Just two days after arriving in the Utah desert, Mason Earle and Nico Favresse polished off a hard first ascent.

Going to Hollywood (5.13-) sits above Moab on the seldom-visited Town Wall, packing a variety of climbing styles into its 35 meters.  

“Apart from the sand lower on the route, it’s a spectacular pitch,” said Earle in an email exchange with Rock and Ice. “Pumpy Indian Creek style crack climbing to technical face climbing on perfect wingate sandstone.”

Earle climbed the pitch first, cleaning “mud” from the lower 5.11 corner before launching into the “flawless splitter” crack rising another 40 feet. After drilling an anchor 15 feet above the splitter, Earle belayed Favresse who worked out the technical sequence required for the last bit of bouldery face climbing.

“He came down and gave me the play-by-play of moves, and I barely held it together on my first redpoint attempt,” says Earle. “Nico then sent it 10 minutes later.”

Earle and Favresse are now working on more hard first ascents in Utah.  “There is a lot of new route activity going on at the moment,” Earle says.

Check out Earle's blog here.

[Above: Earle on the "flawless splitter." Here he cleans "mud" from the low corner.]

[Favresse locks it down on Going to Hollywood (5.13-). Photos by Florian Herla.]