sclaussen
Trad climber
Foster City, CA
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I've climbed the grack center 3 or 4 times now so I decided to give the grack left a go.
The first pitch of the grack left is a lot more interesting than the grack center in my view (of course the money pitch for the grack center is the pitch 2 perfect hands splitter). There appears to be a handful of options regarding the first pitch -I went up the grack center line and stayed left at the point where you transition right for grack center - then went up a 5.6 crack about 40 feet below the tree - and then into a more offwidth groove that then moves up and to the left to the Bay Tree. Warning - with this line, and a 60m rope, I was about 20 feet short of the tree at the top of pitch 1, and had to build an anchor in groove (this was w/my belayer belaying from the same spot you belay the grack center). Thus, I'd recommend either a pair of 70s, a slightly more direct line, or scrambling up a bit on the class 3/4 start and belaying from there.
The Bay Tree has slings/rap rings as of our climb.
The money pitch of the grack left is the first half of the second pitch. It isn't very long, but it has some interesting moves in it, primarily stemming, a bit of lieback/mantle, and protects well. This is the only 5.7 portion. It is just above the Bay Tree. The crux is the last move where the route immediately transitions from 5.7 to 34d/4th class.
The second half of pitch 2 is class 3 or 4 to a very large slung boulder. You can rap from there if you like. We did a short 3rd/4th class pitch 3 scramble to the top of the grack center, and then rappelled from there. Supertopo doesn't denote the route going to the top of the Grack Center (route K in the book) - I assume because it's essentially just 3rd class.
Just like the Grack Center, the Grack Left descent is accomplished via two rappels using two ropes.
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robd
Trad climber
Riverside, CA
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On 7/9/2012:
My partner dislodged a large block (~3ft x ~2ft x 6in) from the middle of the second pitch. It looked solid as far as I recall but it took little force to make it come loose. The block smashed his middle finger then slid a short distance onto his foot. He warned a group of 3 below before he unstuck his foot and let the rock slide.
I think the route still goes at 5.7.
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