Watch A Flash Ascent of this Notoriously Brutal 5.13 Offwidth

Belly Full of Bad Berries. If you can name but one offwidth, this is likely it.

The 80-foot 5.13 splitter is found at the Critic’s Choice wall, in Indian Creek, Utah. Since its first ascent by Brad Jackson, Belly Full of Bad Berries has received only one flash ascent (by Pete Whittaker in 2011) despite strong attempts by Alex Honnold and Adam Ondra.

Now Mari Salvesen, a strong all-rounder from Norway, has made the second flash which Whittaker described as “a massively significant ascent in offwidth climbing, crack climbing and women’s trad climbing.” He told Climbing: “In terms of style of ascent and the list of people who have failed to match this achievement … it’s significant.”

Tom Randall, a leading UK trad climber who belayed the ascent, later wrote, “[It was] a total pleasure to watch such a great effort of gnarly determination, route reading skill, and offwidth grind. I’m pretty sure she had to invert at least another third of the route compared to me and Pete, which makes it even more impressive. Hard size for Mari for sure.”

Despite the additional inverting, Salvesen said that offwidthing, unlike any other type of climbing, can be overcome with excessive amounts of grit and desire. “It’s so easy but at the same time really hard work. You can basically not fall off unless you give up … and you can always manage to keep the tension for just a little bit longer,” she later wrote on Planetmountain.com.