At Niagra Glen, native NY state hitman, 25-year-old Ian Irving, established arguably the hardest line, in Zozobra (V12), on April 30. “This isn’t a bullshit line,” says Irving. “I remember seeing it when I first started climbing ... I was just blown away.  I worked it over three months, seven or eight attempts a day, three weekends a month, and got so close, but it’s a hard, mental line.  At the crux -- 18 feet up a 45-degree wall -- you look right and see rocks and sticks down a 20-foot gully you’re gonna fall in if you swing out. I was scared out of my mind when I did it.”

 Irving, a full-time concrete worker and mason, has recently sent a slew of hard problems, including a V11 flash of Get Awesome, a line established by Ivan Greene in the ‘Gunks.