White Heat

Tucked in amongst the legendary classics of the Churning Buttress hides an unassuming seam with a tragic history.

Alan Watts established White Heat in April 1988, just a few days after Scott Franklin's historic first ascent of Scarface (generally regarded as the first 5.14 established by an American). After congratulating each other, the two legends swapped routes, and Alan quickly nabbed the second ascent of Scarface (which provides us historians with some perspective on his fitness at the time). More Scarface repeats followed and the line was firmly cemented as a world-class testpiece. Unfortunately things didn't work out so well for White Heat.

Early in Franklin's campaign the key crux pocket crumbled, making the already-burly crux move even harder.  Franklin moved on shortly after with the route unrepeated. In 1992, the first edition of Climbers Guide to Smith Rock debuted. Alan awarded White Heat four stars, included it on the prestigious page-33 list of Suggested Routes, and applied the ambiguous 5.13c/d grade, along with the statement "a small pocket crumbled slightly after the first ascent, leaving the already intense crux even more potent."

Apparently the route languished in the 90s. One assumes a 4-star route on the Churning Buttress would receive substantial interest, but as far as anyone knows, it was not repeated. By the early 2000s, it was generally accepted by Smith's elite climbers that the route wouldn't go. As a final curse, in the early-2000s(?), a well-intentioned, but ultimately abandoned re-bolt attempt left the crux bolt slightly mangled (this bolt has since been replaced). 

Hope for a repeat was restored with the release of Alan's 2010 second edition, which despite a mystifying downgrade of the route to 5.13c, included intriguing news: "After the better half of a miserable pocket broke shortly after the first ascent, two decades passed without a repeat. Recently, in a remarkable demonstration of the restorative power of nature, the hold mysteriously reappeared." Unfortunately this didn't lead to quite the tidal wave of repeat ascents the author had hoped for, but it did inspire the top local climbers of the 2010s to give the route another look (that and a bribe from Alan in the form of a handle of Crown Royal). Despite this renewed interest and plentiful skill and ability, for whatever reason the route remained unrepeated.

By the 2020s, Alan had resorted to pleading with passing vagrants to give the route a chance, eventually stumbling upon a rare pair who had so thoroughly exhausted the routes of Smith's main area that they finally had no better options.  After a couple weeks of intensive effort, the line finally succumbed to a second ascent in December 2024, a mere 36-and-a-half years after Alan's impressive first ascent.

With hindsight, its clear the first ascent was underappreciated and under-graded. Alan knew the route was hard, but at the time there were very few 13d or 14a routes anywhere in the country, and he was unsure how to grade something with such a short crux, considering that all the other hard routes in the park were enduro lines.  Alan was a highly accomplished boulderer and it's certainly plausible that he would underestimate his own abilities on a short power climb, particularly one with such unique movement. After several conversations with Alan about the original shape and size of the key hold I suspect in it's original condition the route would be 5.14a by modern standards.

In it's current condition White Heat is a bit harder than Jam Master J, though far less accessible (i.e. more frustrating) owing to a harder and higher crux move. It's miles harder than Badman, which is a jughaul by comparison.

The climb begins with a scramble up the same boulder used to approach Da Kine Corner and Oxygen. Stem onto the wall past a brief crumbly section to flawless maroon stone. Sequential 5.11 liebacking leads to a good stance atop a mini-ledge. The crux follows with a big reach to the notorious pocket and a high step to a big flat edge, then an improbable slap to a high undercling, followed by another big slap. Easy liebacking leads to a new, independent anchor.

On the Churning Buttress, right of Kings, left of Da Kine. Approach via the boulder scramble.

4 bolts to a 2 bolt anchor. The first 3 bolts are the old school Metolius ring bolts.