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Fingerlocks
Trad climber
where the climbin's good
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 5, 2007 - 07:42pm PT
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As we walked up to Reed’s the other day, we noticed that yet again there was a party on Reed’s Direct but nobody on Lunatic. We soon concluded that there have to be many climbers that would find Lunatic to be the easier of the two. With that squared away, we proceeded to put our rope on Lunatic to run some laps.
Not long afterwards, another climber dropped in, and we offered to let him do some laps on our rope. He did, and he also offered the opinion that Lunatic is a mean size and many in the Valley consider it to be the hardest 10c.
So who here can give the definitive answer, is Lunatic Fringe the hardest or the easiest 10c in the Valley?
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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it's 10c for about 3 feet
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Mimi
climber
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And that depends on your finger size.
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scuffy b
climber
The deck above the 5
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It's got footholds.
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Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
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wait, i thought serenity crack was the easiest 10c in the valley?
(smirk)
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WBraun
climber
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One day it was raining off and on.
Mimi showed up at Reeds and said doesn't look climbable (I was already there at the turnout).
I said it will be OK. We did the lunatic fringe.
So what! Climb it and stop taxing your brain with all these number problems.
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BeeHay
Trad climber
San Diego CA
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Werner brings it home again!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Werner- Any idea why Barry and Bev gave the route that name?
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Impaler
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Lunatic has got to be the easiest. Sherrie's crack is way harder and is about the same size at the crux. Talking about mean sizes, wouldn't meat grinder be a bit meaner? I shouldn't even mention Galen's crack.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Your first photo, Alpine, showcases just how sexy that crack is. That ain't the kind of crack you want to take home to mom; that ain't the crack next door - that's the crack you want for fast times under the bleachers after the prom.
I thought Henley Quits was the hardest .10c, ha.
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WBraun
climber
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Steve
Bates and Bev probably thought you had to be a lunatic to do that route back then. It was at one time considered the defacto hard man test piece.
Now people free solo it every day ......
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Sherry's Crack has bomber fingerlocks for me. Lunatic is desperation. Size matters...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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I think it's (the name) a rock 'n' roll thing. I found it to be a solid size.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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There are claims that the expression was coined by (wait for it)....Theodore Roosevelt, in about 1913. 'In happy times, Roosevelt found the fervor of his critics on the left and the right amusing. Energetically dismissing them, he coined the term "lunatic fringe."'
http://www.independentnation.org/theodore_roosevelt.htm
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Richard Nixon et al revived the phrase in the 1960s, as a pejorative to use against hippies, liberals, anti-wars, and others. The route name may be a retort to such usage, as well as a nice play on words for a then challenging and not easily protected route.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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I just remember it as a favorite tune on my "Vision Quest" soundtrack tape.
Speaking of favorite movies that I almost forgot...
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Lunatic Fringe was also the title of a song by a Canadian band, Red Rider, in the early 1980s - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rider
It was also the title of a mystery book in 1980, by William Deandrea, called "The Lunatic Fringe: A Novel Wherein Theodore Roosevelt Meets the Pink Angel". Possibly pink angels have some connection with pink elephants - not my department.
With the use of Werner's Time Warp, either book or song might have had some connection to the route name.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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I think the name came from something Barry read that described El Cap climbers of the day as being from the lunatic fringe of society.
It is one of those climbs that seemed alot easier with sticky
rubber and cams. There was a post that seems to have disappeared
about fat fingers. There are lots of sizes on this climb and you
can reach long or short to match your preferences. It is the
couple of spots where you are not jamming that seemed the
least secure.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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hmm so the Band (Red rider) who had a song called 'Lunatic Fringe,' performed on the tv show Hockey Night in Canada', small world!
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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More pics of this line if you got them, please!
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