In 2014 or 2015, my friend JJ Schlick tipped me off about a potential new line at the Peaks Crag. Sometime later, Blake McCord and I went up for a day of checking out potential new lines. I spent my day on another project (that may or may not be impossible) and Blake checked out Control Burn.
Blake went on to do the first ascent of the route and a hard classic was born. A season or two later, I started putting more work into Control Burn. It was a challenging route for me, and I ended up finding alternate beta to avoid a big sideways move to a pocket that always felt tweaky on my shoulder.
The new beta involved long dynamic moves to somewhat smaller holds, but didn’t hurt my shoulder, so I stuck with it.
I also loved the movement with my alternate beta; a big backstep stab to a small crimp followed by a throw to a sidepull that always seemed to end in a windmill swing.
The route got a touch harder after the sidepull marking the end of the crux broke, making a jug into a small slot that required some more precision and one more hard move.
I finally sent the route on a beautiful May afternoon.
It’s a pretty classic route for the area with a five-star boulder problem straight into a really nice 5.12 finish.
Thanks to Matt Enlow and Mikey Robinson for the photos!
