This is the best line at the cliff, at least of the ones I did. The line starts up an easy left-facing corner/handcrack from a big table-like ledge to reach a smaller ledge (5.9?) and then continues up and right at the edge of a corner that becomes a crack, or set of cracks continueing past locks, jams, and liebacks to a crux where a lieback off of a good right hand and high foot on a seam take you to a solid jam again. The route can be protected pretty well if you take the right gear. If you like to load it up on the easier sections, consider taking a few extra cams.The route seemed to be easier than the book grade, and the crowd at the cliff (some locals) told me the former grade was not 5.11a, but 5.10. In any case, it is easier than Karl's Gym (5.10d) or Ariel.To descend, Rap 80' to the ground.
Protection
Standard Rack including cams from tiny to 3" and a set of nuts + optional tricams. You can set a TR on the bolt-anchors up above.
Yeah, maybe old tahoe 5.10, I've seen many a fit sportos and jym climbers who crank 11+ face get swatted by the peterso I had to post to the comment about easier than ariel.Bring your best jamming and crack techniques and leave the egos back at the bay.
ps.. do yourself a favor and look up the meaning of the 'peter principle' sometime.
The route is named "peter principle", not principal, look up the meaning sometime. It is rated in the falcon guide "Tahoe Rock" as .11a, not .10d. It is much harder than "ariel" which is a joke at .11b and has swatted many a sporto fags from the bay. Sandbagging isn't cool, have you ever seen the aftermath of an accident at the crags? Serious bummer dude. Bring your best jamming skills and leave the ego behind.
The Peter Principle is the concept behind the book by the same name, written by Laurence J. Peter in the late 60's if I am not mistaken. I read it in 1985, coincidentally, on my first trip to this area of the country, so there was already an association in my mind and thought about it on my way up this route. Though I was probably too young to understand some of the nuances of the book, I was able to grasp and retain the following... Not to be confused with Murphy's Law, which states that "Anything that can go wrong, will", Laurence Peter postulated that a person is rewarded for performance by promotion, and when the performance is no longer exemplary, that the reward cycle (promotion) ends. Thus, with this in place, a person is always promoted to their level of INcompetence and all great performers in our modern world end up being mediocre in their final positions. It suggests that there must be a reward mechanism other than promotion, though the modern work force rarely pays out when a person stays in the same job, doing great work year after year. An interesting concept and an astute observation made into a very humorous read. Sadly, it never seemed to motivate a change in promotional practices as far as I can tell, because it is still true today, about 25 years later. Still a worthy read and worthy of consideration if you are a manager of technical staff.
As for sandbagging, I think it's funny that one of you slammed me for downgrading Ariel, and admits that this route is old-school 5.10, while the other is slamming me here for downgrading this route, but at the same time saying how over-graded Ariel is...
So maybe the grades are mostly soft at this crag. Both of these routes are a good bit easier than Karl's Gym (10d), which was fair at it's grade or possibly a shave hard if this is your standard. And nobody will die if they get on Ariel and it's harder than they expect unless they decide not to clip the bolts every 6 feet 3 times in a row... I'm not worried about the consequences of this alleged sandbagging so much as I would worry about the consequences of grade inflation. When some poor sap that thinks these are 5.11's goes and gets on a real 5.11 that isn't as well protected- then we'll see an ugly accident.
Wow, what is up with the first couple comments slagging on people from the bay - some seriously unnecessary hostility there. The use of the word "fags" is especially inappropriate, not cool.
On a grade note, I'm one of the those gym climbing a-holes from the bay, and I thought this route was definitely easier than Aerial (haven't done Karl's Gym yet, so can't compare), which to me seems in the ballpark of .11-. I'm sure all these routes on Snowshed feel easy if you live in Truckee/Tahoe and wire the crap out of them, but the guidebook grades so far feel fair to me, and pretty damn stout in a couple cases.
Regardless, this route is awesome and highly recommended.
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