Paige Claassen Sends Legacy 5.14d in Rocklands

The micro route features some razor crimping on beautiful orange stone. It's one of Claassen's hardest lines to date.

Aaron Pardy July 24, 2023

On July 22, Paige Claassen repeated Legacy 5.14d (9a) in Rocklands, South Africa. She sent the project after only four days of work – three mornings top-rope soloing with a mini traxion and one day with a belayer. The micro route opens with an extremely fingery sequence of moves on tiny, sharp crimps. Because of it’s short, bouldery style and its location in a world-class bouldering area, the line is often presented with both a route climbing grade (5.14d) and boulder grade (V14).

Giuliano Cameroni made the first ascent of Legacy in 2019, calling it 5.14d/V14. The line was originally found by Dave Graham, bolted by a local, and then tried by Fred Nicole who worked the project for five seasons. After Cameroni’s send, Nicole went on the pick up the second ascent. Paul Robinson made the third last year.

“Despite the insecure razor crimps, I had quite a pleasant experience on this line, with some peaceful hours spent sussing through beta details alone while the birds chirped,” said Claassen on Instagram. “It’s thin, it’s hard, and I’m not sure if it’s a boulder or a route. Three very hard moves off the deck lead to 12d climbing. Either way, nice to apply myself to something that I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength for when I arrived.”

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Legacy is not Claassen’s first 5.14d. Her first was back in 2018, when she picked up the second ascent of Jonathan Siegrist’s Algorithm in the Fins in Idaho. In 2019, she sent Shadowboxing 5.14d in Rifle, and in 2020, she repeated Kryptonite 5.14d in Colorado, the first of the grade in North America. In 2021, she climbed one of Canada’s most iconic lines, Chris Sharma’s Dreamcatcher 5.14d in Squamish.

Claassen gave birth to her first child a little over a year ago. An excellent film, Love, was made about her experience with motherhood and climbing, and can be viewed below. In April this year, she sent her first big project since becoming a mom, Slice of Time 5.14b in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado.