Century Crack

Century Crack is a 120 ft (40m) long offwidth roof crack climb in the White Rim Sandstone, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, graded at. It is one of the hardest and longest offwidth crack climbs in the world. The first aid ascent of the route was done by Steve Bartlett in 2001, and the first free ascents were by crack specialists Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, known as the Wide Boyz.

The route
Century Crack starts with an 85 ft roof crack, requiring the climber to hang upside-down, making progress with various jams throughout the crack's varying widths. It requires a mix of hand jams, hand-fist stacks, fist jams, and various other offwidth techniques.

The first 15 ft of the crack is small enough for straightforward hand jams. This is followed by the offwidth crux section, wide enough for No. 6 cams, and the rest of the horizontal section fits No. 5 cams.

The crux of the climb is where the crack transitions into a 45-degree overhang, requiring the climber to flip from their inverted position to an upright position. The top-out has the climber squeeze between two outcrops of rock onto the plain above.

First aid ascent
Century Crack was discovered by Steve Bartlett, who completed the first aid climb of the route in 2001, giving it the name Chocolate Starfish.

Wide Boyz
The first free climb of the route was completed in 2011 by Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall, documented in the movie Wide Boyz. They initially climbed it with pre-placed gear, but returned two weeks later to do the climb while placing the gear.

To train for the route, Randall built a replica of the crack in his cellar, where both climbers trained by doing continuous laps. They also did thousands of hours of offwidth-specific training, training an average of 5 days a week for two years.

List of free ascents

 * Pete Whittaker, 2011
 * Tom Randall, 2011
 * Danny Parker, 2018
 * Fumiya Nakamura, 2023