Muir repeats Jedi Mind Tricks M13

Scott Muir from Scotland has just made the second ascent of one of America’s hardest mixed routes, Jedi Mind Tricks M13, Colorado, USA

PlanetMountain.com

February 2006

Traduci in

Scott Muir from Scotland has just made the second ascent of one of America’s hardest mixed routes, Jedi Mind Tricks. This M13 was first ascended at the end of 2004 by Jared Ogden and Ryan Nelson, and is located in a huge cave dubbed “God’s Crag” near Lake City, Colorado. Muir redpointed the route after four days of effort with spurs, and his detailed report is published below.

Jedi Mind Tricks should not be confused with "Jedi Master", Muir’s M11 creation which takes weaving line to the right of to Stevie Haston’s The Empire Strikes Back at Cogne, Italy. First ascended in March 2005 it curiously received little press coverage despite its whopping sustained mixed grade (WI3, M10-, M11, M9+, WI5).

Jedi Mind Tricks 2006
I have never been too or seen such an amazing rock formation in all my life. As Ryan described to me ‘God took his hand and drank the water falling from the cliff top, sculpting the most perfect mixed cave imaginable’, he isn’t religious and he certainly wasn’t joking. Gods Crag sits at 11,000ft above the idyllic and remote Lake City Colorado. The initial 4hr trail breaking mission across big avalanche country makes this alpine crag one of the the most serious, most time consuming and most committing sport mixed crag in the world.

Every other day took 2 long hours from the trailhead, but the reward of warm sun from a –17 degree valley floor until 2pm made it so much more pleasant. Jared Ogden and Ryan Nelson made the first ascent of this route last winter, both claiming the first ascent. They did this because of the amount of time and effort, bolting and climbing such a route takes.

Jedi Mind Tricks is by far the hardest route I have ever completed in the world, taking four days of sustained effort and 4 redpoint attempts. Personally it felt much harder than Game Over M13, a route I completed earlier in the season. The route is 20 roof-bolts in length and features unusual hard volcanic pockets, requiring great care and precision due to the hard skittery nature of the rock. Normally the picks bite into the soft schist or limestone but this stuff required accuracy and complete control. The crux 5 totally horizontal metres is very technical, involving multiple strenuous and delicate foot changes to keep the feet on the roof, as the tool edges are not good enough to support dynamic moves or total body weight.

As usual the plague of most climbers attempting super hard routes around the world is finding someone willing to commit time, energy and money to solely helping the cause. It is one factor that makes completing these routes so much harder and why I am always super grateful for assistance, without them it wouldn’t be possible. Once again, Laura Lawrance filled this role and selflessly ploughing a track to the crag.

Gods Crag, currently holds two more routes Heiroglyphics M9 + and Padowan Learner M7+. Ryan and Jared have another project on the go that looks very, very hard. I guess I’ll be going back!

Jedi Master 2005
At the very end of last season after completing Tsunami M12 next to Mission Impossible, I headed back to Valeille in Cogne to get on my main project for the season. A spectacular and technical line that I had seen whilst doing Empire Strikes Back the previous year.

The ensuing 3 day long bolting mission resulted in Jedi Master, the best, most sustained piece of climbing I have ever done. Until Albert’s awesome and brilliant ascent of Illuminati, it was possibly the most sustained multi pitch mixed route in the world. I set myself the goal of climbing every pitch myself in a day. I finally succeeded, topping out in the dark along with Malcolm McIlraith my belayer. The ascent was not without drama however, as I broke the handle off my axe on the last pitch, resulting in a fight, completely pumped up the final M9+ pitch with a standard quark axe. Not ideal when you’ve never been so tired. Thankfully the remaining ice to the top was not so hard.

The route has since been repeated by Marko Lukic and Jeff Mercier who both confirm the routes grade and quality.Â

Jedi Master was climbed with full Jedi trickery and weighs in at WI3, M10-, M11, M9+, WI5.

Scott Muir

Scott Muir's Brief Dry Tooling CV
Jedi Mind Tricks M13, Colorado, USA
Game Over M13, Drylands, Austria
Tsunami M12 FA, Val di Cogne, Italy
Musashi M12, Cineplex Cave, Canada
Too Fast Too Furious D12 FA Scotland
Jedi Master FA WI3, M10-, M11, M9+, WI4, WI4 Val di Cogne, Italy
Fast and Furious D11 FA Scotland
Mission Impossible M11, Val di Cogne, Italy
Empire Strikes Back M11, Val di Cogne, Italy
A Fist Full of Steel M11 Colorado, USA
Tomahawk M10+/M11, Lauterbrunnertal, Switzerland
Fly in the Wind M10+ Italy
White Out M10+ Switzerland
Tool Time M10+, Uschenen, Switzerland