Sam Elias, 29, of Boulder, made short work of one of America’s hardest mixed routes yesterday when he onsighted Direct King Cobra (M11) at Vail, Colorado.

Elias sent the 130-foot rig, which overhangs 50 to 60 feet, first go, no beta, very likely becoming the first American to onsight the grade. Direct King Cobra was bolted by Stanley Vrba and Eric Malmgren; Stanley sent it on December 23, and the line was quickly repeated by the Frenchman Simon Duverney on his first try, who nearly onsighted it, but was given a little beta near the top for the flash. Elias’ ascent was likely the third.

Direct King Cobra was Elias’ fifth route of M11 or harder—just recently he repeated Will Mayo’s M13 The Flying Fortress and Redbeard (M12+), both also at Vail. In 2010, at Hyalite Canyon, Montana, Elias put up what was then likely America’s hardest mixed route, Inglorious Basterds (M12+), a line that remains unrepeated.

Even after his recent ascents, Elias considers Inglorious Basterds his hardest route to date, noting that it requires a specialty strength of being able to crank Figure 4s and Figure 9s at leisure

Direct King Cobra, however, didn’t yield easily. A nervous Elias started up the route “kind of pretending it was a comp, but more just thinking that I could do it ... if I didn't pop off randomly.”

Cranking out the steep limestone cave behind The Fang, Elias encountered an additional 20 feet of hard, steep drytooling to finally reach the ice, a recent change on the route caused by The Fang’s recent collapse. (On the FA, The Fang was fully formed, letting you reach the ice sooner.)

Once on the ice, however, Elias faced a new, terrible difficulty. Worried that he might fall and get stabbed by an ice screw, he had opted to not carry any pro and just run it out 40 feet.

“I told myself that if I was going to climb all the fucking way up there without falling,” says Elias “there was no way I would fall off the ice. What I couldn't see and didn't expect was that it was super wet, like a hard rain storm. I started having visions of me taking a massive whipper, because I was rushing to get out of the water and to the top, and coincidentally popping off the ice. I had to calm myself, and let the water just soak me, and ensure that each of my placements were perfect.”

To see Elias live, in action, check out this weekend's Ouray Ice Festival. Elias will compete in the Mixed Competition on Saturday.