“Jonathan Siegrist” and “5.14d in America” have been two phrases that have been going together quite nicely over the last two years, a time during which Siegrist has been cleaning up with FAs of various previously bolted and abandoned projects around the U.S. First he fired the first ascent of Pure Imagination (5.14d) to the Red River Gorge in 2010. Last fall, he came to Rifle and did every hard route he tied into, including the first ascent Shadowboxing (5.14+), the long-standing project across from the Project Wall.

Now, Siegrist has completed one of his hardest to date, this time with the first ascent of Le Reve, located in tucked away Arrow Canyon, in the Nevada desert outside of Las Vegas.

(Arrow Canyon made its first appearance in Rock and Ice #162—click here for article, and click here to open the digital edition with the full feature including photos.)

We caught up with “J-Star” last night after he got back from a day of cragging (this time, for which he was grateful, somewhere besides Arrow Canyon), and asked him about his latest tick.

Tell us about your new line.

I'm calling the route Le Reve (means the dream in French)—partly inspired by the show in Vegas, but mostly inspired by the whole experience of climbing on the route, spending so much time in Arrow Canyon and finding a serious challenge. It's a dream come true.

I'm unsure about exactly how hard it is. On Le Reve, I spent a huge amount of time and effort, and thus it definitely felt harder than any route I've ever done ... but I have zero experience climbing in the 5.15 realm so I'm very hesitant to declare such an astronomical grade. Plus, new routes are always so tricky to grade. Who knows what I may have missed, or how the route may have tested my dimensions or weakness, etc.?

I'll think it over more, but honestly I don't really care about what grade it ends up at. It presented a challenge like one I've never faced before and it was a battle to stick with it. I'm just so damn psyched to have sent.

What are the cruxes like?

The first crux comes right away; it’s a tensiony crux through a series of awful holds in steepening terrain. After this you've got a good resting hold with poor feet—your last opportunity to rest for 25 feet or more.

Next crux is shortly after: it involves three monos, an explosive Gaston move in 40-degree steepness, and a long deadpoint to a clipping pocket for 2.5 fingers. You can maybe shake each hand once here but it's not at all restful. You immediately fire into a sequential, super steep finishing boulder problem through underclings, another mono and this crazy sloper, ending with a deadpoint to an edge, and then an okay rest before taking on the 5.12 exit.

How did you find this route?

I saw an article a few years back in a Rock and Ice! Keith [Ladzinski] had taken some rad shots of Sam [Elias] and Joey [Kinder] climbing in Arrow Canyon and the opening spread was of Joey on an impressive “5.14+ project.” I climbed at Arrow once last year and scoped it. This year I hiked in a static rope right away and lowered down it, cleaning the hell out of it and finding grips, chalking it up.

Christian Merwin originally bolted it.

How many tries/days did it take? What was that experience like?

Lost count of days or tries exactly, but probably close to 30 tries over 15 climbing days or so? (Spread out over about six weeks). It's double the time that I've spent on any route since one of my first 5.14's. It was a serious challenge at times—staying motivated, finding partners, battling rain and conditions, keeping healthy skin, etc. I think something that really excites me about the success is that it feels like a stepping stone to the next level. physically and mentally. I know what it's like to put in a more major effort now, and thus I'll be better prepared to take on harder and harder routes. Climbing is so damn mental and hard because it’s 90% failure. I'm really happy I held on for the ride because it would have been easy to give up.

Most strong U.S. climbers go to Europe to test themselves on the 5.14d’s and up there, yet you seem to have avoided that well-trodden path. Why? Why focus on America? Do you have any desire to go to Europe, and if so where?

I like to think that I can make a difference here in the States. It's a bummer that we don't have stacks of 5.14d/5.15a’s but in large part it's due to the fact that not too many people stick around, get dirty and put in the mega effort to establish new routes. I understand why. Our rock is not the very best in the world, but I still love it here. My focus is new routes and I feel strongly that there is much, much more new stuff to be done here—no need to travel overseas. Of course I'd love to climb in Europe though, and I plan to. Just buying tickets to France now for April and May. Psyched!

How many 5.14d’s have you established in the U.S.?

Pure Imagination, maybe Shadowboxing, and now Le Reve.

What's next? You should go repeat Jumbo Love, man ... That wall is amazing, if you haven't seen it ...

I'm sticking around Vegas until I leave for France in April. I've got a couple more new routes on my mind and there is still plenty of repeats for me to do around here, too. I would like to check out Clark Mountain, for sure, but there really is tons to do ... so, we'll see.