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Rincon Wall, high above Eldorado Canyon, Colorado, is an anomaly, with clean, monolithic rock, laser-cut corners and arêtes, and consistent angles, with few of the ledges and rotten purple bands that typically plague the canyon. Not surprisingly, Rincon has, since the 1970s, been a hotbed for hard trad climbing, with notoriously thin free climbs protected by notoriously thin gear going up in the 5.11 to hard-5.13 range. The Central Buttress is the main event, with a dozen-odd gently overhanging single-pitch routes on brilliant red-orange sandstone in the 5.12 to 5.13 range, including hard-trad benchmarks like The Evictor (5.12d R) and Musta’ Been High (5.13c R/X).
On April 27, 2023, the Boulder, Colorado–based climber Lynn Anderson sent ten 5.11 to 5.13+ routes—all of which she’d previously redpointed—on the Central Buttress as a personal challenge, testing herself on the wall’s thin crimps, technical laybacks, bouldery cruxes, and infamous runouts over micro gear. The linkup, which she nicknamed “Zamboni the Rinc,” went as follows: Center Route (5.11a PG), Camouflage (5.12c sport—the only fully bolted climb on the list), The Evictor (5.12d R), ‘Fraid Line (5.13a R), Surf’s Up (5.13a PG), Musta’ Been High (5.13c R/X), Freeline (5.13b PG-13), Freakline (5.12a PG-13), Climb of the Century (5.11b PG-13), and Wendego (5.12a R). Anderson had made two prior attempts on Zamboni the Rinc—on April 12 and April 18—but both days got too warm and sunny, and Anderson fell on Musta’ Been High after sending the first five routes before that. She finally put the link together on April 27, a cloudy, windy spring day.
Although Anderson, 26, is a relative newcomer to climbing—she’s only been at it for five years—she has in that short time amassed an impressive ticklist, including a redpoint last August 31 of the fearsome and technical The Honeymoon Is Over (V 5.13c) on the high-altitude Diamond of Longs Peak, Colorado, as well as other hard climbs at crags around Boulder. Anderson, who grew up in California and Wisconsin, began climbing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where the school had a small climbing wall.
“I was an NCAA Division 3 gymnast and didn’t have much free time, but I figured climbing was something I could do once I was done with gymnastics,” says Anderson. After graduating, she moved to Colorado, lured by outdoor sports, but soon found herself “way more into climbing than anything else.” Out in Colorado, Anderson has cobbled together a living working at Whole Foods, as a nanny, and as a personal assistant, and is currently enrolled in a program to earn her certificate in data science. With her gymnast’s background, she is lithe and flexible on the rock, and people often mistake her for taller than her 5’6”. Anderson is moreover a dedicated athlete, who can be found putting in long, no-nonsense sessions on the fingerboards and MoonBoard at the Boulder Rock Club.
Like Timothy Kang’s epic at day on December 5, 2022, at the Buttermilks, California, during which he linked up five of the area’s biggest, hardest highballs/free solos—Footprints (V9), Ambrosia (V11), Too Big to Flail (V10), This Side of Paradise (V9), and Evilution Direct (V11); all climbs he’d done before—Anderson’s day at Rincon involved doing multiple difficult climbs with intrinsic danger. The physically hardest, Musta’ Been High, was first led in 2001 by Eric DeCaria, and involves punchy laybacking along a radically overhanging fridge feature protected by thin pro, including a Ball Nut and a Knifeblade. Its difficult neighbors to the right—especially Free Line and The Evictor—aren’t much safer, with fussy gear, big runouts, and tenuous climbing, and have been the scene of gear-ripping groundfalls. All of which begs the question, why return to these climbs, knowing how hard and dangerous they are, to lead them in a single day?
The Interview
Climbing: How did the idea for the linkup come to be?
Anderson: I first climbed at Rincon in June 2020 when I flashed Center Route as my first 5.11 trad [laughs]. I remember trying Evictor on toprope thinking it was a hilarious joke that anyone would lead it, and even more absurd that anyone would climb the other routes there. But during November and December 2020, just after moving to Boulder, I met a psyched and wonderful crew stoked on Evictor and ‘Fraid Line, and started chipping away at Evictor. It was my first real “project” and the hardest route I’d done at the time. I also realized how weak my fingers were, because I wanted to work ‘Fraid Line next, but couldn’t even pull onto the starting holds, let alone do one move on [the thin, opening V6] boulder problem. That was my motivation to start hangboarding and bouldering.
Climbing: So you’d sent each pitch individually before Zamboni the Rinc, correct?
Anderson: Yeah. I sent ‘Fraid Line and Freeline in spring 2021, Surf’s Up fall 2021, Musta’ and Wendego spring 2022, and finally Camouflage in fall 2022 (I consider that one my “1/32-ass, try-once-a-year, multi-season project”). I kept coming back to Rincon every season (i.e., late fall/early spring) because everyone at the crag was always so welcoming, encouraging, and fun to be around, unlike many sport crags, which sometimes have strange, competitive, ego-centered vibes.
Climbing: What was your motivation to redo all these scary climbs? Why not just walk away, having ticked them unscathed?
Anderson: I wanted to do all the routes in a day because it seemed like the next “seemingly impossible” project for me at the crag. All the routes I’d done there had been milestones and meant more to me than most of my other sends.
Climbing: What specifically made them special?
Anderson: Evictor was my first project, and the hardest route I’d done. I’d never really projected something like that before—when I started, I couldn’t do a lot of the moves and I didn’t really think I’d be able to do it. Eventually, I put it together, and that was kind of a breakthrough. A funny thing is that those routes at Rincon were my first of the grade—and the first routes at those grades I really projected. Evictor was my first 12+. ‘Fraid Line was my first 13a. Free Line was my first 13b. Musta’ Been High was my first 13c. They were all just milestones, plus I love the crag.
Climbing: You mentioned you fell on Musta’ Been High? Isn’t that basically a “no-falls” route?
Anderson: There are a couple places you don’t want to fall, and it depends on whether the Knifeblade [at the first crux] holds. I took some test whips onto it that weren’t very big, and I was like, ‘If this fails, I’ll be caught by a bomber purple TCU without hitting the slab.’ For pins in Eldo, it looked pretty solid, so I trusted it.
Some people don’t place gear after the pin until they finish the second crux, but I probably wouldn’t have led it if there was absolutely no gear, because then you’re doing the second crux with the pin 10 feet below you. But I place a blue Ballnut from a kneebar and then do a couple more moves and then place a blind gray TCU—a Metolius double 00—which I ripped once [while trying the route in March 2022]. It’s the only piece of gear I’ve ever ripped, but the blue Ballnut held!
The first day [I tried the linkup], I made it past the first crux and fell on the second crux—and I was actually caught by two lobes of the Metolius 00. The second day, it was supposed to be nice and cloudy but then all of a sudden the sun came out, so two moves into the first crux I sweated off and took a little fall on the Knifeblade.
Climbing: Why that order of the climbs? What was your strategy?
Anderson: I have to be warmed up, so Center Route was a good warmup. Camouflage, because it’s so thin, I like to do it when it’s cooler. And then Evictor was a good second warmup. And then ‘Fraid Line and Surf’s Up, just to get them out of the way—those feel pretty high-percentage to me, and they also helped me get warmed up. But I also didn’t want to do Musta’ Been High and then fall on ‘Fraid Line or Surf’s Up—in other words, I didn’t want to have to lead Musta’ Been High unless I had an actual shot at the linkup. My plan for the day I sent was, if I didn’t get Free Line [the seventh route on the list] in two or three tries, I was going to say, “Screw it and just finish on Climb of the Century and Wendego and call it good enough.
Climbing: Was the day you did it a no-falls day?
Anderson: Almost. I fell on ‘Fraid Line—my foot slid out of a foot jam. It was so unexpected. But that was the only fall.
Climbing: Has anyone else, to your knowledge, done this linkup before?
Anderson: I’d seen the film Safety Third and knew Brad Gobright had sent all the 5.13s at Rincon. [Editor’s Note: Alex Honnold also flashed or onsighted all the routes on the Central Buttress, except for Musta’ Been High, over a two-day period in winter 2009.] I hadn’t heard of anyone else doing it, but I’m sure it’s been done. It seems like climbing the section of wall from Musta’ to Camouflage is an obvious linkup … like Jurassic Park at Dinosaur Rock. To me, it seems that for every “sponsored pro” spraying about everything they climb, there are multiple other insanely strong climbers doing crazy-hard stuff and never telling anyone. So, I’m guessing others have done it before.
Climbing: How did you train mentally for the linkup?
Anderson: Mostly I just realized I had to start leading the routes again. I toproped them a lot and felt really good on them. But the first time I went to lead ‘Fraid Line again, I was so gripped and tried way too hard. I was, like, ‘Oh, I need to start leading these too,’ because my head was so used to toproping. It took getting used to leading headier routes again.
Climbing: How did you train physically for the linkup?
Anderson: I’d do things like lead or toprope ‘Fraid Line and Surf’s Up with minimal rest. So, like, do one and then toprope the other or lower down and do the Surf’s Up crux while I was pumped. Also, bouldering inside and hangboarding.
Climbing: What was the biggest mental crux of the send day?
Anderson: I feel like I was more jittery the first day, and then there was the second day, and the third day I wasn’t too hopeful because the forecast was pretty bad—but it ended up working out. I wasn’t even sure if could have a good go at it, but I was also kind of sick of it so maybe I was in the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ mentality.
Climbing: What did you learn from Zamboni the Rinc, either about yourself or about the sport?
Anderson: When I first thought of the linkup, I thought, ‘Oh, that won’t be impossible. I’ve already done all of these routes. Now I just have to do them again.’ And then I started working them, and I was like, ‘Oh, they’re still hard.’ Even though I’d done them once before, they were still really hard.
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Zamboni the Rinc: All 10 Routes
Here is the order in which Lynn Anderson sent the linkup, as well as a little information about each route. All climbs are around 80 feet long.
- Center Route (5.11a PG); FA: Larry Dalke, Roger Dalke, 1965; FFA: Chris Reveley, Scott Woodruff, Dan Hare, 1976: This friendly pitch has sinker gear but a strenuous crux (and crux placements) moving up laybacks above a roof capping the initial corner.
- Camouflage (5.12c); FA: Dan Michael, Bill Myers, Paul Piana, 1987: Matchsticks and pebbles up a blank, 88-degree wall, to a crux on even smaller matchsticks.
- The Evictor (5.12d R); FA: Dale Goddard, 1985: Most of the R rating comes in the initial 5.11a section branching left off Center Route, but the in-your-face crux sequence is hard all the way to the anchors—and the gear placements are weird, technical, and shallow.
- ‘Fraid Line (5.13a R); FA: Topher Donahue, with Jim Belcer, 2002: This climb, Surf’s Up, and Free Line all share the same opening V6 boulder problem, a weird cheater-stone start yarding on credit-card crimps to establish in a smooth dihedral, the “sentry box.” From here, ‘Fraid Line goes straight up a thin seam and crimpy headwall, taking RPs for protection.
- Surf’s Up (5.13a PG); FA: Charlie Fowler, Patrick Meek, 1986: The same boulder-problem start, then moving left into a second, difficult crux to reach a thuggy, intermittent layback crack.
- Musta’ Been High (5.13c R/X); FA: Eric DeCaria, 2001: Well-protected 5.10 leads to the radically steep “fridge feature,” which demands power, precision laybacking, and technical kneebarring. The small gear has held falls—but there’s not a lot of it to speak of once you’re motoring along the fridge.
- Free Line (5.13b PG-13); FA: Ron Olevsky, rope solo, 1975; FFA: Justen Sjong, 2000: Shared V6 boulder-problem start into a short section of jamming, then a committing traverse rightward to finish on the upper half of The Evictor—navigating its crux while pumped.
- Freakline (5.12a PG-13); FA: Brenton Kreiger, 2021: Climbs the runout bottom half of The Evictor into the runout top half of ‘Fraid Line, swapping physical cruxes for mental ones.
- Climb of the Century (5.11b PG-13); FA: Alec Sharp, Casey Newman, Jeff Butterfield, 1980: A classic bouldery, slippery Eldo crux on thin gear down low leads to sustained crimping up a striking corner.
- Wendego (5.12a R); FA: Pat Ament, Larry Dalke 1964; FFA: Jeff Achey, Kevin Bein, Barbara Devine, 1980: A smooth corner with microscopic holds and desperate palming surfaces perma-slathered in chalk. Upward-driven pins protect the crux down low. If they hold, great; if they don’t, you’ll fall into some of the pointiest, nastiest talus around.
Matt Samet is a longtime climber and outdoor journalist based in Boulder, Colorado.