Weekend Whipper: First Normal Form (5.10a), Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, AR

Chris Hill can’t stave off the pump as he nears the chains on First Normal Form (5.10a).

A week before Christmas, Chris Hill and his climbing buddies Joe Hinton and Jon Wallender took advantage of a warm December day to get some pitches in at Arkansas’ Horseshoe Canyon Ranch.

Hill tied in and started up First Normal Form, a 5.10a he’d never done before. “It’s pretty pumpy,” he writes to Rock and Ice. “By the time I got to the overhang, I couldn’t find a solid grip to be able to clip the bolt and after fumbling around a bit, I eventually fell. No injuries and we went on to climb the rest of the day.”

“We hardly ever shoot video, so it’s kind of ironic that I took this fall while being filmed,” Hill says—so let that be a lesson to all of you: film everything so one day you too can be featured in the Weekend Whipper!

Happy Friday and climb safe this weekend!

Also watch Weekend Whipper: Learning to Crawl (5.12c), Reimer’s Ranch, TX