On February 8, Jason Campbell became the third American to redpoint a confirmed 5.14c, when he climbed Necessary Evil in Arizona's Virgin River Gorge.

The route is a very difficult direct start to Boone Speed's Route of All Evil (5.14a). Chris Sharma once described Necessary Evil as "a 5.14 to a really bad rest, followed by another 5.14."

"It's definitely the hardest thing I've done, more difficult than Hasta la Vista," said Campbell on a well deserved rest day. Hasta la Vista, at Nevada's Mt. Charleston, was Campbell's previous hardest ascent at 5.14b/c.

Campbell kept to a very strict path of ascent on the route, avoiding a traverse to a rest jug on a neighboring route. "I wanted to do the route exactly and do Route of All Evil (which constitutes the upper part of Necessary Evil) just like Boone Speed did, which was without the traverse to the jug."

Resting on his laurels is not part of Campbell's future plans. His next goal is to send an unclimbed route in the Wailing Souls Cave at Mt. Charleston. "It's probably harder than Hasta la Vista," Campbell said, "and it will be interesting to see how difficult it feels now."

Future plans also include the possibility of trying Smith Rocks' Just Do It (5.14b) or David Graham's Livin' Astro (unconfirmed mid to hard 5.14) at Rumney, New Hampshire. His biggest goal for the year is, of course, Tommy Caldwell's Kryptonite.

Jason's wife, Tiffany, has also been very successful of late. On January 20, she redpointed Hell Goes to Frogtown (5.13d), a powerful, bouldery route in the Virgin River Gorge, her hardest redpoint to date. A few weeks later, she followed up with a strong second place finish at the Wasatch Front Open Bouldering Comp. When she and Jason migrate to Mt. Charleston, she plans to redpoint Soul Train (5.13d).

Sharma and Caldwell are the two other U.S. climbers who have redpointed 14c, Sharma having done the first ascent of Necessary Evil and Caldwell the second. Boone Speed's Ice Cream in Utah's American Fork Canyon and Graham's Livin' Astro may be 14c, but neither has had a second ascent confirm its grade.

— Matt Stanley, MountainZone.com staff