drunkenmaster
Social climber
santa rosa
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PSA = The popular main line from the lowest sit on the main Fort Ross arete that everyone lately is calling "Relentless" V9/V10 is actually "Grand Finale" and Relentless is Grand Finale into the traverse "Living La Vida Smoka" V8/9 ~ "Relentless" = V10/11!
The history of the Pacific Coast classic main Fort Ross arete went like this;
Many locals, myself included had seen the boulder driving by but knew most of the North Coast sandstone was sandy and wet compared to the more solid clean schist and greenstone in the area so we drove right on by looking for bigger better cliffs and boulders in Salt Point ~Doh! Then, a new climber (at that time) and good friend and North Coast area local Richie Esquibel ended up hiking down to it and making the initial discovery. Soon after Marcos Nunez and Richie went back and did the timeless classic stand start to the main highball arete calling it "Living A Dream" V5 (which is now more like V6 since the sand level has gotten lower making the start lower). Then Russ Bobzien, Jim Thornburg and I did the lower sit starts "Living A Nightmare" V7, "Living La Vida Loca" V8 and "El Loco" V7/8 and Richie did the direct line "Shazinky" V8. Then the sand got lower and local Ryan Tolentino got the lowest start "Grand Finale" V9 and then the sand got even lower and Ryan added the final lowest start on the edges V9/10. After that Ryan added my "Irie Traverse" aka "Rossta Traverse" V8/9 / "Living La Vida Smoka" V9 finish for "Relentless" V10/11.
The main left face now called "Fort Rossta" was cleaned in between the time the lowest sit starts and traverses were being done because it had a large loose block on the midway jug that Marcos(?) ended up cleaning off to make the classic dynamic fun V4 stand. The V6 sit dubbed the best V6 in the world was first done by either Marcos, Jim, Richie or myself ~ we are all unsure. The stand and sit was unnamed for a year or so until a Bay Area crew came up and not knowing the name of the arete Living A Dream nicknamed it "Fort Rossta" since it was similar to a harder version of the highball "White Rastafarian" aka "White Rasta" V3 arete in J-Tree/So Cal but we liked the name and gave it to the main face instead. Now it's all ancient history :)
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drunkenmaster
Social climber
santa rosa
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here is a minor correction for Fort Ross:
#4 "Irie Traverse" should say:
end on #11 (not #10)
this also makes the description to #6a "Relentless" off as well since it does the same #11 finish.
doh.
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Richie Esquibel “Living a Dream” (V6).Photo: Chris Summit
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