Daphne  5.12b

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Type:  Sport, 1 pitch, 80 feet Consensus:  5.12b [details] FA:  Daphne & Flaviano Bessone, Adele Gamba, 2001 Submitted By:  Top Rope Hero on Oct 25, 2011 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Description 

You. Must. Do. Daphne.

No, NOT the cartoon character of Scooby-Doo fame, freak. The climb. THIS climb. Although it's crazily un-Kalymnian in that it only has a whiff of tufa, nevertheless this plum belongs in your basket. Go pick it.

Trend up 'n' right on the velvet thighs of virgins. Delicate, precise footwork on increasingly greasy feet help. So would poise and the kind of balance that Cirque du Soleil performers would knife you for in the back alley mean streets of Quebec. Hands will take care of themselves; the edges and pockets here will swallow you to the elbows. Shake out when you can; the crux (near the top) is a bitch.

SPOILER ALERT: Now...here's the thing of it. The Aris suggests that "the route" sends the desperate pockets up the face, that mounting the tufa on the left essentially cheats the grade. Unstoppable is my river of "whatever"!

The face holds include a deep but hidden downward mono on a high, right-sloping rail. Which makes mounting the top fairly 11ish. But stay on the steeper and more committing left face cuts and put the Kegel clamp down on that tufa pipe, feet up micro edges—now THAT is the money sequence. Far more aesthetically clean. Far more brilliant, harder, even. AND it follows proper the bolt line, not wanders off left for the pendulum of doom.

But? Make your own choice. Daphne would have wanted it that way.

Location 

On the extreme right side of the Orion wall, on the left side of the Marci Marc cave where only the immortal send. Belayers get to take in the show.

Protection 

A dozen plus draws and steely nerves, shoes soled with gorilla glue. Two-bolt/two-'biner anchor.