In October Beth Rodden, fresh from free climbing the 1,000ft Grand Wall (V 5.13b) at Squamish, Canada, headed south to Oregon and nabbed the first ascent of a bolted 80-foot pin scar seam at Brogan Spire, north of Smith Rock State Park.
She spent six weeks working this fierce line and gave the The Optimist a grade of 5.14b (8c) stating that it was harder than the two 5.14a's she has redpointed, Smith Rock's To Bolt Or Not To Be and Sarchasm in Rocky Mountain State Park in Colorado.
Rodden, with her husband Tommy Caldwell, has also free-climbed El Cap's Lurking Fear 5.13c (First Free Ascent), and has such hard classics as Grand Illusion (5.13b/c), Sphinx Crack (5.13b) and El Cap's Salathe' Wall (5.13b) in her quiver of impressive ascents. The Optimist is the hardest first ascent climbed by a women in the US.