The Wideboyz Have Pioneered The Future: Buildering

The Wideboyz have once again revolutionized a niche facet of climbing… not offwidths, not the world’s smallest big wall, but a new step in the concrete jungle. They established The Great Rift, a 750 METER ROOF CRACK! Not in Moab, not in Yosemite, but under a roadway bridge!

Their route begins with a 6a (V3) boulder to gain a continuous roof crack, with so many pitches that they lost count (around 60-70), each ranging from 8 to 25 meters with difficulties of 7b+ (5.12c) to 8a+ (5.13c)! 

All the old-school trad dads are now probably saying, “What a waste of talent! Go to the Greater Ranges!” But that’s what they said about bouldering, and look at what that has become! Super strong shirtless guys with beanies spending hundreds of hours underneath the same 10 feet of choss, pushing the limits of human potential! Why can’t the “Greater Ranges”, the new Himalayas, be the majestic skyscrapers of our cities? If we solve the “last great problem”, we can build a new one!

As urban sprawl begins to encapsulate the entire liveable surface area of the planet, driving to the crag just won’t be an option, thanks to horrible traffic or destruction of crags to make space for the 15th McDonald’s within 3 square miles. Rather than tire from fighting the spread, we should embrace it. Let us sneak into building codes our requirements: perfect hand crack size gaps between everything, incut rails, and rounded edges to avoid havoc on the skin.

A climber will no longer have to bushwhack, suffer from hornet’s nests, and clean choss. FA’s will only need 10 or 12 cams of a standardized size, to be placed in the nearest up-to-code 2” concrete crack.

Climbing has only progressed when a band of renegades stepped past the norm. Just like the sport climbers of the 80’s and the boulderers of the 90’s, builderers will bring the next era of our sport no matter what the trad dads say!