The Heretic Anthem

• 00 How we got here
• 01 All roads lead to Utah
• 02 Rejection of expectations
• 03 D10+ is a big number
• 04 Epilogue

00 How we got here

Above Bridal Veil Falls, past some mank fixed lines, and in a chossy cave located in Provo Canyon, UT, The Heretic Anthem (D10+) is a new drytooling route put up by Vitaliy Musiyenko this year in January. The inspiration for drytooling in Provo Canyon came from my drive going from Ouray to Bozeman in late February — I was motivated to consider giving a go on the Penitent Path (D9, 12p), a fully-bolted multipitch drytooling route accessible year-round. While looking at the surrounding area and looking for some beta, I came across The Heretic Anthem. I saw that the route was new and the allure of a double digit, bolted, drytooling route captured my imagination.

Alas, I had some commitments in Bozeman and was more than content to get back to Bingo Cave where Straits of Gibraltar (D9/10) awaited me — tauntingly as I previously struggled on the route in December. (link to past blog). Fortunately, my travels led me to meet Sam, a Bozeman-based climber, outside of a Family Dollar store in Munising, Michigan. Not only was he psyched on ice climbing in Hyalite Canyon, but he also shared a proclivity for scratching up some rocks — particularly on the rightmost side of Bingo Cave. With both of us wanting to send Straits this season, we made plans to get out to Bingo Cave and work the route together. I believe that this is one of the first routes that I’ve actually failed on, then come back to figure out the moves with the intentions of climbing the whole route without falling. The first realization I made was that I was wholly unprepared from my first time on the route in December. Although I physically went up the route (though that’s partially up for debate), I didn’t know the move sequences or even remember key holds. I effectively was back on the route with zero progress made from my past attempt.

I spent two sessions figuring out the route, identifying holds and refining the sequences of moves. The start is some technical vertical climbing on two cracks leading up to a short roof sequence that has poor feet. The final headwall involves some tenuous holds and managing pumped forearms on slightly overhung and runout climbing. The crux of the route is the roof which involves 2-3 moves that involves a hidden pocket and large-ish moves made even more challenging with awkward feet. I found that although the start of the route was quite vertical and not particularly challenging, I was expending too much energy and getting to the roof crux tired and ill-prepared for the headwall.

For my next session, I went with Sam to Bingo Cave — importantly, this was preceded by his help on changing the oil for my car. We decided to warm up on the beginning of Straits to dial in our beta to ensure that we got to the roof without expending unnecessary energy. After warming up, Sam made his redpoint attempt of the route. Going into the attempt, we decided that we shouldn’t take the day too seriously and injected a little bit of whimsy in the form of whimsical music. Starting up the route and making move after move, he eventually got past the roof and then took some time to shake out before continuing up the headwall. It was at this point that some intermittent snow flurries turned into full on hail with near whiteout conditions. While resting on the headwall of the route, Sam took off his right glove to grab a rock hold and found himself unable to put it back on. Committing fully to sending, he continued up the headwall slowly with a single glove. Although climbing the headwall is not technically challenging, the rock can be cryptic as it’s sometimes unclear how positive a hold is and whether or not it will hold if you place the pick in what is ostensibly a “good hold”. While climbing the headwall in hail, one of Sam’s tools blew, but he miraculously saved himself and managed to make it to the anchors. As I lowered Sam off the route, he was lowered to the ground to some of ABBA’s incredible and whimsical discography. It was now my turn.

The ideal climbing day is if both climbers are able to send their project — more so if it’s on back to back attempts. It turns out that climbing hard things is… well… hard. Fortunately I made relatively quick work up the entry, making it up to the route with plenty of energy to spare. I skipped a somewhat tenuous torque, opting instead to make a bigger move to a good hold. I was stretched out and saw few places to get good feet to make the next move. Hesitating and starting to get tired, I made a desperate attempt to get to the next hold which was a narrow slot with a small margin for error. In the process, my feet came out from underneath me and the only thing keeping me on the wall was one tool in my left hand. Miraculously, my right tool made it into the narrow slot and I managed to get my feet back on the wall. I was starting to feel my grip slipping and the next move was yet another big move from an awkward position where my feet were effectively at my chest. I tried shaking out and committed to making the next move to exit the roof and enter the final headwall in a flurry of snow. At this point, I had almost accepted the possibility that the overwhelming forearm pump would force me off the wall. Despite this, I somehow managed to hang on and started to make moves up the headwall, resting at each hold and rigorously testing each hold before committing my weight to that tool. Eventually, despite the forearms burning, I managed to clip the chains and it was over. Straits of Gibraltar was sent — it was desperate at times with a healthy amount of luck involved — but after 4 days on the route, I succeeded in making it to the anchors without falling.

The ideal climbing day was achieved so Sam and I celebrated with a lovely outing to the delectable establishment, Dairy Queen.

Rage with a hint of whimsy.

01 All roads lead to Utah

Okay so this is probably false, but while working on Straits of Gibraltar, I was concurrently making plans to head down to Utah to meet up with Christian, a climbing partner from New Hampshire. I sent Straits of Gibraltar on Saturday and the next day, I was driving down to Utah with the intentions of sampling the drytooling in Provo Canyon and sussing out the feasibility of an attempt on the Penitent Path. Completing Straits of Gibraltar gave me the confidence that perhaps I had a fighting chance on The Heretic Anthem. At the very least, I wanted to familiarize myself with the rock type and style being developed in Provo Canyon.

I arrived in Salt Lake City in the early evening and was made aware of a rescue situation involving Christian, a visit to the salt flats, a resulting flat tire, and a missing lug wrench. With the purely selfish motivation of needing a belayer for the next couple days, I drove out to deliver a lug wrench to Christian. A rather late night ensued and we had a pretty late start to the next morning, ultimately not doing any drytooling.

The next day, Tuesday, Christian and I drove down to Provo Canyon. We went up the trail to Bridal Veil Falls and engaged in some shenanigans as we attempted some trail-finding up scree and fixed lines. Eventually we got up past the falls and to the Voodoo Lounge. The approach was far more involved than we had expected, but we finally arrived to the destination where some drytooling would occur. In addition to The Heretic Anthem, Voodoo Lounge is home to the famed Santeria (M12, WI6) and Old Western Man (D13). There are also some more moderate routes in the D6-7 range to the left of the cave. Christian and I got on Voodoo Doll (D6) and Crystal Ball (D7) to warm up. The rock was chossy, but the routes both had some very fun, engaging movement. Sufficiently warm, it was time for us to get on the Heretic Anthem.

The route was admittedly steeper than the photos and beta videos suggested. The start involved a figure-nine to figure four sequence to get high enough to set the feet properly. After the start, there were some decently big moves requiring lots of core tension — there was even a neat stein involved in the overhung section of the climb. Entering the headwall, there was a cruxy move to a relatively hidden notch that, once found, was actually quite good. A few closely spaced drilled pockets led to a sideways stein that allowed access to one of the final holds on the route — high enough that one could clip the chains from this position.

My first attempt got me to the sixth draw which, admittedly, was much further than I was expecting. I managed to nearly clear the overhung section, but eventually pumped out, unable to find the hidden notch granting access to the headwall. After hanging on the rope for a little bit, I managed to make my way up the headwall, identifying the holds leading to the chains. Encouraged by how far I made it on my first attempt, Christian and I hung around a bit longer so that I could make a second attempt on the route. Unfortunately, I pumped out on the same exact spot as my first attempt and we descended to the car without a send.

02 Rejection of expectations

Projecting and eventually sending Straits of Gibraltar exceeded my expectations as I did not feel like I was prepared, physically or mentally, leading up to and even after the send. Furthermore, I probably would not have even imagined getting on a proposed D10+ the following week. Christian and I went back to Voodoo Lounge the next day and I opted to warm up on the ground and conserve my energy for a full-effort attempt on The Heretic Anthem.

The Heretic Anthem went down on my first attempt of the day. Dialing the moves the previous day and knowing where I needed to go made for relatively efficient climbing and although I was quite pumped at the chains, it felt nowhere near as desperate as my time on Straits. The two days I spent on the route started with a feeling of intimidation from the steepness and perceived size of each move. Once I got on the route for the first time, a small sliver of hope emerged as the moves were smaller and more reasonable than I had expected. This hope was tested as on my send attempt, I cut feet and was left hanging on one tool, wasting energy which could compromise making it to the top. I could have easily just given up on the route the moment my body started to strain and feel uncomfortable yet somehow I resisted the urge to let gravity win. I’m proud of the ascent but have been left questioning if this jump in grade within such a short span of time was possible.

03 D10+ is a big number

The climbing I have done in the past few weeks, particularly drytooling, is probably the farthest I’ve pushed myself physically on rock. Having spent the better part of a decade running competitively, I’ve definitely pushed myself further physically and mentally in races, but am hopefully approaching a point in my climbing where I can unlock the next level of effort required to “climb hard”. My drytooling resume is rather sparse; however I feel inclined to comment on the grade of The Heretic Anthem as my ascent, to the best of my knowledge, is the fourth ascent. My main reference for the D10 grade is Straits of Gibraltar which falls within the D9-10 range of difficulty — I’ve talked to various people that have sent the route and there is a bit of debate in the route being D9 or the low end of D10. Since I sent both routes within the span of a week, I feel like my physical fitness were very similar and don’t feel that my tactics or approach to the route would have appreciably improved such that D10+ would feel much easier.

From a pure relative perceived difficulty, I feel like Straits was a more challenging climb. The route was more technical and had far more moves off of tenuous holds. On the other hand, The Heretic Anthem had a more sustained level of power required to overcome the overhung section — there were a greater number of powerful moves required in a row. Straits can probably be characterized as a more endurance-focused route with a technical entry followed by a few bouldery, powerful moves, and ending in some sustained, overhung climbing.

Having climbed both routes and lacking general experience climbing in the D8-D11 grade range, the following opinions should be taken with some caveats.

I think that The Heretic Anthem is likely closer to a D9+ as it did not feel like a step up in difficulty compared to Straits of Gibraltar. It is also possible that the sustained, powerful moves required of The Heretic Anthem suits my strengths as I haven’t trained pure endurance or tenuous, technical climbing quite as much — this could be further supported as my climbing partner, Christian, struggled a lot on the bigger moves despite him having over half a foot on me whereas he excelled on the vertical, technical climbing outside of the cave.

There are also the additional caveats of The Heretic Anthem having manufactured, drilled pockets while the climbing in Hyalite Canyon and Bingo Cave as an extension are all natural holds. The rock type — although probably just classified as choss by rock climbers — is differently featured which leads to some varied movement that can augment the perceived difficulty on a route.

Update (3/26/26): I was informed that only about 3 pockets were drilled on The Heretic Anthem — most of which were located on the start and overhung section of the climb.

Ultimately the grades we propose are generally arbitrary numbers we assign towards the “difficulty” of a climb. The Alpinist magazine does provide a more objective view of mixed and dry grades proposing that D/M9 is, “Either continuously vertical or slightly overhanging with marginal or technical holds, or a juggy roof of 2 to 3 body lengths.” while D/M10 is, “At least 10 meters of horizontal rock or 30 meters of overhanging dry tooling with powerful moves and no rests”.

Based off of these definitions, I feel that The Heretic Anthem does not contain enough overhung or horizontal rock to deserve a D10+ grading. There were some manageable rests throughout and the route was less than 30 meters in length with substantially less than 30 meters of overhanging, powerful drytooling. An argument could be made that D10- might be a more apt grade; however, these definitions would also put Straits in the D9 grade which personally felt more challenging.

In the end, I still do not know what D10 should feel like and I believe the solution will be climbing more routes that are either easier or more difficult. Woe is me whom must climb more to learn more about what grades mean — who would have thought….

I am incredibly stoked to have gotten on such a fun route and my perception of its difficulty should in no way take away from the experience of climbing in a chossy cave above the gorgeous Bridal Veil Falls. My main takeaway is that two days was simply not enough to fully experience the drytooling offered in Utah — I didn’t even get out of the Voodoo Lounge! This trip and the experiences I had both on and off the route are ones that stoke the fire for more climbing and more adventures.

04 Epilogue

I am close to wrapping up my time in Bozeman; however, as this chapter closes, I anticipate a return to Montana — this return may in fact be slightly more permanent… The road to Hyalite Canyon closes on April 1st (alas, I will be the only fool here), but I do have a little project that I’m hoping to make progress on before that happens. In other news, I had a pretty fun day trip out to Yellowstone this past week where bison were aplenty.

My upcoming plans involve quite a bit of rock climbing as the weather warms and I get more inspired to climb anything that isn’t choss. If the foreshadowing wasn’t evident, I still have one more drytooling project in Provo that I’d like to take a stab at before really going all in on rock climbing — I even purchased #4, #5, and #6 cams to show my commitment to the bit.