Nick Duttle certainly gets around.

Duttle buzzed into Moab one night straight from the New River Gorge, ticked The Bleeding (5.14b) at Mill Creek in the morning, and left that day, June 11, for Maple Canyon. He had worked The Bleeding last year, managing one-hangs but no send.

Lisa Hathaway, who belayed, says, “The Bleeding is a pesky little beast, with enticing and somewhat accommodating side-pulling and thuggery that builds gradually up to 13b … until the infamous boulder-problem crux at the very top—literally the last two bolts. I have heard it called everything from V9 to V11. It's a heartbreaker, too. One can fall ANYWHERE from the start of the boulder problem to the move rounding the last bulge to the chains.”

Duttle, subject of a past Rock and Ice profile by Alex Lowther, is originally from Las Cruces, New Mexico. He has a genetic condition hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), in which sweat glands and tear ducts do not function; before climbing he sprays himself from a water bottle. His motto is: “Don’t sweat it!”

Although Duttle had been dreading his 30^th birthday, in March, it seems to have brought him luck, and he is having his best season ever, sending 5.14s in different styles and at different areas.

He jokes,  “It must be good luck to be growing up finally.”

Duttle is a boulderer as well as a route climber, and started the year out in Hueco Tanks. A personal breakthrough occurred there, he says, with a near completion of the boulder problem Too Many Martinis, ungraded, done by Chris Sharma and with a second ascent by James Litz. Duttle broke a hold, which didn't make it any easier. "I almost sent the problem (route?) in terrible conditions, and in my opinion it is the hardest line at Hueco and potentially the U.S.  I hope to go back to finish it later this year."

Meanwhile, he claimed Still Life and Trebuchet (both 5.14b) at the New River Gorge, West Virginia, on June 2 and May 23; Thanatopsis Direct (5.14b/c) at the Red River Gorge, Kentucky, during the first week of May, and, at the end of April, The Shocker (5.14b), also at the Red. He also climbed four 5.14a’s at those areas, two on second go. Earlier, bouldering in Hueco Tanks, he established The Brown Smurf (V13), and last autumn he also did Freaks of the Industry (V13), RMNP, Colorado.

In the “getting around” category,  on June 7 Duttle also fit in Dreamcatcher (5.13c/d) at The Monastery, near Estes Park, Colorado, done second go. He sometimes combines routes and bouldering, climbing roped at the Monastery and then wandering over to RMNP to boulder the same day.

His traveling career didn’t start out so smoothly, however: years ago, on his first big sport-climbing trip, to El Chorro, Duttle was climbing one midrange 5.12 when another climber bet him that he couldn’t wander onto an adjacent line that had been climbed but not bolted.

“I was young, impulsive and willing to take any challenge presented to me," he recalls. "So I climbed out right, passing two bolts, before I came to my senses and headed back to the line of bolts. I pulled up a ton of slack to reach over to the clip—third one past my last clip—and the tape on my hand rolled up and I slipped off.  The fall seemed to take forever and I remember actually having time to think about it, as I watched the ground coming closer and closer. I was climbing on an 80-meter rope and as my belayer shot up into the air, I came to a complete stop six feet above the ground.

“The free fall was at least 70 feet, while the drop in its entirety could have been much more. It was quite exciting and quite the learning experience, to say the least.”

Still, he says, “Those two weeks in Spain were what really opened my eyes to route climbing.”

Lisa Hathaway, of Moab and Mill Creek, comments, “It's always a pleasure when Nick comes to town. He's super positive and motivated and generally fun to be around. Best of all, he really really loves Mill Creek and it is always nice when someone shows a true appreciation for one's home crag.”

See www.nickduttleclimbing.com

(Photo above of Nick on The Bleeding (5.14b), Mill Creek, Utah. Photo by Eric Odenthal.)