After a perfect day last year on Serenity Crack/Sons of Yesterday I wrote down this thought:

Climbing ~900' up a relatively smooth granite face by way of a crack isn't intuitive for the non-climber. Many [face] climbs are like complicated ladders where the skill is obvious and easy to appreciate. Crack climbing technique involves twisting and stacking your fingers in strange ways so that when you succeed, you feel like you're doing something entirely different than climbing a ladder. It's like the difference between riding a bicycle and riding a unicycle, or walking on stilts. You feel proud of yourself when you make it work, almost like juggling (or riding a unicycle on stilts).

Crack climbing technique is further removed from the average person's (read: non-climber's) everyday experience than face climbing. To me that is what makes it more interesting.

Not to stir up the hornets nest, but wasn't the OP's comment about the Rapture looking at peoples religious views in a joking light? How is this so different from Dorsey's comment? I'm not saying either is right or wrong, just pointing out what to me seems like an overlooked inconsistency. I'm not trying to offend anyone, I just feel like this guy is kind of getting ganged up on.

Shelton - That's a fair point. I'm from the Bible Belt and most of my friends believe in the Rapture; I don't make fun of that belief. I'm referencing the fact that Harold Camping has predicted the Rapture a couple times now and every time it hasn't happened, he comes back a couple weeks later to explain that NOW he knows when it is. I'm poking fun at one man's insistence that he knows when the "End of Times" is even in the face of all evidence proving otherwise - NOT in anyone's belief in said "End of Times".

And everyone is ganging up on Dorsey because he's been fairly harassing in several other threads and in some PMs.

To put it in context, you'd have to see that he's been chasing folks around the site, posting harsh shit to contradict honestly supportive or fair comments, sending vitriolic PMs by the douche-load to strangers who have no interest in contact with him, and keeping an amazing consistency to the wolverine-like suburban white kid fury of his posts. Eric has a lot of frustration to take out on strangers, and, yeah, it doesn't take 20 people to comment that he's being a dick, but he is, and apparently enough people who clicked on this thread agreed that it turned into a minor thread hijack.

Now say something supportive about crack love or be the first to +1 Missus Q's contention that 5.10 traditional climbing is boring, insignificant stuff.

Thanks guys. I now get where y'all are coming from. It's amazing how many people have trouble with "Guideline #1".

I love crack climbing. When you start it's going to feel like you're doing it very very wrong... because you are. Whereas face climbing's difficulty (for me) comes from learning good body positioning, crack climbing has that aspect as well as learning 100 different ways to jam. It feels so awesome when it starts to come together though. I still have lots to learn.

-1 on 5.10 trad climbing being boring
I might have a different opinion though if I consistently led 5.11 on gear :)

I was in the same boat as you about a year ago when I climbed Center Route in the South Platte, a super classic 3 pitch 5.9. I was sport climbing 5.11+ and expected to walk up Center Route. I thought I could lead the 5.8 first pitch (I mean, 5.8, right!), but I got spanked. With no crack technique I got scared shitless and became frustrated and exhausted. Since then I have put a lot of time into getting hand and foot jamming down (which people say IC does right away) and have really come to love crack climbing. For me, the beauty of it is where it can take you. I now live close to Yosemite, and with some basic crack technique you can find yourself 1000' off the deck, all alone, in the most majestic place ever.

Plus, besides Indian Creek, most cracks vary in size, so you end up using several techniques as you climb them, like face climbing. So really they're usually not too repetitive and boring. Stick it out man, crack climbing is a blast, and eventually you will start scoffing at crimpers and opting for bomber jams. And if you want to know whether or not the cool kids are doing it, Chris Sharma uses a vital hand jam to rest during his FA of Jumbo Love.

Does anyone else think it's funny that we're all sitting around talking about how crack climbing is so different than face climbing... harder to get used to than "regular climbing."

Crack climbing is normal and is what has been pushing climbing since the beginning. Everything else is just contrived.

If you know can climb crack you will.
If you know the Rapture will come it will.

SLLLLAAAAAAADDDDEEEEE!

Ya know, hearing all this horseshit going on at the Red, who I REALLY feel bad for is Miguel and Susan. Nicest people in the world, and they're up to their necks in rah brahs without a doubt. I guess the upside is job security-the Venturas are probably selling out every dough they can put together, every day, for two long seasons a year.

If anyone gives a crap, there is sick crack climbing in Kentucky, well worth the drive. Examples are too numerous to even get into. Check it out.

Thinking of cracks in terms of Indian Creek or other 1,2, or 3 pitch venues is missing an important (the most important?) aspect of cracks - cracks are the features that let you get up the big, wild, and/or face-melting granite formations and ranges of the world.

If you don't learn to climb cracks, you can't climb the biggest, most-honcho lines - from El Cap to Cerro Torre, you need to know how to jam.

PS Had an idea to save time on comments about Eric's lamestatus. If you're annoyed with the negativity, just follow his posts with a simple, one-word comment: "Stalker." That seems to be working for me.

Who else has gotten rude PMs from this guy?

(sorry, thread hijack. Ruthless, crippler winds at RR today, bored)

I think one of the main appeals of cracks is that they are often such definitive "lines". Everyone loves a clear, obvious "line". A lot of times with face routes they can be contrived, with bolts heading off in one direction when they could have just as easily gone off in another. A crack is like that improbable series of pockets up a blank face, or a protruding dike that thoughfully angles across the face to that next ledge. Cracks are just one of those features that beg to be climbed because they're so climbable.

Also, this thread needs pictures...

Splitter fingers on pitch 5. Submitted By: Bryan G on Oct 25, 2011

Awesome jamming on pitch 2 of Mental Block. The crack widens from 1" to 3". Submitted By: Bryan G on Oct 11, 2011

damn that first crack looks amazing, i think that may be a big appeal of crack climbing, the beauty! they are they natural features that let you ascend a huge rock face/ mountain sans bolts. cracks are historically how people got up, from pounding pitons to nowdays with cams and nuts. where is that?

If I know the Rapture won't happen, will it still happen?


no



And if "it is what it is";what happens when "it isn't what it is"?


then it won't be

I love the full-body workout that crack climbing gives. After a day at Arch Rock, say, I can feel exhausted to my core. Often with face climbing I'm just tired from the elbows down, or my tips hurt.

So, like, such as, that's one part of what's up with it for me. The fact of it being a crucial skill for getting way up there is nice. I like the intellectual challenge of protecting and route-finding, but this is not exclusive to crack-climbing really. The feeling of independence and adventure that comes with knowing how to use natural features to climb and protect is as big as anything, really. It's a powerful feeling to be able to walk up to any crag on earth and say "I could get up that" without having to follow somebody else's line of permanent anchors.

It enables me to play a bigger game. Simple as that.

Painful video. The Rapture should take us all and life on Earth can start with a clean slate.

This post would not have been written prior to the mid-eighties.
Yes, rock climbing actually existed before the advent and general acceptance of bolted face climbs a.k.a sport routes.
This was back in the day when a climber required cracks to accomodate protection points.
I truly feel that many younger climbers today who were introduced to the sport in the rock gym/sport route environment, and have never ventured out of that scene, are missing out on the finest and most rewarding aspect of ascent, the ground up trad lead. Ground up trad lead first ascents have an adventurous feel that can not be matched by repeating an existing bolted sport route.

Crack climbing is great.
Bouldering is great.
Sport climbing is great.
Alpine is great.
Ice is....OK(joke. I just don't miss it)

It is like comparing donuts to ice cream. Get over your opinion that one is less than another. The true meter in which to test "value" in your discipline is to question your reason for venture and or reward.

Being better at crack climbing will not make bouldering so much easier any more than hard sport climbing will help you slog up a mountain. Experience in all styles might help you appreciate the over all nature of climbing and help you find what you need from it.

I have enjoyed every aspect of climbing and respect every style but, hold no style above another.

just a rant. I get tired of hearing how pure trad is and blah blah. You're covered in plastic synthetic gear while scarring up rock while shitting off a ledge. Sling a tree!!!

I need to be able to tell myself that those little gym punks that boulder v-whatever x4 grades harder than me, can't lead a 5.8 crack. Makes it easier to go to a gym when its raining.

And then there are "cracks" like this one that look inviting from the bottom and then turn out to be a bottoming v-shaped slot that will take no jam and need to be face climbed on the outside.

Whiskey Crack - the Tom Pulaski 5.10 testpiece. Submitted By: YDPL8S on Apr 7, 2008

Great route, past the slightly sketchy crux. Submitted By: morkel on Jun 4, 2009

1.) Is my enjoyment directly linked to my skill level? Once I get some decent technique down will crack climbing feel like climbing again instead of a chore?
Studying technique is the only way to learn! Once you utilize the hand jams and what not, that yove been studying, all that time of "chores" are worth it, guarenteed. Hard work pays off

2.) Does anyone else get bored at the thought of pitch after pitch of cracks? The hordes of people at Indian Creek make it clear that lots of people love them some splitters, but are there good, solid crack climbers who have no interest in anything more than a pitch or two of crack? What's the appeal to 160 feet of the same movement?

I love long cracks, if i could have 6 pitches of Double Cross from J tree, I'd be in love.

3.) What's the deal with the Rapture; is it going to come or not? I need to know whether or not to get serious about finding a real job.
Anyone else on this? Gotta know when to buy me a 30 pack of keystone. Shoot if it's rapture maybe i'll buy a bottle of frangelicos to go along with it