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 Cedar Wright learned to climb in Northern California while he worked toward his B.A. in English from Humboldt State.  After earning his degree he started wintering in Joshua Tree and spending the rest of the year in Yosemite, where he became an accomplished free soloist, speed climber, aid climber and free climber. Cedar is widely known for his affiliation with YOSAR or the Yosemite Search and Rescue.  With notable rescues and notable climbing ascents.  He is your classic all-around climber that is truly living the dream.  He has a great sense of humor and is very fun to be around, I recently caught up with Cedar for a quick and hysterical interview about off-widths, China, and some other benign topics.

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How many nick names do you have? Name them.

So many I’ve lost count! Off the top of my head!! Ceedy, Mr. Magoo, Goolio, Gooey, Goo Hand Luke, Ceedyface, speedy, Cedar “Lite”, Cedar Wrong, C-Unit…um I know there are more…some of which I’d like to forget!

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Why don’t you wear contacts instead of glasses?

Contacts are so new school…glasses are trad…plus Contacts are high maintenance, and I’m not super psyched on touching my eyeballs.

How can off-widths be fun? 

With the right combination of duct tape, ether, nitrous oxide, and booze, off-widths can be fun…sort of!  But really, it’s a bit of a masochistic joy.  I’m someone who loves all forms of climbing from bouldering and sport, to offwidths and bigwalls.  Off-widthing is kind of a dying art, but once you get the techniques down it can be a graceful dance not unlike ballet…really noisy-thrutching-panting-ballet.

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Do you use knee-pads?

I try to avoid it, but I have used a sticky rubber kneepad a few times while sport climbing.  I’m not a knee-pad nazi if that’s what you mean, but I do consider it more proud to go without.  Some climbs though are kind of knee pad mandatory, but a lot of times jeans are just as good and make you look much cooler!

Do you use knee-pads for off-widths? 

Definitely not…Jeans are superior technology for off-widths.

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Tell us briefly about your Recent China trip. 

I’ve been to Yangshuo China twice this year to sport-climb on their super sweet limestone cliffs.  Both times I’ve had the pleasure of climbing with really badass sport-climbers like Emily Harrington, Said Belhaj, Scott Milton, and this super sick dude from Germany named “Heelee.”  Turns out sport-climbing is the best training for crushing the trad climbs!

Did you find any off-widths there? 

God No, not that I was looking…Limestone cracks are terrible.  I climbed one crack with James Pearson there in the spring and it was probably the worst climb I’ve ever done…and I’ve done a lot of terrible chossy climbs.

Do you wear big shoes for climbing? 

I like to be comfortable and despite the endless heckling, I often sport street shoe sized anasazi’s with knee high socks.

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Have you ever gotten a bat-hang in an off-width? 

Hells Yeah.  That’s probably the single coolest thing you can do in an off-width roof!

What areas do you recommend for an aspiring off-width crack climber? 

Yosemite and Indian Creek are where I get my off-width on!

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Tell us where your next possible off-widthing trip might be. 
   
I can’t say I have ever done an “off-widthing trip”…I do climb things beside off-widths believe it or not!  But I would like to hit up the classics in Vedauwoo some day, that’s high on the list.



 Sources: Ladzinski.com, TNF, Alpinist