Watch the Second Ascent of Cobra Crack
Nico Favresse made the first repeat of the Squamish 5.14 crack while on a road trip back in 2008
The first ascent of Cobra Crack was in 1981 by Tami Knight and Peter Croft. The first free ascent was in 2006 by Sonnie Trotter, who told Gripped, “The redpoint crux comes over the lip on a slippery side pull; the feet are next to nothing, and it takes momentum and a huge throw to latch the final edge, at which point you’re about 15 to 20 feet about your last piece of gear—it’s really exciting.”
The second ascent was by Belgium climber Nicolas Favresse while on a road trip around North America. Favresse was fresh off sending Greenspit 5.14 trad in Italy, when he and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll landed in Canada in 2008.
About the grade, Favresse told Planet Mountain, “About the grade: it’s hard to tell and it probably depends a bit on your finger size. I have pretty fat fingers and in this case I think fatter fingers could be OK. There are many different ways of doing the sequences, that’s what’s really nice about such a climb. It’s definitely the hardest trad I have ever done. At first The Cobra crack felt like 5.14c or even d. But now that I understand the moves better, I think it feels more like 5.14b to me. But hard 5.14b, considering the nature of the climb, that you have to place the pro and that the Cobra bites on the fingers! The only cure for it was to eat as many Belgian fries as possible!”
The footage of Favresse on Cobra Crack is captured in the short film called The Power of Jam, which you can watch below. The two top trad climbers also visited the Bugaboos, Indian Creek and Yosemite.
The Power of Jam
Known Cobra Crack Sends
2006 – Sonnie Trotter (Canada)
2008 – Nico Favresse (Belgium)
2008 – Ethan Pringle (USA)
2008 – Matt Segal (USA)
2009 – Will Stanhope (Canada)
2009 – Yuji Hirayama (Japan)
2011 – Alex Honnold (USA)
2013 – Pete Whittaker (UK)
2013 – Tom Randall (UK)
2016 – Ben Harnden (Canada)
2017 – Mason Earle (USA)
2017 – Logan Barber (Australia)
2017 – Said Belhaj (Sweden)
2019 – Tristan Baills (Canada)
2021 – Ryan Sklenica (Australia)
2021 – Stu Smith (Canada)
2023 – Nat Bailey (Canada)
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