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YosemiteCamp4
Trad climber
Dallas, TX
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 8, 2008 - 02:33am PT
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Yesterday we did the East Butt of Middle "Original Route" as described in the SuperTopo. I consider myself to be a pretty solid 5.10 leader, but the 5.7/5.8 chimney pitches totally shut me down.
Granted, I'm not a chimney aficionado but these pitches were super-tight, flaring, and slick. Is it just me or are these chimneys way hard? Judging from the rap slings everywhere, many parties (including the one behind us) bail at the chimneys.
I poked around on the net a bit and it seems like most parties do the "50 Crowded" or "50 Classics" variations. I feel like we missed out on a great route by taking a wrong turn...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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sounds like you ran into a pretty standard Yosemite chimney...
...BITD they did chimneys all the time, they got good at them, and they rated them like they saw them.
Sounds like you should go on the chimney circuit and tune up your skills...
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steelmnkey
climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
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I'm with Ed. The hardest thing I ever climbed in Yosemite was one of those teflon 5.7 chimneys on The Rorp. I even had some chimney technique at the time, it was just so god-awful slippery. Practice and more experience seems to help.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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The right hand variation is the Chouinard Variation and is most pleasant. The 50 crowded variation is a one pitch variation of that and is great but a little sportier than the bolt ladder.
The left hand original harding way is something like the NE Buttress of Higher and spanks most who unknowingly go there.
PEace
Karl
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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It was back in the 70s when I did this route with hexes, stoppers and EBs. I don't recall it being that hard particularly compared to the stuff in the Black Canyon. But I could easily understand that without sufficient chimney experience it could seem sand baggy.
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Damn, I want to do the original chimney route! I need to get back up there!
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Scared Silly
Trad climber
UT
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I do not remember finding them particularly hard but I think there are two factors - IIRC the chimneys are 2/3 the way through the climb so you are getting tired and not as efficient as you might be otherwise. The other chimneys can be harder than one thinks and if you are not climbing efficiently they get even harder especially if you get into them (i.e. stay out of them and they can be easier).
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cmclean
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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My first weekend in Yosemite we did the original route because there were people ahead of us on the other variations. It ended up being strenuous and tough. We came back the next weekend and did the 50 crowded variation and it was a lot more fun and we cut our ascent time nearly in half. So I'd recommend trying one of the non-chimney variations if you have the time.
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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I don't recall the chimneys as being stiff in rating ?
(perhaps Ed H. has a strong point)
Scared Silly:
"they get even harder especially if you get into them (i.e. stay out of them and they can be easier)."
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| Messages 1 - 9 of total 9 in this topic |
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