I had already left the Obed and was a Park Service fixture at the New River Gorge when one day James called, confused. He asked if I had seen the new Dr. Topo guide to Lilly. I pulled it up on my computer and immediately saw much wrong information. I also saw that there were two V13s listed: Testify and Tilt-A-Whirl Direct. The later also had the V13 grade, as well as the Litz name, attached. Now for one thing, the boulder, named by John Young, is called Tilted World... and for the other, James had never seen the problem. I guess that’s what happens when you become an urban legend — someone sees a blank section of rock on Litz turf, it’s just assumed that he’s done a problem there. I guess in a way that’s the ultimate compliment. But whatever the reason for the error, James decided he had to make good on his name, so he went back to Lilly for a look. He called back and said he “thought he could do it.” (You know it’s hard if James only thinks he could do it.) He called again a week or two later to said he’d done it, and that it was way harder than Chinese Arithmetic. He left the name that was already in the guide.

When James finished college in 2003, he left the area. To this day I’d argue he’s the most unrecognizable bad-ass climber there is. He could be right next to you at your favorite bouldering spot, and unless he was on some way-hard thing or another, he’d just be another climber. And he would hang with you, spot you, and if he knew you could send the problem, he’d say, “You can do it.” And just like that, as if by magic, you’d know you could.

To learn the truth behind an urban legend takes some of the fun away. Did James Litz really do God Module with Ana Burgos on his back? It’s almost better not to know. It’s enough to say that James left Lilly and went to the world of Dreamtime, Freaks of The Industry, and after a couple of years rest, his Warpath (some have suggested V15). He seems to be a genetically perfect climbing machine. He’s amazed many over the years, but among the quiet hemlocks sheltering the Lilly Boulders his spirit will live on, an integral part of the bouldering ecosystem.

Last year I was revisiting the Lilly Boulders when I ran into Matt “Boz” Bosley. He was scouring the rock like an investigator, searching for signs of the “Litz factor.” But many of James’ problems had been attempted so little that no chalk evidence existed, so I gave Boz the Litz tour. He’s since returned to Lilly and is methodically ticking them off, with sends of Testify, Mean Squeeze, Litz Blitz, and Johnson City. And Boz broke a key foot off Chinese Arithmetic, so it’s going to require some serious effort. (Personally, I think he did it on purpose to bait James into returning once more to Lilly to do his thing.)

A notable tribute to James’ Lilly reputation occurred recently when the French phenom Tony Lamiche traveled out of his way to visit Lilly. It was a rainy day, he knew the rock would be soaked and he couldn’t climb. He just wanted to see for himself the problems of James Litz and view the nothings that this Tennessee boy could pull down on.

Note: as of press time, James Litz is back in Chattanooga. He has already sent some standing projects and is cruising sandstone, searching for the impossible.