Century Crack is a 120 ft (40m) long offwidth roof crack climb in the

White Rim Sandstone The White Rim Sandstone is a sandstone geologic formation located in southeastern Utah. It is the last member of the Permian Cutler Group, and overlies the major Organ Rock Formation and Cedar Mesa Sandstone; and again overlies thinner units of ...

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Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, graded at . It is one of the hardest and longest offwidth crack climbs in the world. The first aid ascent of the route was done by Steve Bartlett in 2001, and the first free ascents were by crack specialists

Pete Whittaker Pete Whittaker (born 1991) is a British professional rock climber. He is one half of the duo known as the Wide Boyz, along with his climbing partner Tom Randall. Whittaker came to notability from crack climbing, including the first ascent of t ...

and Tom Randall, known as the Wide Boyz.

The route

Century Crack starts with an 85 ft roof crack, requiring the climber to hang upside-down, making progress with various jams throughout the crack's varying widths. It requires a mix of hand jams, hand-fist stacks, fist jams, and various other offwidth techniques. The first 15 ft of the crack is small enough for straightforward hand jams. This is followed by the offwidth

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section, wide enough for No. 6 cams, and the rest of the horizontal section fits No. 5 cams. The crux of the climb is where the crack transitions into a 45-degree overhang, requiring the climber to flip from their inverted position to an upright position. The top-out has the climber squeeze between two outcrops of rock onto the plain above.

First aid ascent

Century Crack was discovered by Steve Bartlett, who completed the first aid climb of the route in 2001, giving it the name ''Chocolate Starfish''.

''Wide Boyz''

The first free climb of the route was completed in 2011 by

and Tom Randall, documented in the movie ''Wide Boyz''. They initially climbed it with pre-placed gear, but returned two weeks later to do the climb while placing the gear. To train for the route, Randall built a replica of the crack in his cellar, where both climbers trained by doing continuous laps. They also did thousands of hours of offwidth-specific training, training an average of 5 days a week for two years.

List of free ascents

, 2011 * Tom Randall, 2011 * Danny Parker, 2018 * Fumiya Nakamura, 2023

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web, url=https://hardclimbs.info/climbs/century-crack/, title=Century Crack, publisher=Hard Climbs, access-date=17 October 2023, archive-date=18 October 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018020630/https://hardclimbs.info/climbs/century-crack/, url-status=live {{cite AV media, title=Wide Boyz, people=Chris Alstrin, Paul Diffley (directors), date=2012, type=Documentary {{cite web, url=https://www.climbing.com/news/desert-testpiece-century-crack-5-14b-sees-second-ascent-by-danny-parker/, title=Desert Testpiece Century Crack (5.14b) Sees Third Ascent by Danny Parker, publisher=Climbing, access-date=17 October 2023, archive-date=29 January 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129033829/https://www.climbing.com/news/desert-testpiece-century-crack-5-14b-sees-second-ascent-by-danny-parker/, url-status=live {{cite web, url=https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/century-crack-the-hardest-offwidth-in-the-world.html, title=Century Crack, the hardest offwidth in the world?, publisher=Planet Mountain.com, access-date=17 October 2023, archive-date=5 September 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905061815/https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/century-crack-the-hardest-offwidth-in-the-world.html, url-status=live {{cite web, url=https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2011/11/wideboyz_climb_century_crack_placing_gear-64870, title=Wideboyz Climb Century Crack Placing Gear, publisher=UKC, date=7 November 2011, access-date=18 October 2023, archive-date=18 October 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018020644/https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2011/11/wideboyz_climb_century_crack_placing_gear-64870, url-status=live {{cite web, url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/qa-with-pete-whittaker-on-free-climbing-century-crack-canyonlands-utah, publisher=

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, author=Mary Anne Potts, date=25 October 2011, title=Q+A With Pete Whittaker on Free Climbing Century Crack, Canyonlands, Utah, access-date=18 October 2023, archive-date=3 June 2023, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603024022/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/qa-with-pete-whittaker-on-free-climbing-century-crack-canyonlands-utah, url-status=live {{cite web, url=https://gripped.com/news/rare-repeat-of-worlds-hardest-offwidth-crack/, title=Rare Repeat of World's Hardest Offwidth Crack, publisher=Gripped, last=Pardy, first=Aaron, date=6 November 2023 Traditional climbing routes Canyonlands National Park