Brent Perkins climbing Proper Soul 5.14a (On Gear)

[@hecuter]

"And if you do fall and that cam blows, you're taking a nasty ride, probably hitting some trees". *starts to rain*

[@chasephillips970]

Most impressive part is he did it with his shirt on.

[@EvanMatthews86]

After the first crux I'm like "cool, he did it." Then the route continues for 75 more feet of ridiculously hard climbing X_X

[@Turnoutburndown]

It's so sustained it's insane!

[@alphazuluz]

This is easily the most impressive single pitch climbing video I've ever seen. Well done sir.

[@RonvinceBom]

my thoughts exactly

[@2rfg949]

it's up there - Dave MacLeod on Rhapsody is pretty intense as well. A lot of massive whippers on a tiny shitty piece.

[@Jaces87]

@@2rfg949 I agree, also Arnaud Petit on Black Bean is even crazier than both I think.

[@Wtylerosborne]

Bonus points for dragging those huge balls up with you. #TwoArmLoadsOfSlackAndRunDownTheHill

[@camjcasey]

For real, this is some next level shit.

[@ambrose13]

Matt Meyers How does one onsight something they've already climbed on bolts?

[@vashusan1984]

I don't know how many times I've watched this, but it leaves me both speechless and breathless every, single, time. Incredible Ascent!

[@Jaces87]

Same, wish I could multi-like it !

[@NPC-fl3gq]

Dang, howcome the algorithm waited 9 years to show me this!? Awesome content, dude!! Interesting cam/slling setup.

[@peterherbert6000]

What a fantastic bit of climbing real spirit of the 80s and 90s thanks for sharing

[@pockethero87]

This guy is an animal, Definitely my favorite climbing video

[@jdschlandt4843]

Easily one of the best videos. I have watched this so many times. Well done Brent

[@johnsmith5946]

Great editing, nice to see the sequencing making visual sense and not cutting away at crucial moments..really nicely done.

[@rknewell9547]

I was like "CLIP THE BOLT, CLIP THE BOLT" ...... proud lead

[@jasonsterner922]

Way to crush it Brent!!! What a beautiful line!!!

[@KeyesAnthony]

people are getting all salty in the comments about how "its already bolted, so why would he trad?"... a major part of climbing is the challenge, and doing this route on trad is just taking the challenge to the next level. He obviously has done the bolted route enough times that he felt that he needed to take it to the next level, and he succeeded, so hats off to him.

[@semmtexx]

KeyesAnthony in my opinion, you shouldn’t go climbing a bolted line on gear most of the time. You run the risk of a fall causing gear to change the character of the features. Think if he had fallen on a stopper and welded it in a crucial hold that someone else finds to be necessary for them to send it? Not to mention that second #1 he placed. It looked sort of like a semi attached flake. I could be wrong, but a fall can cause a cam to dislodge very large features. This is arrogance and boredom in my opinion.

[@hamishdonohoe8801]

In my opinion you shouldn’t bolt a route that can be protected on gear, unless you’re Ondra and no one else can do it

[@semmtexx]

Hamish Donohoe that kind of hindsight doesn’t apply to climbing. You bolt a route and make a first ascent, your legacy stands. It deserves to be kept the same as when the FA was done for the most part, barring any kind of extreme circumstances. Just like it would be fucked up to bolt a trad line.

[@daas3465]

​@@hamishdonohoe8801 agree with your opinion

[@johns3106]

@semmtexx And placing bolts that permanantly alter both the rock and the character of the climb isn't arrogance?! Please! Climbing trad (I.e.; working with what the rock offers) is always preferable to bolting and bringing the challenge down to a "manageable" level!

[@foreveroutside9405]

I got tired just watching! GREAT VIDEO!

[@vincentminutelli3454]

queue the rain at the top out, how epic!

[@patrikbritt7725]

awesome video, i like to see the whole climb. Insane, this dude is seriously strong.

[@jackjeffries6872]

thats truly world class

[@maswaim1]

Favorite climbing video ever

[@hartdaniel224]

Wow, my hands were totally sweating by the end. Impressive!

[@AndrewRileypieceofthepie]

This is insane

[@jamescampbell2521]

Do not watch if you hope to on-sight, too late for me, har har. Awesome job ; guys a beast !

[@nop_nop_nop_nop_nop]

my hands are drenched.

[@BmP654RdB]

That was so sick! Really good climbing man. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@unknownboulder1205]

so pumped while watching this ...

[@damianoscibilia18]

such a great climber, the pitch was extremely long too!! grat job, kudos

[@kevinturner6621]

What a great vid - really showing ballsy trad climbing - impressive stuff.

[@davidcuevas4792]

Incredible! What a privilege to watch. Thank you so much! Climb On, david

[@brannonslice5839]

That was an awesome video and awesome climbing!

[@pok3ypup]

Met this guy out at Horseshoe canyon once. Really nice guy.

[@chriswyatt66]

Seriously impressed. Well done

[@Hubluc]

Freakin long! Big balls. Respect.

[@ecoidea100]

Wow absolutely impressive!

[@climberly]

"Hate to fall on it, never did fall on it, thank god." lol, best desc of a tiny cam ever!

[@christianmeadows5926]

Nice work homie! Very impressive! Keep making vids

[@mkadlec99]

Awesome stuff, although I'm confused with his comments of "really runout", it looked like he got pretty good pieces every 10 feet or so.

[@bman6065]

I know this was a while ago but it's my first time seeing it. Pretty impressive in meeting Mr Perkins who is one of the most laid back people and seeing this kind of intensity and commitment. Really don't understand what people are trying to pick this apart for except a handful of climbers being "hard ass" trolls. But that's unfortunately typical I suppose.

[@aaronwain1490]

One of the best climbing videos I've seen!! So awesome and inspiring!!

[@dalpes303]

Strong work!!

[@skatingisbetter67]

this boys oofs and spoofs finna blow my speakers out

[@2rfg949]

woke up my girlfriend lol

[@badnews9312]

love to see hard guys foregoing bolts and relying on only gear they place - big up to this dude///// and on a 5.14 to boot - I climb low 11s on my on gear and am quite proud of myself.......I can't even climb bolted routes above 12a-b with a lot of hang dogging at that - what this guy accomplished is world class climbing to be sure!!!!

[@ryanfrank5339]

Sick, amazing south eastern sandstone badass

[@music4lifesux]

That was INSANE

[@JonBender3]

Woah... is it raining at the end?

[@paulmitchell5349]

Excellent tradding. Being an ancient Brit ,I did see a few decent placements that you missed out.

[@crisgarcia4400]

god damn! badass climb but were the placements really 25 feet apart? seemed a little safer than that haha awesome job man!

[@MrTradisrad]

I was camped at Roger's with Brent...I was like bolts dude...later on a bolt failed on the same climb...got unscrewed from the overhang

[@justinjakimiak1998]

RIP DPM

[@robduncan7409]

Hes so strong!!

[@badnews9312]

classic kneebar before the final bit of gear at the top of the dihedral - what a great climb!!

[@andrewbmaher9443]

rain send! wow

[@gritlup2089]

That's INSANE!

[@nathanpaluck]

impressive. brave.

[@davidgreen4450]

kudos

[@dvannasing]

badass!!

[@garrettbrannon7391]

Hellz yeah

[@bboyHarrypotter]

for a climber at his level im surprised he's recalling those runouts as being 20 - 25ft. They were more like 10 - 15ft at most.

[@dmtabke]

True, but if he’s using a 48” runner for example, the protection point is actually at least that far below the gear placement. Add the slack and stretch in the rope and he would fall way further than twice the distance he is above the gear should he blow it... A 15’ runout between gear could easily be a 45’+ fall... So a little exaggeration is warranted imho ;-)

[@bboyHarrypotter]

@@dmtabke Yeah definitely. The runout was about 15' at maximum extent from the previous 48" runner, but at that point in the route there's gotta be way more slack in the rope so a fall could easily be around 30-40 ft.

[@johnbrown8074]

Unreal

[@kingkikapu22]

Cool move 4:16 Lots of chalk

[@kylenichols5256]

this is seriously so fucking crazy

[@jorgevazquez9131]

Bruh... i like climbing but you are insane, if this was the first climbing video i ever saw i would not be climbing, i swear lmao

[@ParanoidLemming]

Awesome climbing. Funny hearing BD name-dropped so many times, tryin to move some pro, eh?

[@justinjakimiak1998]

John Muir-Addleman I doubt BD paid him anything for this, most likely he just mentions it because the specific gear used is important on hard gear lines

[@brentperkins3902]

Hahaa ya. my rack was and still is sketchy old. Was hoping for a pro deal or something... hahaaaa didn't work out

[@kirylb2331]

Hi Brent. Hope you are aware that this video is frequently referred to as "The best climbing video ever made." I certainly believe it's up there and have watched at least a half-dozen times.

[@paulhutton3366]

I watch this video at least once every season out of the year. You keep putting yourself through that pain on the same route is masochism. And you seem so chill in your intro and commentary.

[@lillidel1935]

@@brentperkins3902 best video EVER dude and Ive seen em all. if you ever in the south of france i can show you round

[@bucketofguts]

I guess you get to chop the bolts after?

[@varutsubchareon6743]

so, kind of a rookie question. super new to climbing. how does he remove the gear? does he rappel and do it on the way down? and how would he get the last piece of gear used to rappel down? or does his friend follow him and remove it as he goes? and what does he use for protection?

[@ryant5672]

He rappels down, he clipped the chains at the top that most likely have permadraws, but if not it has rap rings which he will be able to rap off of and get his gear. Then he would pull his rope through on the ground. It would no doubt be a little tricky to clean all the gear easily because its slighty overhanging, but nothing a quickdraw on the rope can't fix!

[@christianj.correapagan9861]

Fucking nice send man!

[@honda_civic_sport_fk7_2017]

just watching you make my hands sweat

[@wheelbegood]

Hardcore.. Wow

[@herdpm1]

WOW

[@Strade8]

What´s the point in not using the bolts that are already there?

[@brentperkins3902]

There is no point. Throughout my years of climbing i have often repeated lines using gear instead of bolts. IDK... Just wanted to see if it goes clean on gear.

[@largeformatlandscape]

Wrong question. Correct question should be “why bolt a route which you can climb on gear”

[@ethanjohnson9425]

That’s fucking unreal!

[@lstanners]

V Impressive. A. it sounded like you were near your limit, which is always impressive on natural gear (I'm a woose and climb Waaaaay below my peak on gear). And b. It must of been V tempting to clip any number of those shiny beacons of bolty safety. :o) and c. in the rain at the top!!!

[@dberger26]

Absolute badass!

[@kentonanderson3089]

fuckin hell this is awesome

[@dariocarafa3788]

I know I'm not there climbing but I feel like I see so many placements. There's horizontal cracks all over the place and little pods and vertical cracks again I'm not there so maybe they aren't usable but looks like there's placements to me

[@davidgreen4450]

Bold

[@carlosmario]

effing scary climb, i might say.

[@KingRhino29]

the overhang on this thing 😶

[@nathanballentyne]

How is that route only 14a sheeesh

[@superdeluxesmell]

Savage

[@olliebarker9979]

Wonder what this would get in British trad grades.

[@largeformatlandscape]

E7/8?

[@kylenichols5256]

God damn

[@rushthezeppelin]

Is it just me or doesn't he exaggerate almost every single bit of runout on this climb? Don't get me wrong there is some runout there but it doesn't seem as big as he keeps saying it is.

[@anosnd]

Ok Nigel. Go ahead and tell us all about your gritstone.

[@teagueholmes944]

Thats a goofy thing to say

[@acommenter5184]

It seemed so to me - but he's there, I'm not, and it is what it is.

[@arthurwright1433]

It's overhanging and the video is shot from above so it doesn't really do justice to the length of climbing between the runouts.

[@jal8822]

tell us about the runout after you've climbed that pitch

[@yannchevrier-foundy5063]

faawwwwwkinnn maaaaad brrrruuhh

[@bullionsean456]

Sick video and nicely done...but there’s no way in hell thats “25 ft” of runout between gear.

[@bhgraf08]

Holy Fuck

[@홍명표-j2w]

멋있다....

[@sam_metal]

fucking crazy

[@johns3106]

Man...if this was the Gunks, you'd never see all the bolts near good gear placements!

[@sma91dc78]

this is also 5.14

[@johns3106]

@Mullac Odw Yep...and it was climbed without clipping any of those bolts...exactly my point! Some climbs should be "saved" until someone shows up with the vision and boldness to do the first ascent on gear. Yea, this guy may have needed to bolts to get the moves wired before this "trad" ascent, but at some point in the future, someone will have the ability to do a first ascent on rock like this, placing their own gear on-sight. I just think it would be nice if there were some unbolted lines left for these future climbers to showcase their abilities. Many years ago the Gunks community decided that this was a good idea, and as a result, there are some VERY hard lines there that are done with dicey natural pro.

[@sma91dc78]

@@johns3106 what if I climb 5.14, look up see this awesome line and want to climb it because like nearly everybody I'm no superhuman hard trad freak. In my opinion better to keep hard routes like these bolted to please 100s of passionate climbers than to please those 5 superhuman climbers in 20 years that aren't even born yet

[@johns3106]

@Mullac Odw What if I'm NOT a 5.14 climber, but I wan't to climb that line anyway...so; I chip holds, put in retro-bolts so I can aid it etc., etc. Hey, it is all to please me and the other climbers that may not have world-class skills, but want to get up this line anyway...Nope; I'd rather have it left for the few that can do it "legitimately".

[@sma91dc78]

@@johns3106 because ethics, chipping is frowned upon, if its not very clearly a line that will take gear (basically if theres little cracks and breaks) and its as hard as 5.14 bolt it. if its clearly a hard 5.14 crack climb leave it clean of course, but this guys only placing micro cams and running out 30 feet between very small crack features

[@davehause8571]

Cruising, placing gear and blows past the bail biner.

[@itsame4002]

Epic as fuck dude!!

[@markdavidsonjewell]

wooowww.

[@badnews9312]

good for you man - wish there were more climbers like ya - my local crag has been ruined with a bolting craze these past fifteen years or so.....lines I put up trad in the 80s with lots of bomber gear now have bolts every five feet....I have thought about chopping them but I don't want to start some war with a bunch of kids - I am now in my 50s and I guess if the majority want to be safe who am i to dictate the rules but I do believe they should not have the right to alter an established route. When I put up a route 35 years ago that went trad, no one should be allowed to alter it to a sport climb without my permission - that is how I see it anyway.....in the guide book it even has some young kids name on it as the first ascent.....these youngins have no respect for those of us who spent years of summers cleaning these routes of loose rock and vegitation so they can climb there today - definitely the ME generation - more power to ya brother - great ethics and some fantastic climbing!

[@shockey957]

You wrote a novel on how great you are...yet somehow we're the "me" generation? Get over it and move on man.

[@lukemoorefield9596]

Its like you think YOU own the route.... and you don't

[@jamesbailey9386]

No retro bolting of established lines period, that’s the way it rolls.

[@davidgreen4450]

fuck'em, chop'em

[@johns3106]

@Simeon Deming He could have rehearsed it on top rope, just like the sport climbers and rap bolters did! Let's not say that bolts are absolutely necessary on this line!

[@robduncan7409]

He's nothing shy of impressive, that really inspired me haha, but it's a little depressing to think about the fact that sharma onsighted that... there are people out there that good lol, what am i even doing? JK, I climb because it's what I love to do and it helps me to know that I'm always pushing myself to something greater than I already am, but some people are absurdly good, its not fair lol

[@robduncan7409]

I'm aware, Sharma sport climbed it, but onsighting 5.14 is also a completely different level of skill. Like I said Brent Perkins is nothing shy of impressive and I by no means was trying to downplay what he did. Ive never trad climbed and I dont know that I ever will, seems too sketchy to me. So the fact that he trad climbed something that difficult is incredible, my bad if I was misunderstood.

[@robduncan7409]

Gabriel Lando Maybe when Im MUCH MUCH MUCH better at climbing haha

[@thepowpowkitty]

Chop the bolts?

[@sweatfootm]

No. Dumb idea. "See. I went up this route using bolts, figured out the moves using bolts, saw some shit gear placements next to the bolts I was using so let's chop it so everyone has to use the sketch gear that I had the benefits of finding while on bolts."

[@phanders2022]

Real guts. Rather watch this than a 5.15 with fixed bolts every two metres any day. As an old timer I'd recommend a helmet, a big leader fall could break a lot of repairable bones but smashing your skull is the real danger. But - good you again.

[@torreyintahoe]

Thank you for calling it "gear" and not trad gear. I fricken hate that term.

[@jfmcnees]

This guy is a freak...running out 25 feet on a 00 after a V7 horizontal traverse....what!

[@robduncan7409]

There's bolts...

[@paulheimweh]

is it 5.14a because of the trad climb? i see only biiig big holds. maybe 4 small ones, some heel hooks..but i dont understand why its so upper graded?

[@WishboneJr]

It's a sport route my guy.

[@bman6065]

It's a 5.14 because that's what it is. Climb it and tell me how soft it is