Stemming leads to laybacking the upper half of the...
Description
This sweet crack line is the obvious wide crack to right leaning fingers and hands directly to the left of the bolted route Plan B. There is a small bush at the very start of the crack.
For some amazing reason Get Smart gets no stars in the guide. I thought it was an amazing and varied line with lots of great moves and bomber rock. It is easily as good as any crack in Boulder Canyon.
The line starts with either burly offwidthing or wide stemming up the corner and over several small roofs. Just where the crack jogs right you have a chance for some rest and you better take it. The locks start good but get progressively looser as you head over two small roofs toward the anchors. The crux is hanging on through the pumpy moves to the anchors.
I don't know if a 50 meter rope will make it all the way down. Tie a knot in the end!
Protection
Everything from the biggest cams to small finger sizes.
Did they lift the raptor closure for Security already? What about Blob Rock -- still closed, usually this one is opened early (before Aug 1) too, unlike Eagle Rock?
I've wanted to do this route since I first saw it about 2 years ago, but Rossiter's 10dS rating scared me away. Adam's posting of this climb reinspired me. Turns out you can get as much gear as you want, and it may be soft for 10d.
You'll want a 4.5 and 5 Camalot for the wide crack. I placed a couple more big cams since we carried our nuclear arsenal up the hill, not knowing what we'd be up against. We all stemmed the wide start, and it was fun and interesting--not at all a grovel. Above the wide crack is an airy moderate overhanging corner. If you don't have double in hand-sized cams (#2 Camalot), you'll want to move your one cam that fits up at least once. You could belay (or bivvy) on the lie-down ledge, but it's better to keep going so that you'll have more rope out for the hard part.
The crux shallow right facing right leaning corner is made reasonable by the occasionaly positive foothold. I placed 7 pieces in this corner from a #3 Camalot at the very bottom to a 1/4" nut at the last move. The other pieces were in the red Alien to #.75 Camalot size. No micro cams, although you might get one at the last move. The crux for me was, as Adam implies, the last move over the overhang, due to accumulated pump and placing the last piece rather than to technical difficulties. Both my partners, Luke and Chuck, avoided this by stepping left onto the face directly below the anchor bolts.
Overall, the start was better than I expected, and the upper corner was easier and much shorter and safer than I expected.
I believe the "serious" rating in the guidebook pertains to the 10d s last pitch that comes after the route description by Adam above. I don't think it gets done very often... it looks fairly lichenous and perhaps a bit chossy, as well as run out! And it's also very short, 30 or 40 feet?
Steve, We considered continuing up and right (but without consulting a guidebook), but it looked easy and there were bolts that are, apparently, a continuation of Plan B. Perhaps, staying left of the bolts is hard and poorly protected, but it never crossed my mind to avoid the bolts. More likely, I was so relieved to get to the anchors, that I just wanted down.
I highly recommend this route. I don't know about soft for 10d, but who knows. 10+ seems about right.
I wouldn't call the start "burly offwidthing". It felt about 5.9 to me. Could be a little harder if you had really small hands; I was able to get a few good fist jams along the way.
For newer BD sizes (C4's), I used one each of 4,5, and 6. This is sufficient to be well protected for the start without sewing it up. There may be other gear there. I had the big stuff so I wasn't looking. I'd take doubles in the .5 to .75 Camalot range.
RSS Feed
Slideshow
