BURSTOn March 24, Evan Hau redpointed Death of Villains 5.15a (9a+) at the Hurricave in Utah. It was the second route of the grade for the 39-year-old Calgary-based climber.
Death of Villains is a variation of Joe Kinder’s Life of Villains 5.14d. After the first half of Life of Villains – including the crux of that route – Death of Villians heads through a long horizontal roof encountering a series of resistant boulder problems. The final crux of the route is shared with The Activator 5.14d. Kinder bolted Death of Villains but it was Kai Lightner who made the first ascent February 2024. Tyler Thompson sent the route last month.
Hau’s sport climbing resume is unmatched in Canada. In 2020, he became the first Canadian to tick 5.15a with his ascent of Sacrifice, a route he originally bolted in Echo Canyon, Alberta. He shared the route with a visiting Adam Ondra in 2018, who made the first ascent. Hau has many 5.14d first ascents and repeats to his name. In 2013, he sent his first of the grade, Bunda de Fora at Acephale. He repeated Life of Villains back in 2019. He has five 5.14d first ascents, the most recent being Queen Bee Direct at the Bow Valley’s Coliseum in October.
To learn more about his send of Death of Villains, I reached out to Hau. You can read our interview below.
Interview with Evan Hau
In an interview with Climbing, Kai Lightner described Death of Villains as 60 feet of 5.13 to a rest followed by V10 and V9 boulders. After that, you get a rest before the final roof section, which starts with a V8 and ends with a low-percentage V10. Do you agree with his assessment? How long is the route in total?
Death of Villains is 20 bolts long, starting with a gentle overhang and getting progressively steeper with much of the climb being in a horizontal roof. I climbed it with a 70m rope. The route starts with an intro 5.13a section followed by a really good knee bar. From there the route really starts with multiple cruxes mixed in with really bad rests. I don’t boulder enough to give accurate V-grades for the cruxes but after sorting out the sequence, I was able to do the individual moves consistently in isolation. The main difficulty of the route comes in the power endurance to link the entire climb. I found I was not able to rest all that well anywhere on the route other than the first good knee bar and my strategy was to just power straight through nearly the entire climb once I left the knee bar.
Where was your redpoint crux?
Once I started making links, I mostly made improvements every day and got a little bit higher. Near the top, there is a big deadpoint move into a slot over the lip of the cave. As a single move, I didn’t find it too bad, but early on, I had a lot of trouble doing this move even linking just a few moves into it. I had to spend a lot of time figuring out micro beta to make the move more reliable and actually possible climbing into it pumped. Part of what I discovered about the move is that I needed to throw as hard as I could instead of trying to finesse it to save energy for the moves that come afterwards. I knew the move would give me trouble from the ground but luckily I only fell there twice before sending.
You said on Instagram that the climb made your triceps so sore that you’d sometimes need two rest days to recover. What was it about the climb made it so taxing on the triceps?
Death of Villains worked my triceps like no route has ever done before. Even if everything else felt great, my triceps would still be a little sore. The nature of the climb involves taking a few holds as gastons and also some violent cut loose swings on those holds at times. I even changed my sequence and made some moves a little bit harder to avoid using my triceps too much in order to allow myself more days and more tries on the route and also to save my triceps for elsewhere on the climb.
You also said on Instagram that you spent a lot of time in the gym and taking rest days. What did a typical projecting week look like for you?
We tried to plan our climbing days around the weather. If a day with good conditions looked like it was coming up, I made sure to take a rest day the day before, with either a hard projecting session on Death of Villains or a gym session the day before the rest day.
At 39, how has your projecting style changed compared to when you were younger?
When I was younger, I used to try to climb every day if I could. In 2013 when I was trying Bunda de Fora, which would end up becoming my first 5.14d redpoint and was definitely limit for me at the time, I went up to Acephale to work on it 10 days in a row. I would never get on my project 10 days in a row anymore. I still try as hard as I can when I’m out there but I take a lot more rest days now, primarily to avoid injury.
What was the send day like? How did you feel during the send attempt?
I knew I was getting close and any day could be the day. I made sure to take a relaxing rest day the day before. I have a lot of projecting experience now and I’m usually pretty calm before a redpoint try and I try to focus on enjoying the climbing and the route. I felt great at the knee bar rest, and proceeded through the first crux. With my sequence, there is a delicate move that often results in my feet cutting, wasting valuable energy for the rest of the climb. Every now and then, I execute the move perfectly and on the send go I was able to keep my foot to stay to avoid the cut.
Nearing the midway point of the route, I felt the freshest I had ever felt from the ground and thought I could maybe push for a new high point. I was a little surprised when I stuck the deadpoint move to the lip, but there are still three hard moves after that before the route is essentially over. It’s definitely possible to fall on any of those three moves, and I almost did as my left foot slipped on a hard-to-see slot hold but I was able to hold the cut and get my heel back on to finish it off!
Tyler Thompson on Life of Villains 5.14d
Evan Hau’s second ascent of Sacrifice 5.15a
The post Canadian Evan Hau Talks His Ascent of Death of Villains 5.15a appeared first on Gripped Magazine.