Mystery Ship 

A challenging route made more difficult by plentiful moss and lichen; the route could use a good scrubbing. The start is on a narrow ledge with a drop off; consider anchoring the belayer to the big pine tree since the first bolt is fairly high.

I found the headwall at the fourth and fifth bolts to be much harder than 10a. I had to power layback a finger crack with small lichen-covered footholds and a long reach to the next good edge for the hands. Maybe there's an easier way, but I couldn't find it.

Perhaps Richard has been taking into consideration the heavy down-grading that consensus has given the other area routes. I spoke about this with him a few weeks ago. Avalon is pretty soft not only relative to other areas, but also within the canyon. We all try to arrive at consensus for an area, and this discussion promotes that. As a guidebook author, Richard is in the uniquely difficult position of not only trying to arrive the right conclusion and keep a relativly [consistent] grading scale, but also trying to set the standard for what that scale is. Once the books are published (or routes published en-mass) then that is the standard...

So, is the route hard at the grade, or only for Avalon?

On F.A. of any particular route, especially when I am cleaning along the way, I try to take all factors into consideration and guess at what grade the route may some day end up at. The great thing about this as a living resource is that it can be updated...

I am responding to the entries from Ron and Tony. For most of the routes on Avalon, I graded them according to the perceived difficulty on the actual first ascent. In some cases this has proven pretty close to current consensus. In other cases the routes were so tenuous and unstable, such as the Dominator, it was difficult to imagine the things all squeaky clean after 1000 ascents.

Regarding the new routes on the Third Tier, I was trying to project into the future, when all the lichen and moss is worn away and all the beta is known and published. Ron may have a point though, that it is tiresome having the initial ratings endlessly downgraded by people who do not even set routes themselves. Time will tell if I have been too conservative on these last few routes.

As for the routes being "dirty," I would say this. Most climbers have no idea how much effort, time and sheer manual labor is required to set up a single new route on a primitive and heavily [vegetated] crag such as Avalon, Sleeping Beauty or Lost Angel. Clearing brush, loose rock and building approach trails are enormous undertakings. Understand that I am not complaining. I could not even explain the deep pleasure and sense of creative fulfillment this work has provided for me over the years. I am just speaking out.

If you think a route needs to be cleaned up, here is the solution: Go to McGuckin's or Southerlands Hardware and buy the following tools.

1. Wire brush with a closed handle (to protect your knuckles)
2. Weed puller, steel, wood grip
3. Surgical tubing, 24 inches long (to blow debris out of cracks and crannies)
4. Whisk Broom

Then go clean the mutha. Be part of the solution or be a wanker.

Yours truly, Richard Rossiter

Richard-talk about hitting the nail on the head!

Good points and thanks for all your hard work opening all those new routes.

Hope all is well and talk to you soon, Bob

Tony Bubb writes: "So is the route hard at the grade, or only for Avalon?"

I fell off the crux three times. I found the route harder than all the other 10s I've done at Avalon, including Lust, Sex Slave, The Fool, Dominator, Marquis de Sade, Isle of the Dead, and Dead Again, all of which are rated 10b to 10d.

To Richard and Bob: I realize how much work goes into establishing and cleaning a new route; I have thanked you both in person for all the new routes you have put up over the years. The vast majority of those routes were fun and clean the first time I did them. Some were a little dirty at first but have cleaned up with subsequent ascents. I remember doing Gish on Bell Buttress and I could see the rock dust from drilling the bolt holes, and found the route fun and adequately clean even though I was doing perhaps the third or fourth ascent. I also did The Horse, The Dead Zone, and Charon's Boat on Avalon within a week of their creation and found them fun and reasonably clean.

However, a very few routes were so dirty when I climbed them that they weren't much fun: Prince Charmer on Sleeping Beauty, Justin Alf Memorial on Bell Buttress, Mephistophiles on Solaris, and Mystery Ship on Avalon.

When a route is dirty beyond a certain point, it will not attract climber traffic and will never clean up and become popular, unless the line is so compelling that it begs to be climbed, like Dominator, or unless someone takes the time to clean it up.

I'll take Richard's suggestion and buy a wire brush and whisk broom and keep them in my climbing pack when I'm doing a recently installed route, and try to clean the route if it needs it. I urge other climbers to do the same. Any climbers wanting to give something to the climbing community should apply a wire brush and whisk broom to the routes I mentioned above, and any other potentially good routes that need cleaning.

Well said, Richard.

Ron wrote: To Richard and Bob: I realize how much work goes into establishing and cleaning a new route; I have thanked you both in person for all the new routes you have put up over the years. The vast majority of those routes were fun and clean the first time I did them. Some were a little dirty at first but have cleaned up with subsequent ascents. I remember doing Gish on Bell Buttress and I could see the rock dust from drilling the bolt holes, and found the route fun and adequately clean even though I was doing perhaps the third or fourth ascent. I also did The Horse, The Dead Zone, and Charon's Boat on Avalon within a week of their creation and found them fun and reasonably clean.

Ron- you are not the culprit so I would relax.

With all of my babblings on this site I don't think I have down-rated or commented on this quality (lack of) of another person new route/route.

Gradings and my [assessment] of someone route is quite personal. It is what is for me at that time.

Some days 5.12 seems easy and other days 5.10 feel quite hard. A route might feel dirty to one climber and not to another. I have spend a lot of time climbing in the Garden of the Gods/Black Canyon/11 Mile Canyon...so maybe my perception of a dirty and loose route could be a little off.

Ron. Good man! I can use some help up there. The routes on the northeast side, such as Ancient Light, Mystery Ship, Charon's Boat and the new routes just being developed on the upper wall, need so much cleaning, it is more than I have time to do. You are right too, that if someone finds that a climb could use more cleaning, instead of writing about, bring some tools up and clean it. No one will complain about that!

Yes, some new routes are coming up. I will post them as soon as I have completed setting them up and have had a chance to climb them.

Apparently this route has cleaned up a bit. It's pretty clean now.

5.10a

I ran into some folks on Saturday who said they backed off of it because of all of the moss and the like on it, so I cleaned the $#@% out of it on my way down (and got a booty biner too). I ripped of fist-sized chunks of junk and totally gave my partner a lichen shower... Anyway, it still needs a good stiff brushing, but it is a lot better.
Anyone who knowingly goes up to do 'recently installed' routes should carry a broad brush and help clean them up.

Sporting runouts between the bolts and quite a few .10 moves. Although I may be biased because it was the end of the day and my tips were sore, I thought the crux headwall was more like .10c than .10a. And, while there's still lichen on the route, it *has* cleaned up nicely. Our thanks to everyone who's wire brushed it.

The first half is moderate, but the headwall was way harder than Ancient Light which is supposedly 10a, but may be just 9. The clip after the finger crack on the headwall was pretty hard. It was cold, so that may have contributed. On the other hand, my partner Luke TR'd it in his approach shoes, and made it look relatively easy.