Jon Cardwell climbs with „Z-Nation“ (9a) the hardest route in the Wicked Cave at Rifle Mountain Park Rock (Colorado).

Jon explains: “The route starts on „Zulu“ (5.14-), climbing the first bouldery seven bolts to a good rest, from there you traverse left via an old Andy Rather link-up called Kuru (which connected „The Crew“ (5.14c) into „Zulu“ via a difficult boulder problem). This version reverses that boulder problem, which in my opinion is much more difficult, something like V10 or V11. From there, you’re in The Crew with no rest for couple bolts before connecting into „Bad Girls Club“ (5.14d), you climb on that until the end – which includes the final crux boulder problem.”

Photos: (c) bearcam