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clustiere
Trad climber
running springs, ca
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The Barb
Moby Grape
Lucky Streaks
NE Face Pingora
Interloper
Magnolia Thunderpussy to CW Hicks
The Great Arch
New Route on Mt Lincoln, NH Nick B and Ryan C
Black Dike
Shoe String Gully
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Dragon with Matches
climber
Bamboo Grove
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My personal favorites are pretty standard; all mentioned above and all overused. Very partial to Sierra granite but my best days in the desert seem to match the best days anywhere. I admit to preferring my desert routes to be popular due to the cleaning factor.
For me, Jah Man tops Fine Jade because of the superior day I had with a superior brother. Both stand out as exceptional memories.
Never done the Edge. Most Eldo routes seem small for Grade III, but Rosy-Ruper is special. Outer Space. Gambit. Vertigo.
For some slightly different favorites, I'd have to throw in:
Matthes Crest
Born of Water (Babo)
Humanality
Big Micheluzzi (Piz Ciavazes)
Gomez-Cano (Penon de Ifach)
Cooler than Jesus
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Matthes Crest, for me, is second to Wolf's Head, which is a much much nicer ridge climb (as nice at Matthes is)...
Back to the secondary topic...
in a descriptive guide like Roper, it is not easy to get an accurate pitch count (just sit there with a topo and the description and see). With a topo and a good understanding of how quickly you climb at a particular rating it straight forward to get a good estimate for the time it will take you to climb the route. This is especially true with pitch length information (a la SuperTopo). The pitch information and the teams knowledge of its speed-over-rock makes the Grade information obsolete for topo'd routes.
Most current route descriptions will provide an estimated time-to-climb in hours, which was the former role of the Grade...
gotta go, Gary just showed up!
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yo
climber
NOT Fresno
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I think you've pegged it, Ed. Scoping topos allows you to suss out your own grade (i.e., totally overestimate how fast you climb so you can get benighted.)
In the red 1964 guide, Roper says this (and it's pretty classic.)
Grades I-III are as you've said.
"Grade IV: Either a full day or one-and-a-half days"
"Grade V: Same as Grade IV since the experts who will be doing these climbs are capable of doing them faster."
Ha!
For anyone into descriptive guides, this is how Roper describes a certain route. Also pretty damn classic.
"Several hundred feet of third class at the actual toe of the buttress leads to the roping-up point. Climb a direct-aid crack on the left to a ledge. From its east end nail up 45 feet to a bolt and pendulum around the corner to a crack. Follow this crack for 200 feet until level with Sickle Ledge. Work right via pendulums, rurps, and knifeblades until the ledge is reached. Work up the right side of the ledge until two bolts are reached. Pendulum into Dolt Hole, then climb up a pitch to a bolt ladder. From the vicinity of the fourth bolt pendulum into Stoveleg Crack. Using wide angles ascend this spectacular crack many hundreds of feet to Dolt Tower. Three pitches more lead to the El Capitan Towers, a prominent system of ledges 1500 feet above the ground. A class-4 pitch leads up a chimney behind Texas Flake. A bolt ladder leads to the base of Boot Flake. Wide angles are placed in its east edge. A long pendulum left from Boot Flake brings one to cracks leading into the Gray Bands 250 feet below the Great Roof. Cracks lead up and turn the roof on the right. Several hundred feet above is a series of ledges. Steep but relatively easy nailing leads upward for several hundred feet to a jam crack just below a small, triangular ledge. Nail up 500 feet, bearing slightly to the right to the long bolt ladder which forms the last pitch...
A selection of 80 pitons is adequate. Ninety percent of the climbing on this route is via direct aid."
Except for 80 pins and this "class-4 pitch" up Texas Flake, I'd call that perfect beta.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Perfect beta? I love how Roper doesn't tell us how to get from the end of the king swing to camp 4 but let's us know we turn the great roof to the right.
Not that I'll be doing that route anytime soon. I don't know what happened to all my bongs and wide angles.
Peace
karl
PS my definition of grade 4. Any climb that a team of climbers climbing at their limit would take a long day to do and sometimes might mess up and epic on.
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bulgingpuke
Trad climber
cayucos california
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ya e. buttress of the middle would be good except above the the crux pitch the route blows and the descent sucks ass!
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retired
Trad climber
White Salmon WA.
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Surprised to see epinephrine and dream of wild turkeys listed when Prince of Darkness is so much better and has been my rant for best climb in the world to anyone that will listen
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Rhodo-Router
Trad climber
Otto, NC
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Dec 23, 2004 - 12:27am PT
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I thought Fine Jade was a nice enough route, but it was hard to get really fired up about it. To each his own I guess. It is sunny and beautiful and the crux is short. The view includes the N. Face on Castleton, which for some reason I found more memorable- perhaps the long crack on the first pitch. That clip-face climb to the left of p.2 and 3 looks amazing!!! And Jah-man is fantastic, everybody should go do it. The calcite on that ridge sets it apart from other wingate routes, like the ho-hum climbing on the Primrose (not!)
When you break it down like that, the Edge is quite amazing. Every pitch is good, some are fairly unique, others are fine examples of their type (dainty fingers/stemming, the summit hand crack), and the location is stunning.
I'd put in a plug for the Checkerboard Wall, although at 4 pitches it's barely a Grade III-- not quite a half a day. The Journey Home would be more like it, except the approach we did was a little too hairy for my early-morning head, and I don't really ever need to lead the first pitch again. But the rest of it- several hundred feet of hand crack, more or less-- is worth the trauma.
Haven't done Wunsch's, but the Regular Route next door is pretty killer, and more my speed at 5.9. Still mentally preparing myself for the Prayer Book.
Is Forest Lawn/ Pair A Grins a III? pretty sweet anyhow. I liked Absinthe of Mallet too, but best Grade III might be stretching it a bit. Days of Future Passed is indeed a fine line. Has anyone climbed Abracadaver? Is the Wasteland a III? never got around to that one, somehow.
If you teleported to Broadway, every route on the Diamond would be the world's best Grade III.
I'm not sure the climbing on the O.R./Gom Jabber is so wonderful, but it's nice to get up high in the east in such an accessible way. The Crescent has gotta be one of the most out- there 5.8 pitches around. That might be a whole new topic, right there...
Epinephrine is rad, but might be stretching the III handle a bit. IV-, perhaps? Do people do that? III+?
And nobody has ever called it a 'vertical edge-mill'. is the Prince really that interesting?
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Lambone
Ice climber
Ashland, Or
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Dec 23, 2004 - 03:20am PT
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Tough call...Crimson Chrysalis was pretty cool...
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Dec 23, 2004 - 09:07pm PT
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All three routes on Slap Happy Pinnacle (Left, Center, and Right Side, named the "Dihardral") are all classic grade 3s, with a humper approach. Now try and find someone you know who has done any of them. Those routes have been lost in time . . . Too bad.
JL
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mike hartley
climber
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Dec 23, 2004 - 09:33pm PT
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drkodos buddy,
I have to set the record straight on your comments about old Retired above and his preference for Prince of Darkness. Maybe POD isn't your cup of tea. I've never done it. Different streaks for different freaks. But you have to look to the full-time, well known climbing types like Becky to find someone who has spent more time digging moss from cracks on wilderness first ascents than him. He's done it all with much of it solo first ascents in areas where only the buzzards would be around to render first aid. Tread lightly on the criticism of individuals you don't know but hammer away at recommended climbs that don't fit your fancy.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
a greasy pinscar near you
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Reckon I need to add Wunsch's Dihedral to this list. Though it's really not as cool as the Edge.
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WBraun
climber
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Largo -- "Slap Happy Pinnacle (Left, Center, and Right Side, named the "Dihedral") are all classic grade 3s, with a humper approach. Now try and find someone you know who has done any of them."
Me, I done all 3, including the left side many times.
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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I'll cast my number one vote for "Irene's Arete" on Disappointment Peak in the Tetons. I also agree with others who have mentioned "Lucky Streaks."
Curt
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Hardly Visible
Social climber
Llatikcuf WA
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DE,
Now don't get me wrong because I love the Bastille crack; but grade three? Maybe back in 1954 but today, even nobodies like me who live 1500 miles away from it have been seen doing it in less that 30 minutes. But, I guess I've also seen folks milking a grade IV experience out of it.
Since I followed Surfer Bob up the Rostrum a couple of times now in grade III times thats got my vote.
Geek Tower Center with falls going good is pretty awesome too.
base of the route
along the way
cultural artifact on top
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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my personal fave has gotta be coonyard.
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bob
climber
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I don't think I've read a mention, but I've sure had a lot of fun on some of the best cracks in a great position up on the Hulk. From what I've done it doesn't really seem like the route matters.
Bob J.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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I don’t see NE Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock here. This route is awfully good and it is kind of a III since it typically goes in about 5-6 hours. Incredible rock, safe, highly varied, steep at times, has route finding challenges and is generally impressive. Plus you do a major Valley feature.
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mojede
Trad climber
Butte, America
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I don't get out on the bigger stone much past my backyard these days, so I'll throw into the ring my vote--"Iron Man" III (5.10) Black Spire-Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Montana.
Located on the South face of this:
Pretty much everything mentioned on this thread I would give a go at, assuming I lived to be 100 and healthy.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
a greasy pinscar near you
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Typically for whom, Peter?
That one still scores a lot of night-time walkoffs among m/l competent parties-- not something I think of as a Grade III trait.
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