It must be hard to misbehave at naptime if your Kindergarten teacher has climbed 5.14b.  Well Jen Vennon’s students are probably silent because Saturday, September 17, she put to bed her hardest project yet: Stockboy’s Revenge (5.14b), Rifle, Colorado. Vennon’s rainy-day ascent of this kneebar-intensive route makes her the first female to climb 5.14b in the Rifle.

“Saturday was disgusting, raining and cold,” she said. “I wasn't feeling great, but I managed to get to the crux. Then I had a mental shift and thought, ‘You're here now, this is right, let's go, it's time.’”

Every day Stella Noble, of Boulder, Colorado, looked at a photo of the Diamond face of Longs Peak in her father's office.

She says, "He climbs it every year and I wanted to climb it, too."

On August 31, she got her wish. Stella and her father, Forrest, completed the Casual Route (5.10a) making her the youngest person ever to climb the Diamond, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Ranked number one in the country for sport climbing in her age group, Stella recently competed in the Teva Mountain Games, winning the gold medal for ages 11 and under.  She is a member of the ABC climbing team based out of Boulder, Colorado.

[Stella Noble. Photo by Walter Workman.]

Stella and her father, with their friend Fredrik Marmsetter, climbed the Diamond as a trio.  Forest says, “I took some precautions, like climbing as a threesome with Stella in the middle. That way someone was always with her at each belay and at all times in close contact with her.” 

It was autumn, and I walked into the Alcove in the crisp air expecting only the usual evening climbing and restoration.

In the middle of the floor of this highly traveled little rock corner, just 12 feet tall but steep, was a stone hump, currently disturbed by rock dust, perhaps a few shards, and a large sign, block-lettered and firmly duct-taped down: “WHOEVER DID THIS, you are an ASSHOLE.”

It was signed “Rick West.”

“Ohhh, you’ve never met Rick West?” people always said of this denizen of the Alcove. “Just wait.” I’d heard enough clues to envision a Hell’s Angel type, sleeveless and bicepian and probably scowling with exaltation for the rock. Now I quailed, because he was livid—and at me.

Jonathan Siegrist is on a Rifle rampage.  As of September 4 he claimed the coveted second ascent of what may be Rifle, Colorado's, hardest route.  Bad Girls Club, a route bolted in the Wicked Cave by Joe Kinder, had thwarted all previous suitors until Matty Hong unlocked the powerful sequence and linked to the chains on August 21.

Although the route is speculated to be 5.14d, Siegrist made quick work of Bad Girls Club, linking to the chains on his eighth try.

Of the ascent and the grade of Bad Girls Club, Siegrist posted on his blog, “I'm beginning to speculate that 'your number of attempts' is really a flawed standard for judging difficulty. Grades are everywhere, and differ for every climber, at every crag. I think the best we can do is try to keep consistency within areas, remain honest, and also expect to get shut down, and kick ass from time to time. On that note, I'd like to repeat a few other hard routes in the canyon before I feel confident to defend or deny BGC at 14d.”