I Like Fake Cracks (And I Cannot Lie)

Hard at work on my big fake-crack project at Teton Bouldering Park.

There’s always some weirdo at the climbing gym who, despite the efforts of some poor route setter who’s labored for hours to set the holds just so to create not just a climbing problem but a work of art, insists on climbing the cracks. That weirdo is usually me.

Short but sweet: A 6-foot crack on the boulder at Sea-Tac Community Center near Seattle

Common Climber published my article about my obsession with fake cracks--specifically a crack problem in Teton Bouldering Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming--in 2021. You can read it here: https://www.commonclimber.com/fake-cracks.html.

I like real cracks too! Attempting The Pirate (5.12c) at Suicide Rock, California, 1985.