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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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Aid climbing is gay.
SirLoin aid climbs(or has).
SirLoin must be gay.
Headed to the Piper Pub for dance night, there, SirLoin?
HaHa.
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Sir loin of leisure...
Trad climber
X
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hey I admit I dabbled in the dark arts...but then I found JUHEEBUSS!!!!!
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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And we didn't even know HE was lost.......
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Blakeb
Gym climber
Arafel
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Yo pete, whats wrong with gawking at the bridge sometimes?? The el cap lieback can be quite the send
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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well, it looks like i have not done a hard aid route on el cap looking at this list, although i was intrigued to see that pass the piton pete says bermuda dunes was pretty damn hard in at least one spot.
NANOOK i didn't see my other fa lunar eclipse(my other fa is bermuda dunes) on your list which i believe was in the hard category until tucker tech and frank saunders got on it and drilled chicken bolts everywhere. still, i imagine it is in the hard intermediate category, although at the harder end.
david, i could highly recommend tribal rite as a break back into aid climbing route with your son. the a4 pitch is really a3, and all the heads were fixed as of my ascent 2 weeks ago. It was my first aid climb harder than zodiac since 2002, and nothing was too grievous on it, mostly fun. after seeing ottowa doug on it soloing last year, i knew i had to go there. if you take the nose start, like we did, it's only 12 pitches from el cap tower to the summit, with helpful ledges every 3 or 4 pitches.
so, guess i gotta get up on something hard, or i'm just a wussy.
shipoopooi
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Sir loin of leisure...
Trad climber
X
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lunar was proud till they took out the dowels and put in basically protection bolts...pussies all of themm...
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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steve, problem is i'm 218 on a light day with an updraft. those fixed heads don't seem so fixed to me...I've thought about the Muir but it seems like even more exposure and very front and center.d
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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david, so you are right, the head ladders are scary. on one pitch i clipped 8 heads in a row. better to be light. i top out at 165. steve
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Erik Sloan
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - May 5, 2009 - 02:06am PT
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Wow guys, thanks for all the responses. Do we love this rock or what!
Agreed about the Muir and Mescalito being a little more difficult than presented, and sorry I forgot Lunar Steve. That's a fun route and you're right, a harder intermediate.
best
e
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Erik Sloan
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - May 5, 2009 - 02:25am PT
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In case it wasn't clear from my post....
My intention with this thread was to try and help people get on the right route--not argue about what is or isn't hard. When folks get on harder routes thinking they're intermediate because of an opaque rating system like A3, A4 and A5(old and new school) it often results in the climb getting the short end of the stick. Bolts are added or rock is destroyed through over-aggressive placements.
So in general if a route is on the "hard intermediate" or "hard" list it would be better for El Cap if you already knew how to place/replace/clean a pin, head or rivet. It might sound silly but I've run into folks over the years that thought Shortest Straw and Zodiac had the same ratings so they must be the same difficulty....that Space was the next logical step after Zodiac...ect.
So I really appreciate your feedback. Hopefully this will make it in the next edition of the big walls book.
best
e
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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That's why I made the comment that I did. For those folks to suggest that the Nose, etc. is "easy" kind of makes it sound like a starting point for a beginner.
People in the know and with heaps of skill probably don't need the pointer, and then the list is just for fun.
I got on Lurking Fear for my second route in the Valley (1st was After 6, and I wasn't really climbing elsewhere) because I really was that ignorant. All I had to do was stand on bomber gear, right? It didn't work out that well for me. 8 or 9 years later, the easy routes are still not easy for me.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Ha-ha-ha . . . .
I just remembered that the first head I ever placed, was a replacement for one I blew out on Tribal Rite. Good luck, wall campers. I am a very thin/light guy, and that head is probably rated A-x, or worse.
At least the fall there is very clean, nothing to hit for miles.
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salad
climber
Escondido
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so funny. the first route in the easy list is my one and only el cap route and i was worked hard and deferred leads. gratned it was july and 100+ degrees but after that i realized my place fo sure.
uber props to you hard men....
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Erik Sloan
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - May 5, 2009 - 10:35am PT
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Thanks Melissa and Salad--
I hope to keep this list going and add all the other popular bigwall climbs in the valley. So don't worry, Lurking Fear will not be on the top of the "Easy" list forever.
best
e
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Concur with Melissa. If El Cap were in any way "easy", it would not fire our passions the way it does, nor spank the asses of so many of its suitors. When so-called "easy" routes have bail rates in excess of one-third their attempts, they can't by definition be easy.
Blail - hanging at the bridge has tremendous merit, provided you have earned the right to do so. Finally - mercifully - thankfully - you have done so. Now you should probably go back and solo something.
Steve - Bermuda Dunes is an AWESOME route! Without question, one of the finest I have done! A pair of 9" Valley Giants available from Tom make this route do-able for those without your tremendous offwidth skills. Now, I don't want to rain on Steve's parade, but I didn't think Lunar Eclipse is as hard as those it's grouped with. I think it belongs over with Cosmos and P.O.
Tom and I rebolted Cosmos belays when we did it, as well as trundling a huge column of rock that caused a group before us to bail, and it's a pretty good route you will have to yourself in a nice part of the wall. There are really superb bivi ledges to use as Advanced Base Camp. Tom had a name for them - he always does.
David - clearly you are one who "gets it" as evidenced by your love of King Cobras. They are up to about 88 cents these days, I'm afraid. And while updraughts do occur on El Cap on a regular basis, so do downdraughts, and when you put you and one of those together on a ten-year-old #1 fixed head, it's a scary thought. How experienced and big is your son? Maybe he could lead some of the heading pitches?
I think the route for you guys is Never Never Land. I believe you will really enjoy it, and I can give you tons of beta. Looking at my Dr. Piton Super-Duper Beta, I don't see anything very hard. The route follows cracklines almost exclusively, and there are not a lot of heads. You will get plenty of fun and easy nailing, without ever finding anything too terrifying.
On El Cap, if you are going to venture away from the more popular trade routes in search of greater adventure and solitude, then you are going to run into bad fixed heads from time to time. But this is El Cap, and "anyone" can engineer his way up the rock. Every engineer knows you need the right tools for the job, and the know-how to use them. Heading isn't rocket science - it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. But so many people never learn how to head because they spend all their time on popular clip-ups that get climbed repeatedly, and all the heads are fixed. You could well find every single head on NNL fixed - in fact I'm betting that's the case - but you should still bring along a Butterknife for replacing fixed heads.
You can click here to read [url="http://www.mountainproject.com/v/big_wall_and_aid_climbing/dr_pitons_heading_tips/106076091"]a good article on removing deadheads and placing heads.[/url] It's a pretty complete post, and should be required reading for those wanting to step it up a notch or two on the Big Stone.
Cheers,
Pete
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Blakeb
Gym climber
Arafel
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The problem with the jump from zodiac to space, or zodiac to the sheep ranch or what have you is that this seems completely reasonable after a large helping of king cobras.
Death wishes sound like a good time when you are blitzed on the ground!! I'd better knock off some more easy ones first though because something tells me i will find them hard for me.
So pete, how do i lose the name blail? I summited twice now and this blake and bail combo just seems like too good of a name to let die. Guess you shouldnt be afraid of teasing or ridicule, just one more fear to bail for. Persistence seems like the key for me. Cheers, hope to see ya at the bridge soon.
blake
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shipoopoi
Big Wall climber
oakland
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pete, i was just guessing at the grade of lunar eclipse, the route must be way easier now...and it no rain on my parade. but the fact that i haven't done a hard el cap climb has got me irked, i gotta do something about that soon. shipoopoi
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Vulva, Wyoming
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Lunar was always really "soft" for the grade, even before it was chicken bolted.
(hahahaha! Hi Steve!)
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east side underground
Trad climber
Hilton crk,ca
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don't worry steve you'll always be a bad ass in my book. Remeber the hawk's beak on Mt. lemon? as I recall you were sending linked heel hooks on that one!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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We should do something together, Steve, that will match our skill sets. Something that has both hard aid and hard free climbing. Then we both do what we both do best. Thoughts?Continental Drift has plenty of Kevin Thaw "5.10". There's The Real Nose, what a cool line is that, eh?
I was not aware of chicken bolts on Lunar Eclipse. If you could provide us with an original topo, perhaps a subsequent ascensionist could remove them, in the same was as the chicken bathook holes were filled in on Native Son.
Blail - wear your moniker with pride. As has been pointed out, nicknames are bestowed. Since you have reached the summit of a big wall by legit means, you are no longer a Big Wall Theorist. But that will never change your nickname!
Remember "Big Wall Pete" Takeda? That is his nickname to his date. When I first heard it, I thought he earned it because he had climbed so many big walls. But it's quite to the contrary. The true story is something like, "Hey everyone, look! It's Big Wall Pete! Hey Pete, which big wall are you going to bail off of this week?!"
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