The Fly is a short schist sport climbing or highball bouldering route in the Rumney Rocks climbing area, New Hampshire, USA, at the Waimea Cliff. The Fly was bolted by Mark Sprague in 1995 as an open project but did not see a first free ascent until David Graham, an 18-year-old American climber from Maine, climbed it in April 2000, who graded it or . It was quickly repeated by his climbing partner, Luke Parady. At the time, these ascents were milestones for climbing in North America.
History David Graham made the first free ascent (FFA) on April 7, 2000.He apparently made a typo while transferring his notes on his ascent in his 8a.nu scorecard from the route to bouldering category, changing the date from 2000 to 2001. See interviews such as and archived first mention of The Fly from 10 April 2000 At the time, David Graham and Luke Parady proposed the tentative grade of . After further ascents and fine-tuning of the beta (choreography) needed to climb it, the consensus has settled to approximately using the Yosemite decimal system or 8B/+ in the Font bouldering grade.
Route The Fly ascends a short, steep, lower portion of the Waimea wall, gaining a large ledge (the E-Ticket Ledge) and a bolted anchor about 25 feet up. The climb is very fingery and powerful. The route is quite short by sport climbing standards, essentially a rope-protected highball boulder problem, with its two protection bolts being placed before the now common use of many stacked 'crash pads' to protect the dangerous landing. Most ascents make use of the protection offered by the bolts, usually pre-clipping the rope to them both, though after practicing the moves on a rope, the climb has been 'bouldered' (sans rope), first by Jason Kehl, on November 7, 2003.
Notable ascents David Graham (on April 7, 2000) Luke Parady (on April 27, 2001) Tony Lamiche (on October 10, 2003) Chris Sharma (on October 30, 2003) - almost a flash, he fell on the last move. Jason Kehl (on November 7, 2003) Kevin Jorgeson (in April 2008) Paul Robinson (in April 2008) Daniel Woods (in October 2008) Alexander Megos (in October 2012) Mike Foley (on November 13, 2015) Andrew Palmer (on April 5, 2018) Alex Waterhouse (in Spring 2019)
See also Midnight Lightning, famous boulder in Yosemite, California The Mandala, famous boulder in The Buttermilks, California The Wheel of Life, famous boulder in the Grampians, Australia
References