The story repeats itself. After Alex Megos a few days ago with Improving Image, Jonathan Siegrist’s turn to honor a forgotten climbing legend, James Litz, by offering a recote of 9a + to 9b for Peruvian Nektie at Pop Tire Cave.
Jonathan Siegrist in Peruvian Nektie (revoted from 9a + to 9b), photo: Nate Liles. Source: Jonathan’s instagram
As Improving Image by Ramon Julian, it was in 2013 that James Litz managed to release Peruvian Nektie after ten weekends of work. This line is nothing but a variant ofAce of Spade, initially rated 9a by the principal stakeholder before Daniel Woods revised the rating to 9a +. Knowing that, then the fact that Jonathan Siegrist repeats big sister and talks about it most naturally as a 9b was therefore anything but a surprise. It must be said that, traveling little, James had very few references when giving a rating to his ways: he just knew that they were harder than he had realized before.
Despite his discretion and lack of international recognition, American purists say that James Litz has incredible natural strength and is one of the best American climbers in history.
As for Jonathan Siegrist, how can we not emphasize once again his impressive ability to succeed in whatever he does after work? Already climber of two 9b with La Shiva plant in Andalusia and the monument Jumbo Love at Clark Mountain as well as a number of 9a +, he is one of those examples of inspiring climbers who knew how to start from far to finally rise little by little until the fulfillment of their dreams.
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