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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Bishop Area : Pine Creek Canyon : Sheelite Canyon / Pratt's C... : ... : Pratt's Crack (5.9)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: +1 Jonathans recommendation above. I brought two #3 camalots for the beginning (placed deep), slung 3 or 4 chockstones, and a few yellow aliens for up high. Unless you have some BigBros, plan on running it out 30' or so up to the chains. The climbing is not at grade through this section, as the right wall has many juggy face features.
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Location: CA : Yosemite National Park : Tuolumne Meadows : Olmsted Canyon : Tideline (5.11a)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Nice line! Blew the OS, pumped out placing gear in the thin finger bit 2/3rds of the way up. Getting out of the overhanging fingers into the shallow flaring crack at the top was tough too! This climb, along with nearly every other crack in the Olmstead Canyon area, seep with water after a recent storm.
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Location: CA : The Needles / Kern River : Dome Rock : Close To The Edge (5.9 PG13)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: A 5.9 route for solid 5.10 climbers. Quite runout. Some very marginal knob tie-offs between fewer bolts on P1. Very pleasant face climbing with some route finding amongst a sea of features.
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Location: CA : The Needles / Kern River : Dome Rock : Tobin's Dihedral (5.10+)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: I did ZERO liebacking on this rig. OW stacking and knee-jamming until I could start to fist jam. Three #5 camalots would be nice for this, I had two and pushed em both quite a bit. Both of my partners (on toprope) liebacked it and made it look much easier. I'd suggest the OW technique if you want to be able to place any pro for the first 50 feet.
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Location: CA : The Needles / Kern River : Dome Rock : Vicious (5.11+)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Vicious takes great gear; easy to assess from the base. The crux is getting off the deck. A clean and pure line. I used two cordelletes for setting up the anchor, as gear options are set back aways from the edge.
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Location: CA : The Needles / Kern River : The Needles : The Charlatan : Gemstone (5.10c)
By: Richard Shore When: Jun 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Its hard to really know just how thin this crack is until you're up there on it. For my sausage fingers, I was happy to get TIPS in a few spots through the technical crux, which I though was comparable to Coarse & Buggy (5.11a/b) in Jtree. YMMV. Leading up to the bolted arete, I placed the following pro:
#3, 4, 5, 6 HB brass offsets
#4, 5, 6 BD Stoppers
00 Mastercam
2 X 0 Mastercam
2 x 1 Mastercam
2 x 2 Mastercam
TINY! The finger sized gear can't be placed until you're done using ... more >>
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : El Gaucho : Puppy Woof (5.10a)
By: Richard Shore When: May 29, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: If this climb was in Josh it would have a waiting line all day. Kinda short to be worthy of 3 stars, but what the heck, I'll give it 3. Only 3-4 pieces of gear needed, easy to assess from the base.
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : El Gaucho : Inknobvious Line (5.9)
By: Richard Shore When: May 28, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: A very nice climb. Thoughtful and engaging. Anywhere else, this thing would be a **** classic (I give it 4 only to offset the OP's 1 star). Only one detractor in my opinion...
The FA party skipped a good stance for a bolt right before the crux. As is, you have to do the crux moves ~15' out left (horizontal) from the 4th bolt. A fall from here would be disastrous; a huge pendulum across a face full of knobs and smack into the corner below. No reason not to give this one the dreaded "R.... more >>
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Location: CA : Tahquitz & Suicide Rocks : Tahquitz Rock : South Face : South Face - Left Side : Chingadera (5.11a)
By: Richard Shore When: May 25, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Some interesting trivia per Don Lauria:
"Powell named this route after a dog he bet on in Rapid City on a hunch. The dog came in last - hence the name." HA!
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : El Segundo Buttress : Becky Route (5.9)
By: Richard Shore When: May 14, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: P1, as described above and shown in the croft topo, took 2 pitches for us due to rope drag (nasty vertical bushwhacking!). Liebacking the corner will certainly make it feel harder than 5.7. Jamming it straight in was pretty cruiser. After the crux roof on P2, it is easy to get off-route by following the thin hollow flake up and left to a nice bolted belay. I believe this is part of the route Chortle, 5.10b. Decently protected knob and slab climbing (5.10a/b) leads up and left past 7? or more bol... more >>
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : Premier Buttress : Premier Route 5.10c or 5.8 ... (5.10)
By: Richard Shore When: May 14, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: A fun outing and probably the "easiest" multipitch route at the Portal. P1 finger crack is a treat and really fun for 5.6. The P3 bolt ladder looked really hard for 5.10c; I felt the holds at the start of the bulge and said screw this, I'm pulling through in the interest of time. It seemed to wander right and left of the bolts quite a bit, and the bolt ladder is reachy even if pulling through (I'm 6'3" and still thought it was a stretch!).
Without much effort, we found the rap slings... more >>
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Alabama Hills : Western Wall Area : ... : Pangborn (5.9)
By: Richard Shore When: May 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: 10a for sure. Brief 2-3 move crux on thin holds. 2 ropes are needed to rap, a single 70m will not make it down.
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : Whitney Portal Buttress : Tanager (aka "5.11 Crack") (5.10b)
By: Richard Shore When: May 6, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: If Nimbus over on the right side of WP Buttress is 5.10c, then this really is the "5.11 crack." This felt significantly harder than then crux of that route. Bad feet with lots of 0.5 and 0.75 camalot-sized jamming.
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : Whitney Portal Buttress : Nimbus (5.10c PG13)
By: Richard Shore When: May 6, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: I'm surprised by all the negative comments here. This route kicks ass. P2 is the goods, and ~55m long to the chains. The "awkward" lieback/jam section was thoughtful and fun, and based on posts above, I assume the feet have cleaned up. Not brittle or grainy. We thought this section was actually a bit soft for .10c, and the fingers above is the crux. P3 is very short and sorta silly, but in a wondrous position.
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Location: CA : Central Coast : Santa Barbara : Cathedral Peak : Sea Urchin (V2-)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 30, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Joe - if you've strayed from the beaten path in SB, you'd realize that there are LOTS of untouched GOOD lines (even multipitch!) left to do. Many of these "greater pursuits" remain undone because of the horrific scrambles through dense chaparral. If this kid has the gumption to drag a pad all the way out to Cathedral Peak, imagine what good he could do swinging a machete for us!
And yes, Tyler, way to stay stoked and get after it. The line does look kinda cool, I'll give it a try next time I'... more >>
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Location: CA : High Sierra : Lone Pine Peak : Michael Strassman Memorial ... (5.10c) : Photo
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 26, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: This is P4, not P5.
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Location: CA : Sierra Eastside : Whitney/Lone Pine Area : Whitney Portal : The Whale : Bony Fingers (5.11b R)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 23, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: The 5.10c original start isn't too bad - crux is first 20 feet and protected by a bolt, the traverse runout is solid friction and climbing is not at grade. Rope drag is manageable with long slings on the second bolt and first piece in the finger crack.
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Location: CA : High Sierra : Lone Pine Peak : Michael Strassman Memorial ... (5.10c)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 23, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: What an incredible route! One of my favorites to date in the Sierra. 2.5 hours approach time with some route-finding.
We brought 6 cams from #1 TCU to #2 camalot and it was perfect. Placed all of them on P1 and P2. If rapping the route, you can leave the cams behind at the P2 belay, nothing but bolts above this pitch. P3 and P4 are long and sustained 5.10+. Maybe it was just the elevation getting to me, but I felt like there was even a touch of 11a here and there. I thought the sing... more >>
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Location: CA : Central Coast : Santa Barbara : Cathedral Peak : Sea Urchin (V2-)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 19, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: I can't believe you actually hauled a crashpad all the way out to Cathedral Peak. Barf. You should apply your motivation to greater pursuits. Seriously.
Go check out the Matilija Wall on Hwy 33 outside of Ojai. Sounds like it'd be right up your alley... take your pad too.
Edit to add: is it just me, or are descriptions of meager SB boulder problems becoming way too exhaustive? How much beta does one need for a 15' V2 that won't likely ever be repeated?
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Echo Rock Area : Anasazi Wall : Physical Graffiti (5.11a)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 16, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: I'll go against the grain here and suggest doing it two pitches. You don't have to deal with extending slings/backcleaning, and you get to enjoy the cool cave belay station and swap leads with your partner if you so desire.
Pulled a baseball-sized chunk off the dike hand-traverse on P1 yesterday, near the 4th bolt. Also busted some small pieces off the foot-traverse dike at the finish of P2. Still cleaning up a bit, but truly a fantastic climb. Looks much easier from the ground! P2 was burl.
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Hidden Valley Campground : The Blob : The Blob - East Face : Surrealistic Pillar (5.10c)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 16, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: IMO, this is the best route in the HVCG area. Strangely, I have never seen anyone climbing it.
Didn't find a need for anything bigger than a #3, and it was used for the anchor. Small stoppers provide excellent protection in many spots.
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Queen Mountain : Walt's Rocks : Lower Walt's Rocks : Perfect Fingers (5.10a)
By: Richard Shore When: Apr 5, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: A full set of nuts goes a long way on this route. I placed nearly the entire set. 2 or 3 0.5 camalots are good too. I thought the flare was harder than the thin tips start, but YMMV. Classy splitter.
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Comic Book Area : Watergate Rock : T-N-T (5.10c)
By: Richard Shore When: Mar 26, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Crux mantle finish! Jump out of the smeary stems and press it out. A worthy tick.
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Comic Book Area : The Comic Strip : The Comic Strip - SW Face : Frontal Lobotomy (5.10a/b)
By: Richard Shore When: Mar 26, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: My partner tried liebacking the wide section at the start, it didnt work out so well for him. Good fist jams exist deep in the wide section, and heel-toe cams make this bit less physical than it needs to be. The upper finger crack is a treat!
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Location: CA : Joshua Tree National Park : Wonderland of Rocks : Diarrhea Dome : Bighorn Mating Grotto : Caught Inside on a Big Set (5.10b)
By: Richard Shore When: Mar 26, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: My 500th route in JTree, and possibly in my top 10 favorites here. I felt this was a touch harder than Dangling Woo Li Master, but I think being tall allowed me to simply reach past most of the crux moves on that route. I watched 3 other parties have difficulties with CIOABS, and all of them cruised DWLM easily.
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