By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO May 27, 2002 rating: 5.10d
| Here I go again- I know ratings are subjective, but... I did this one while wandering around up at Diamond head, prior to figuring out what I was getting on. Thus, I did this route without beta or bias as to it's grade.
I pulled up to the corner on the somewhat "iffy" rock. I was a little wet from the recent snow and melt-off, which explains the lichens. I was able to place enough gear (small cams on 2' runners) up under the roof to make me feel plenty safe for the roof moves. Stemming left under the roof to a foothold near the edge helped. I pulled up under the flake and around and could ALMOST reach a killer side-pull. instead of reaching the killer side-pull on the knife-blade feature, however, I pinched the edge and slapped around at the crack, moved both of my feet high end left and cranked like a fiend to match hands on the side-pull. From there it was good locks.
At 5'10" This felt like 5.10d. Once I had the side-pull it was 5.10a. I went up and down trying to grab that thing from many different feet. Now I don't know how tall you guys are, but I am guessing in the 6'0" range. Check your height for this one if you only lead 10a. In my opinion, it was harder than Tagger (10c), Grandmothers' Challenge (10c), Whiplash (10c), or Sooberb (10c). |