Christa Cline tip-toeing up the thin crack, belaye...
Description
The longest line on Catslab and my personal favorite, Jellicle Cats fires up the middle in either one long pitch or in two. Start with the Gumby Cat and keep on going. 5.10 cruxes arise right off the Gumby anchor and again in three more places. The harder of the cruxes is in getting out of a thin tips-only crack, and this an airy, committing move that relies on precise foot-work. Good stone, fun moves, and a wee bit bold all add up to three stars.
Protection
QD only. This line tops out 140 ft above the deck and can be rapped with double ropes or in two stages with a 60 m rope.
Im definitely not an expert on ratings, but, I find it hard to believe that this route is considered 10c. I might feel otherwise without all the bolts though...:) But, I climbed it in early spring, thought it was more like 5.8/9ish at most... Who knows, maybe it was just an uncharacteristically (spelling??) good day for me?? Fun face climb though, very well protected.
Hmmm..... Went back to my own notebook from 4/4/98. I had given Jellicle Cats 5.10a(?b). Perhaps we should either stick with original or split the difference. The 5.10c came out of Mark Rolofson's book.
I think that the Jellicle Cat was a fun route it starts of pretty easy than towards the top it gets harder and gets hard to find holds, and I recommend a 60 meter rope,
Guess I'd have to go back and try it again, maybe it is harder than I remember. One thing that sticks out in my mind are all the cool little quartz crystals on the rock that you get to pull/step on. Pretty neat... There's a bolted route on the right side (climbers right)of the crag which goes up on slightly overhanging jugs....in that way, different from the other mostly slab routes. It was pretty fun, but has some loose-ish rock, and is kinda dirty. I think the book gave it a 10d which may be a bit generous? Not sure of the name, but, look out for loose stuff... But, isn't the crag closed, or??
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Mar 5, 2002 rating: 5.9
I'd have to agree with Joe Keyser, 9. Much of this slab seems overrated in difficulty, though. However, if you climbed it climbing the shortest line 'tween the bolts, ya might eek out a 10a, but you'd miss all these obvious holds....
First, nice climb. Crux for me was just above the first clip. Though, I tried to go around right rather than up the crack on the left.
A word on rope length. I have a 70m and it will not allow a full rappel to the deck. Either double rope rap down or tie stoppers on one rope, rap to the chains at the top of Gumby Cats, reset a rap there and finish the rest of the way. Good luck.
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