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Dean Potter on Zen Garden, near Moab, Utah. “If I push hard enough, maybe I can widen this @#%&! crack!” Photo by Dean Fidelman / Stonenudes.com

Dean Potter has completed a 40-foot sandstone roof problem near his Moab, Utah, home that he called “definitely the hardest roof crack that I know of.” Potter said Zen Garden is a 29-move power-endurance test along an undulating finger and hand crack, ending with an insecure mantel. The problem, off Moab’s Potash Road, also has a highball feel: “Though only about 20 feet high, it tops out right above a tree and feels quite scary,” Potter said.

As to difficulty, Potter said, “I don’t grade anything I climb other than with adjectives,” but he said the route is “a giant step up from the Crack House,” the 80-foot roof crack near Moab that he first climbed a decade ago. Crack House is generally given 5.13a.

Date of Ascent: February 2008

Sources: Dean Potter, Dean Fidelman

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