Weekend Whipper: First Trad Fall … in a Chasm?!

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A climber’s ideal first trad fall—or, at least, the safest possible first trad fall—takes place on bomber gear with a clean landing.

That wasn’t quite the case for Joshua Johnson, who decided to take his first-ever fall on gear on Heart of Darkness (5.11a), a popular warm-up in Joshua Tree.

Heart of Darkness ascends a 40-foot splitter up a chimney that’s too wide for a full-body bridge. That means any climber...