Weekend Whipper: “Please Catch Me” (Trad Fall)
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Ryan takes his first ever trad fall on an “undisclosed” 5.10a in the Red River Gorge, Kentucky.
A few days before, Ryan was “really pushing it and onsighted a couple 10s,” says Crystal Lie, who filmed and submitted this Weekend Whipper. “He was having
a breakthrough so we knew it was time to get him on something harder and have him take his first fall!”
Ryan had been climbing easy to moderate trad routes for a couple years, she explains, but he had yet to take a fall on gear.
“He was feeling super stoked and confident,” says Lie. “We drove up to the Red and got him on this sandbagged-looking, wet, steep, dirty, newly established
line that goes up an arching chimney to a thin wet undercling section.
“The top was sopping wet.”
Ryan reaches the route’s “dark hole” and attempts to make a move up and into the hole. After a miraculous save, he gets it back only to whip a moment later
onto a blindly placed .5 cam.
“That’s why he got a nice soft catch,” explains Lie.
Ryan boinked back up, and after several more falls out of the dark hole, he eventually finished the route.
Nice work Ryan!
Video submitted by Crystal Yin Lie