Five-Eight Crack 

And by the way, in case you wanted to know where it was, it starts about 20 or so feet right of Rincon (a thin finger crack that leads into a huge right-facing dihedral running the whole rest of the height of Rincon Wall--a good landmark for getting your bearings no matter what route you're heading for.

I should have made clear that it is the second crack right of Rincon, maybe more like 30 ft. (5.10 crack being the first)

I agree, I thought 5.8 crack seemed just as tricky as 5.10 crack... Maybe eaiser moves, but, the difficulty is at the bottom where you get one [piece] of "mental pro." If you get sketched out, try leaning back, and resting against the tree that is directly behind the route, you can chimney between that, and the rock for a little bit of the start. Fun route!

You can stick a blue Alien in an undercing about 10 feet up, after that there's not much for pro for the next 15 or 20 feet(.8). If you consider Tagger's first pitch an "s" rating, this route would be considered one as well. Cheat on the tree if need be. Stays in the sun till about 3:00 (on 12/18/01).

The tree in question is at the base of the climb. I assume most people won't be repelling a flat dirt section at the base of Rincon, but then again.. I do agree however that the rap tree for the routes in this area is getting shotty. One day it will probably be replaced by a bolted rap station, or perhaps instead, a "vs" rated 6 foot jump to the big tree and 60 foot "bear-hug fireman's slide" down to the base.

Feeling great about leading 5.10 crack, I thought this would have seem a logical warm down. Bad assumption. The pro indeed sucks until about 30 feet off the ground, well past the crux. And about that crux - good gravy. I looked at the book and realized that 5.8+ crack was put up by Bob Culp and Bob Lagrange in 62'. The + obviously meant that there was no 5.9 in those days...5.10 crack was led in 73 by the Briggs boys, and they indeed had 5.10 climbs. A little historical perspective on the apparent disparity in grading these routes.

There is a good BD #4 steel nut at the crux in a corner before the small overlap about 10 feet above the undercling. This makes it seem much more safe.

casey bernal

The route may warrant an s rating, but you can definitely get some reasonable gear in before the 20' mark. After the first hard move (at about 10'), it sews up if you have some small RPs and cams. If you are a new 5.8 leader you will probably want to hold off on this one though.

Did this as my first 5.8 trad lead today. Given that I've never trad lead anything above 5.6 I didn't feel the moves were any harder than the guide's .8 rating nor the protection meriting an "s" let alone "vs" rating. The undercling 10' up easily took my #2 Metolius 4cam (or a #3 6" to the left) and more several more nice cam placements higher up. That poor tree at the top of the route needs a 30 year break from rappels.

UPDATE - the two-bolt anchor (with rings) atop Raccoon Soup can be used for an anchor / rap for this climb.

Yep, the pro sucks for the first 15' or so of this climb. It's a fun little route, just don't fall before you get in some solid gear ;-)

Well, the comments here make me feel a bit better. I should have read this page first.

My thrilling (and somewhat embarassing) story: I pulled my one piece of "mental pro," a cam in the undercling 10 feet or a bit less off the ground, in a semi-controlled fall I took as I was attempting to bail. As someone leading 5.8 at my limit, I didn't want to risk climbing higher. As it was, my fall amounted to a big jump. I'm pretty relieved about the whole uninjured ankle, etc. situation.

Man, it looked like there would be better pro. 5.8 face seems a more apt name for the bottom of this climb. Yeah, I'll just remain an AC on this one....

Great Route
But thin, thin, thin for 5.8
One Yellow TCU at 10 ft then nothing for the next 15-20ft.
If you are squirrely above small stuff, and learning to lead gear, this is not a good choice.
The pure technical grade is stiff, AND add some spice, a new leader is not having a good day.
The 10a crack to the left is more fun, and closer to accurate.

I definitely agree with an S rating on this. I tried to get an Alien into the undercling, but it felt like it was very poor, so I moved up a bit and placed a small nut before making the crux move. Once through the crux, the climb will take small cams and even a #1 Camalot near the top to prevent a big [swing] by someone toproping the climb. Fun and thought-provoking for someone like myself just getting into 5.9 leading, however.