2nd Free Ascent of Basketcase: a story

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Alexey

Trad climber

San Jose, CA

Nov 21, 2012 - 08:44pm PT

Peter, let me express admiration of your ability to describe climbing you did about 30 years ago and only once. The description is so vivid that I can see this glassy stem box crux and you climbing it move by move

RyanD

climber

Squamish

Nov 15, 2013 - 12:34pm PT

Bump

cultureshock

Trad climber

Mountain View

Nov 16, 2013 - 12:34am PT

Photos make the heart grow fonder.

I've yet to try basketcase so some Milestone photos will have to do.

Enjoy,

Luke

RyanD

climber

Squamish

Nov 16, 2013 - 01:57am PT

Yesssssssssssssss

drljefe

climber

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

Nov 16, 2013 - 02:21am PT

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiick!!!!!!

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 16, 2013 - 01:12pm PT

Definitely a tour de force, Milestone. Perhaps Kevin's coolest ever FA and to think he was practically a fossil by then. (grin).

SCseagoat

Trad climber

Santa Cruz

Nov 16, 2013 - 05:35pm PT

Great companion read with Salamanizer and Alexey's exploits!

Susan

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 16, 2013 - 06:42pm PT

KW, is that first image of Cultureshock's showing the crack that runs to the gigantic dihedral edge?

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 16, 2013 - 10:42pm PT

Thanks KW. Yeah, I agree: that dihedral is just massive and might well be the biggest unclimbed book in the whole region.

But back to your stellar route; the splitters right at the edge of that monster dihedral add so much to your route and route vision. What an adventure!

Salamanizer

Trad climber

The land of Fruits & Nuts!

Nov 18, 2013 - 08:46pm PT

Cultureshock, did you do the whole route in a day? How long did it take you. I'd like to get on this route sometime in the spring so a little first hand logistical beta would be nice.

A TR is an absolute must now that you've teased the congregation with photos.

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Nov 18, 2013 - 09:56pm PT

Chad,
Judging from Luke's first photo, they rapped in from the top on a long static line,
and tried a couple of the crux pitches.
I don't think they tried the full route.

cultureshock

Trad climber

Mountain View

Nov 19, 2013 - 01:04pm PT

The always observant Clint has me figured out.

We dropped in from the top with about 300m of rope. We were just short of the crux pitch but climbed the top 7.

I can post a shot of the crux from above later on. It looked very similar to the 11d 13th pitch, but thinner and thankfully bolted. Both pitches are laser cut and leaning. You use the crack more for balance than anything else since it is so thin.

With the ropes in place it took very little time to do the top 6 pitches. I think less than an hour and a half. As Kevin has mentioned up thread there are a few spots of difficult slab. Mostly dime edging and smearing. The bolts are in the right spots and protect the difficulties. The hardest moves are on the 16th pitch which is almost a full 60 meters. The rest of the climbing is very quick 5.10.

I was able to do P14-P19 clean first try. P13 was a good amount harder for me and I had a few hangs. I think you need triples in the Green and Purple C3 range to lead it. It is a very very thin crack!

Once you have gotten past P13, the 11d "hangnail" pitch, you just have to trust your feet to get to the top. All the belays are bolted and have good stances. You could link link P17 and P18 with a 70m rope, but the drag would probably not be worth it. The very short 11- section on the last pitch was harder than I expected having just climbed five pitches in a row of slab.

I was impressed that the route was still very clean. There is a little dirt and grainy-ness, but for the most part buffed golden granite.

Having looked for routes on large domes my self I am amazed that Kevin and Sean found a way to link all the various cracks together. As Kevin mentioned up thread Milestone follows some of the only weakness in that part of the dome. There are no other cracks nearby at all! The position above the roof is both wild and very un-nerving.

Chad, if you end up wanting a partner I would be interested in going back. The route also bakes in the sun. We were super warm when we were on the route on 11/9/2013.

Luke

cultureshock

Trad climber

Mountain View

Nov 22, 2013 - 05:28pm PT

Kevin,

The area is pretty cool. These days I appreciate a longer hike and a touch of solitude. Also that face is super warm which is nice for this time of year. With the road closed it seems unlikely I'll get back out there this year.

Here are a few more shots of the route:

Looking down at the crux pitch.

Closeup of the crux pitch.

Ben starting off on the 5.11 slab pitch with some fun laybacking.

Looking up at the black streak on the 2nd to last pitch. Amazingly featured rock and tons of fun to climb.

Luke

Salamanizer

Trad climber

The land of Fruits & Nuts!

Nov 23, 2013 - 12:22am PT

That route looks amazing. That kind of climbing is right up my alley, but that sure is a lot of hard climbing in a row that needs to all be done in a day. The number of climbers that could pull that one off in a day are probably pretty thin and far between. I'm not sure I'm one of those climbers. Maybe on the very lower end of the spectrum even if I were in tip-top condition.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2013 - 01:59am PT

So Chad? Go up there and have a terrific experience, like we used to. You are very talented; make it happen. It's a warm wall, to say the least. If you get caught out, it can't be too bad. Accept the pressure and get on it! What a righteous route!