Dan Mirsky Sends ‘Flex Luthor’ (and Tentatively Downgrades It)

Dan Mirsky, 41, just had the best week of his career. On November 18, Mirsky, who is based in Carbondale, Colorado, finished off the iconic Flex Luthor in the Fortress of Solitude. Days later, he clipped the chains on Diarrhea Mouth (5.14d), in Rifle.

Dispatched in 2003 by Tommy Caldwell, Flex Luthor was America’s first proposed 5.15a. It went unrepeated for 18 years, gaining lore and mystique, before, in 2021, it was upgraded by Matty Hong and then Carlo Traversi to 5.15b after they nabbed the second and third ascents. When Jonathan Siegrist made the fourth ascent, he—somewhat characteristically—downgraded it, calling it “soft” 5.15a on 8a.nu. 

Mirsky began working Flex in November last year after having sent three other 5.14d’s (Fat Camp, Fat Club, and Planet Garbage, all in Rifle, across the preceding years). He only had a few dry days on Flex before holds began seeping and then hosting icicles. “Ultimately, the wet weather ended my campaign, but I felt like I was pretty close on it last year,” says Mirsky. It didn’t dry until June the following year. 

This past fall, Mirsky began punching back in on the route, logging just a few days in October and in November before sending on the Saturday leading up to Thanksgiving.

His process on Flex was admittedly quick. “It really suited me in style,” he says. And it helped that he found different beta than what he thinks Hong, Traversi, Siegrist, and Nicholas Milburn used—a hybrid between their sequence through the crux and what Caldwell remembers doing. From a left-hand pinch above a left kneebar, Hong and others popped their left hand up again onto a pinch block (start the video of Siegrist at 7:49), before moving right via a series of right hand bumps and a right toe hook, and then moving back left. Mirsky, however, found that after bumping his left foot up from the kneebar, he could match the pinch block and place another left kneebar. He’d then execute a few more hand moves off the kneebar before joining the same sequence as everyone else. “It made the section more consistent,” he says. “Or, at least, it fit me really well.”

After some deliberation, Mirsky logged the send on 8a.nu, giving it hard 5.14d.

“Downgrading it was a tough decision. I want to have climbed 5.15a, and I’m still torn about it. I think it’s easy to say something’s easy, or like an easier grade when it fits you well. And that route turned into some pretty technical kneebar bouldering for me, and I’m pretty good at that. It didn’t feel like the hardest thing that I had done physically. Because I don’t have any other reference points for climbing 5.15, I don’t know. But I don’t think it felt like the hardest route I’ve ever done. … I figured adding to the conversation was better than just taking the given grade.”

Mirsky contrasted it with Diarrhea Mouth, established by Joe Kinder in 2018, which he began working in the spring of 2022. D-Mouth, he says, was much more physically demanding and “a style that really doesn’t suit me particularly well. For Flex, I didn’t really feel like I was needing to build strength, power, or fitness, but rather the technical precision of executing my beta.” Overall, his campaign against D-Mouth was significantly longer than for Flex, but weather was a consistent part of the challenge—the route remained mostly wet for nearly a year, beginning from October 2022. 

Mirsky got a late start to his climbing career, picking up the sport at age 19 in college. After graduating in 2005, climbing took center stage in his life. He’s since had an impressively consistent career, sending his first 5.14b in 2010, his first 5.14c in 2012, and his first 5.14d in 2018. Progress, he says, has come from two hard-learned tactics. 1) Balance blocks of time spent outside with training periods. And on the days he is outside, he tries to balance projecting with more training; after a few burns on the main rig, he’ll do a few more burns on a route a step or two below it, preferably on a route that’s familiar or in his style. 2) Climbing a host of routes that aren’t in his style before progressing to the next grade. “That was part of my frustration in trying D-Mouth, but I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a climber from putting in the effort to do that,” he says. “And that makes something like Flex, which does suit me really well, feel not as bad because I’m finally allowing myself to play to my strengths.”

Next spring, Mirsky is excited to begin trying Kinder Cakes (5.15a), which adds a harder start before merging with the crux of D-Mouth and then exiting to a harder finish.

Watch uncut footage of Mirsky on Flex Luthor and Diarrhea Mouth here. 

Also Read:

• By Dan Mirsky: How To Climb Harder Without Getting Stronger…Visualize!

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