The Fugitive - Round 1

The next route on my list this summer is The Fugitive. Although it is graded easier than Fakir, it may prove to be more of a challenge. Where Fakir was short and stout, Fugitive is long and relentless. This climb is about 60' of inconstant finger jams with small feet and a relatively technical sequence.

I got on The Fugitive for the first time two days ago, and it well and thoroughly shut me down at first. It was a hard lead made harder by the fact my rack is not made up of solely half inch and smaller pieces. I fought may way up it taking a few fun whippers and having a piece blow on me sending me on an especially long journey down, but made it to the top. I had no idea how I was going to do this climb. But the top rope was set and now it was time to work the beta. Joe got on it on TR and was able to figure out the beta for the first crux better than I was, and managed to get to the top with a good number of falls.

The second time I got on the climb I did the bottom section before the first crux terribly, even though I sent that section clean on lead before. Despite that however I climbed through both crux's clean and made it to the top. Joe also did better his second time on, but we were both getting tired.

On my last attempt for the day before having to make a dash to work I one-hung it, falling only because I forgot to match on the top of the second crux. After a day of work I was confident that I knew the sequence pretty well. The climb is do-able. the bottom 30' goes at about 11c and is pretty consistent. Once through the bottom half there are two crux sequences right on top of one another, the bottom one harder than the top. Then it is a final 15' of 11a climbing to the chains.

Another day figuring out the gear and going for the send and I think I will be able to check off another climb on my to-do list. Tomorrow I am headed back out to it with Joe and Kris to go for the send and hopefully take a few sweet pics in the process.

Tom Kingsbury on The Fugitive