Connor Runge and Anna Hazelnutt Get First and Second Ascents on Belly of the Beast (5.14b/8c) in El Salto
Anna Hazelnutt is known for many things—turquoise hair, a strong sense of humor, her memorable last name.* But most of all, perhaps, she is known as the spokesperson of slab. Hazelnutt has sent 5.14a slab. She teaches people how to climb slab. She even sells “Slab Is Sexy” stickers on Etsy.
But last week, Hazelnutt swapped crimps and microscopic crystals for a mega steep route that pushed her grade to 5.14b on Belly of the Beast. This is the eighth and most difficult pitch of El Chamán Loco, the project Hazelnutt has taken on this winter with Canadian climber Connor Runge in El Salto, Mexico.
Runge’s Project: Freeing El Chamán Loco
Until Runge and Hazelnutt hopped on El Chamán Loco in January, this 14-pitch route had never been fully free climbed. The route was first established in 2015 by three Italian climbers, but they aided three of the pitches due to the sustained difficulty.
Since Runge started coming to El Salto a few years ago, he’d been eyeing the wall at a distance. While climbing on Las Animas wall, where he could see the Chamán Wall quite clearly, he recalls: “I would look over at the Shaman Wall and be like, ‘What is up with that?’” Then when the Italians rebolted the route a few years ago, Runge’s curiosity turned to commitment. “It would be so cool to go free those pitches,” he says of the three pitches yet to be free climbed.
So Runge slid into fellow Rab-sponsored climber Hazelnutt’s DMs and proposed the project. After gut-checking their compatibility on a climb in Colorado, the two convened in El Salto in January.
Aside from a week off the wall due to weather, Runge and Hazelnutt climbed more or less every other day or two in January. Runge spent a lot of time cleaning up the climb and breaking off loose rock. By the end of the month, he’d managed to free every pitch of El Chamán Loco (proposed grade 5.14b/8c).
“I feel super stoked with what I’ve done,” Runge says. While he was hoping to tackle a sub-24 hour free ascent of El Chamán Loco this past weekend, a knee injury has pushed that objective to the end of February.
But Runge remains happy with what he accomplished—and to have gotten to know Hazelnutt on the project. He’s learned a lot from her—namely, how to chill: “She’s really into sleeping in and I’m super intense (according to Anna). I’ve been more chill. It’s really nice to share big goals, small goals, or nice experiences with friends. It’s not about doing it on my own, it’s about the people you meet along the way.”
Hazelnutt’s Project: Pushing Her Grade to 5.14b With the Second Ascent of Belly of the Beast
Initially, Hazelnutt described herself as more or less along for the ride with Runge’s objective of freeing El Chamán Loco. “I was just going to support him on this first free ascent and try my best,” she says. But recently, she’d started to realize that in order to push her grade, she might need to try something new—aka, not slab—and the steep pitches at the center of the wall presented an opportunity.
Hazelnutt estimates she put seven sessions into working Belly of the Beast before she “locked in” and redpointed it. “I got the second free ascent of the hardest pitch—or the first female,” she says. “I don’t know what kind of labels to put on it, but I’m the second person to free it successfully and it’s my first of the grade.”
So how did they come up with the name? Runge gave Hazelnutt the honor of naming the route. Before she sent it, while jugging up alongside the pitch on fixed lines, she got stuck. Because the pitch is so overhanging—Hazelnutt estimates 45 degrees or so—the rope curved like a belly through the air, making it difficult for her to ascend. She recounts the resulting exchange that occurred between her and Runge as follows:
Hazelnutt: I’m stuck!
Runge: What?
Hazelnutt: I’m stuck in the belly.
Runge: Not in the belly …
Hazelnutt: I’m stuck in the belly of the beast!
As Hazelnutt laughed at her predicament, it occurred to her that “belly of the beast” would make a good name for the pitch. “That’s what the route should be named when you send it,” Runge told her.
Sending it may not have been Hazelnutt’s proclaimed goal, but she did act on the feeling that she needed to switch it up to advance her climbing. “For a couple years, I’ve been trying to diversify from slab,” she explains. “It’s so hard to try to push grades in that style because they become really heinous.” It also becomes more challenging to find slab projects at grades of 5.14+ and up without having to travel to Arco or North Wales, for example.
To psych herself up for the switch, Hazelnutt has been doing more moonboarding and bouldering to strengthen her shoulders. She also underwent some specialized training in the “dark arts” of kneebarring with Emily Harrington earlier this year, which came in handy for the knee scum on Belly.
During the second weekend in February, Hazelnut managed to tick off two more pitches on the route: a 5.13a and 5.13c. Her remaining goal is to free all the pitches on the route—but she’s not stressing about it. “There’s another 14, but it’s 14-,” Hazelnutt says, “and it’s way more my style. I know I can do that style in that grade. So I’m pretty excited to try that.” Choosing to tackle the hardest pitch first was her strategy for gaining the confidence she needed to free the rest of the route.
Besides that 5.14-, she’s got two more 5.13s to tackle on El Chaman with a wild variety of features. Technical aretes, steep climbing, technical crimps, a slabby boulder problem, and giant tufas you can literally bear hug—the rest of the route lives up to the loco in its name with no consistent style.
Watch Hazelnutt climb Belly of the Beast (video by Ethan Morf)
Elephant in the room: Is slab still sexy?
Past El Salto, does Hazelnutt’s foray into overhanging power climbing mean that she thinks slab isn’t as sexy as it used to be? Will she start slinging stickers proclaiming “steep is sexy”?
“I’m never going to stop,” Hazelnutt laughs of her love of slab, “But the steeps aren’t as bad as I thought. And don’t tell anyone, but the falls are a little less scary.” Right now, she’s really enjoying diversifying her climbing and getting into more styles. But she does want the world to know that she’s still committed to slab: “It’s still so sexy and I’m still going to pursue it at the highest level. I want to do the hardest slabs out there.”
Right now, however, her goals are focused beyond slab. “I like that I’m pushing my sport grade in the middle of a bigger objective,” she explains. “I find that really exciting and challenging. That is where my heart is right now is big walls.” This summer, she’s headed to pursue a big wall project in Madagascar with Matilda Soderlund. Then maybe back to Smith Rock or Squamish. As a resident of the road who describes herself as “dirtbagging light,” she can go wherever the weather’s good.
As for Runge, he’s headed to Spain in March and will stay in Europe through spring. Then he’ll head back to Squamish for the summer.
While this is Hazelnutt’s first time climbing in El Salto—or anywhere in Mexico—she says she’s hooked and plans to return next winter. “I really feel like the community just embraced me,” she says. Chill vibes and world-class climbing aside, her mom is from Tijuana, and she still has a lot of family in the country. “It’s just kind of cool to be in Mexico doing the thing I like for myself,” she reflects. “It’s been a really beautiful experience.”
*Hazelnutt isn’t Anna’s real last name—it’s Hazlett. Hazelnutt is a nickname that stuck from her days on the high school track and field team. Anna says she uses both surnames interchangeably, and our editorial preference is Hazelnutt.
Ethan Morf is a Canadian climbing and sports photographer based in Squamish, British Columbia. With a skate-inspired style, he captures the vertical world in a raw and dynamic way. When he’s not behind the camera, you’ll find him on the sharp end. See more of his work at ethanmorfphoto.com or @ethanmorf.
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