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Ben Wah
Social climber
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Jul 17, 2004 - 01:09am PT
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Jaybro,
Viva Gorditas is the obvious bombay flake on Lower Brother left of Maple Jam. It can be rapped with one rope.
James,
I also did Pipeline, and found it to be pretty equal in difficulty to Mental Block, not including the thin hands pitch of the latter, which was pretty burly for the grade. Funny how even similar climbs leave people with such different impressions. No wonder rating systems are a matter of such hot debate.
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Roger Breedlove
Trad climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Jul 17, 2004 - 10:22am PT
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Hey Pete:
I have been mulling over your question about why there are not more hard off-widths...as if 10c wern't hard enough. I thinking that ow are not generally under rated--at least not at the base 5.10 level, and since rating are comparative, it is unlikely that there is some big gap in the ratings above the base.
So I tried to think of what the hardest ow would have to be. My dream ow: No fists and no knees. Rounded edges but no flair to smear or knee/arm bar. Then really smooth rock, with no edges. Then overhung. Then continuous. (Sick dream)
Then it occurred to me that if there is any variation in the crack it generally gets easier--fist or hand jam if narrower...knee inside if wider.
Cracks like these are very rare, whereas increasingly featureless faces to climb are readily available. So I think that the reason there is an upper limit to ow is driven by the nature of rock, not the rating process itself.
Of course, none of this affects how hard those suckers feel.
Roger
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 01:41am PT
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bump
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:42am PT
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Ed, Let's put Via Gorditas on the list for this winter.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:56am PT
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It will be an adventure, unless we can get Ben Wah to provide a topo as it is not in the book... making it all the more alluring!
I'm in, we have to story book the "Wiggle in the Wide" flick...
tomorrow around 6:30pm WW pickup at D/P Bart
bt∨b²
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scotty vincik
climber
up north, these days
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Nov 12, 2008 - 05:26am PT
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Melissa, Mental Block isn't that easy. Super clean 2nd pitch though.
Elephant Rock has some of the coolest wide cracks around. Crack of Doom, Crack of Despair, Left Side of the Worst Error (a chance to sample the free climbing prowess of Warren Harding) All good quality w/ rich history. Good adventures that stick with ya. One of the best places to get very deep inside a chimney. Haven't done the Right side of the Worst Error, rapped down it getting off of hotline (bad choice), looks wild. Also hear Plumb line is good. Pink Dream has a really cool funky sort of wide crack.
Also, Left Side of the Slack, base of El Cap. Long, classic route.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Nov 12, 2008 - 06:39am PT
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Redlands
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Nov 12, 2008 - 10:55am PT
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Ed and Jay, you don't need a topo for Viva Gorditas. Walk up to the base of Maple Jam and look up, it's obvious. A 3rd class munge/hummock approach pitch then the goods. Bombayish flare trending left. I think there's even some pics of the FA in the random gallery at the Fetish.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 11:04am PT
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ah yes, I remember it well...
[url="http://www.widefetish.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=1082&g2_serialNumber=3"]"Ben Wah climbing Viva Gorditas"[/url]
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 11:05am PT
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Scotty,
The right side of the Worst Error is quite a bit more interesting and dramatic than the left side. You have to negotiate a slot/roof feature that is really tight. If you don't manage to get inside it it can be terrible. Most climbers can, especially if they relax their core enough. Again, perfect rock.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
Otto, NC
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Nov 12, 2008 - 12:21pm PT
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Winter core workouts! Can't wait.
Unfortunately I gotta go sell some trees for about a month and a half first.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Nov 12, 2008 - 12:50pm PT
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okay, I remember those little fatty shots, looks cool, I'm in!
See you at that rendesvous for wide du'jour, Ed, say did you get to meet Ahnold when he stopped by your day job Monday?
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scuffy b
climber
On the dock in the dark
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Nov 12, 2008 - 01:41pm PT
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Gary's crack is set to Roger's ideal width: no fist, no knee.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:01pm PT
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Good thing I am out of state!
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:14pm PT
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It's not That far from the airport.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Nov 12, 2008 - 02:27pm PT
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I've always heard about Crack of Doom but I don't know anyone (except Bridwell) who has actually climbed it. We all did Despair instead. But Doom has the history and I regret not doing it when I was up in the Valley all those years.
Anyone have any Doom stories? Isn't there an unprotected chimney on it? Where is the 5.10??
Also, is the River Boulder really rated only 11c? Seemed a bit stiffer.
JL
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scotty vincik
climber
up north, these days
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Nov 12, 2008 - 03:11pm PT
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Crack of Doom is very worthwhile. I climbed it w/ Surfer Bob a few years ago. First pitch is steep 5.9. Second pitch is the intimidating chimney. It is a narrowing squeeze, very clean, but unprotected for some while. So, you're up there wishing for pro as the crack continues to narrow, and you think you're gonna get squeezed out of the thing, which would be desperate. You'd hit the ground from here, cause the first pitch is short. So you just keep shimmying up, and it relents, and they call it 5.8. Which I can't disagree with. It is a 5.8 which still makes me grin. The cruxes are above, a 5.9+ rattly fingers through a roof/corner, and the 10a bit, which caused me to grab a tree as spindly as my thumb. The "improbable 3rd class" traverse to descend is cool, rounds out the adventure. I always feel like the best way to get to know people is by climbing their routes, and this definitely tells you a bit about Chuck Pratt.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Nov 12, 2008 - 03:20pm PT
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I did maybe the 4th ascent of The Crack of Doom back in 1972 with a newcomer from the Northwest, Mark Fielding (sp?). It is an incredible route, extremely burly looking; you feel quite serious doing it.
The first pitch is a very steep black lieback/combo flake and pretty bold looking (old 5.9). The middle pitches are long squeezes with hardly any protection, especially the 3rd pitch. The final pitch is very cool, goes up and right to a short bottoming-out squeeze forcing you outwards and then to surmount its blocked off top to a basin (5.10a/b). This move is protected (back then by a angle pin I remember).
Superb rock, steep as hell, exposed for the first 1.5 pitches, intimidating alcove with the easier Crack of Despair just to the right. Recommended for strong offwidth people who can also get aggressive on other types of climbing, and has to be done without loads of protection. Descend via Real Error rappels or much more preferable, continue to top via Crack of Deliverance (5.8).
I don't think you can rappel the route on a practical level anyway.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
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Nov 12, 2008 - 03:26pm PT
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Largo, River Boulder is 11d and all of it! If it was high off t he deck in the middle of a pitch I would think it would go at 12a.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Nov 12, 2008 - 03:31pm PT
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My friends Kim Weaver and Mike Nickzich did it in the spring of '78? [it was the year Scarpelli got married for the third time, if anyone knows what year that was][Edit,Jim Adair who we met on that trip met his end on the Sentinal approach just before these events - saw him laugh over his cover shot on Climbing on his last evening]
Anyway
They went in from the top, climbed it and were benighted with no bivvy gear. Not sure if they were on top or at the base. They told us later that they were really hating life, that night, in rugby shirts, painter's pants and EBs.
Bob and I, always there for our comrades, went on rescue duty the next day. We found their addidas
Rom™s next to a tree they had rapped in from.
"This sh#t is spooky," said Bob.
We called for a while, then heard them bushwhacking back up, yelling at each other.
We all bailed for a Grateful Dead, Warren Zevon, Elvin Bishop Concert in Santa Barbara. And when we got back I had some sort of escapade with Cilley, while Kim 'n' Nick went for the Steck Salathe. Nick took, "an 80 footer, man," on the Wilson overhang and after a trip to the clinic to get him regrooved™, we slunk out of the Valley in Shame.
That, and the fact that we had to be in Jackson Hole that weekend (or whatever it was) for Bob and Connie's Wedding. Now that part of the trip really was, an epic.
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