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