70 | Ordinarily Extraordinary Part II w/ Evan Wisheropp

The Climbing Majority

Today, we are continuing our conversation with Evan Wisheropp. If you missed part one, I highly recommend checking it out first. It provides a foundation for understanding who Evan is as a climber and how he achieved the objectives we’re discussing today.

In this episode, we’ll dive into Evan’s two main passions: desert offwidth splitters and route development.

First, we’ll discuss Evan’s recent send of The Cleaver, a 13b offwidth roof crack that, as Evan puts it, "contains all the hardest transitions of sizes that offwidth can offer, jumping from a splitter #2 to a #6 in less than 10 feet." We chat about the logistics and skills involved in sending not only this particular climb but all offwidths. We’ll also dive into his next offwidth project, an extension to the infamous Belly Full of Bad Berries.

Next, we’ll explore Evan’s passion for route development. Initially, Evan started developing routes because he ran out of 5.12s to climb in his local area. This quest for more climbs turned into a huge passion. Over the last nine years, he has established an impressive 475 routes in the Northwest region of California, investing nearly $60,000 of his own money. Many of these areas remain largely unknown to the public, offering hundreds of cleaned, bolted classic routes up to grade 5.13 with only a handful of ascents.

Evan lives near the Redwoods, the largest trees in the world, situated on the Pacific coastline. His local crags are nestled in these magical areas, featuring rocky coastlines and massive Jurassic trees towering hundreds of feet tall. He recently published a guidebook for these areas, which you can check out in the show notes.

Our conversation with Evan is a reminder of how much we can take for granted as climbers. We often show up to a climb that has been found, cleaned, and bolted, and leave without a thought of all the work that went into making that happen and who that person was. We feel honored to tell Evan’s story and hope to spread some awareness, not only of his accomplishments and significant contributions to the sport of climbing but to route developers everywhere.

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Cover Photo: @amanda_paints
Resources
The Cleaver
Evan's Instagram
Evan's Youtube
A Climbers Guide to Northwest California
Evan's Photography

Chapter

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. The Cleaver (00:02:48)

3. Route Development (00:23:47)

4. Future Projects (00:40:18)