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steelmnkey
climber
Phoenix, AZ
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 29, 2005 - 08:53pm PT
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poof.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Oakville, Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 29, 2005 - 09:01pm PT
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Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! I've played that game! We almost always undergraded our routes a bit just to be safe. Far better to call a 5.10 a 5.9+ so people would say,
"Man, those guys must be hard if they thought this was only 5.9!"
Every now and then, though, we blew it: "Zabrok and Kaandorp were pussies if they thought this was 5.11. It's 5.10+ tops...."
Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!! [But you still need balls, not bolts, to climb my routes. I never cheated with bolts.]
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 30, 2005 - 12:02am PT
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After this article came out, some time later the "Bird" puts up High Pressure, rated 5.9 A real sandbag just to make his point concrete.
Kauk and I go up there and it's really 5.11 he he he. The Bird makes his point. The Meyers guide changed the rating to reflect more the truth.
Now why did you do that Donny Reid?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Oct 30, 2005 - 08:53pm PT
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i like how waverly was always 10c, even with first-generation hexes and stoppers, and now it's 5.11 with modern gear. fiddling in hexes before you got to the pod was always a chore, and in the long sprint to the belay after leaving the pod if you stopped to place gear, chances were good you would wind up falling on it!
grade creep in action. i say bring back the sandbags.
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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So what names in the guide book elicit a gut-check when thinking about doing their routes. Some folks still call 11a, 10b. Some folks, you get on their routes and you know it's the real deal, grade wise. A couple of dudes who comes to mind are Mike Lechlinski and Bachar.
Who else?
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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the article is even more striking if you see it in the original printed context: incredible photos went with the commentary, and it was in the absolutely classic 1973 issue of ascent, with the mind bending aerial photo of the summit snow gargoyles of cerro torre on the cover.
the full title of the commentary was "the innocent, the ignorant, and the insecure: the rise and fall of the yosemite decimal system"
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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can't say -- i do recall back in my early days i usually puckered up a bit when racking for anything that sacher had ffa'd -- due to the aura of history that invariably hung over the route, and to the almost sure bet that often as not there'd be some hard, sustained climbing and some thought-provoking runouts...
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Ca
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I remember when I lead 'Steep Thrills' in Tuolomne. Bacher called it 11a but now it is probably still a sandbag at 11c. I am always afraid when I get on something John put up that I haven't been on before. Anyone done 'Tune Up'? Wow, that scared me badly!
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