Don's Crack  5.8+

366 page views Good page?

Type:  Trad, 7 pitches, 900 feet, Grade III Consensus:  5.8+ [details] FA:  Joanna McComb and Dan Jones, 1966 FFA Mike McEwan, Marti Woerner, Dave Baker 1977 Season:  not summer fall is best Submitted By:  Charles Vernon on Mar 25, 2012 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (3) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Photo of the first ascentionists camped on Lion's ...

Add Photo  Add Comment    Printer View

Caution: Human and Drug Trafficking MORE INFO >>> Traffic from drug smuggling and illegal immigration is high in this area. Exercise caution. US Border Patrol recommends avoiding this area completely after dark. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

Sustained meat and potatoes crack climbing--with a couple of facey cruxes--up the most obvious line on Babo. The 2-star rating is somewhat aspirational as the crack is very dirty (and when we did it, running with water the whole way). Nevertheless as the guidebook says, there is a lot of fun climbing on this route and the rock, once unearthed, is good. If it got a lot of traffic, this route might resemble a classic, but I can't imagine that happening. Still, it's very enjoyable with the right mindset. I would say you want to be at least a solid 5.9 climber to do this route.

The best time to do this route would be fall before the first snow as it is most likely to be dry at that time.

Kerry's description is accurate, bearing in mind that the route does join the SE Arete at the notch.

Location 

See Kerry's description. Obvious crack/chimney on the left side of the east face.

Protection 

We had a single set of gear to a #3 camalot--adequate, but doubles of .5-2 or 3 camalot would not go unused. 4 is not necessary but would get used. Tricams were quite useful in spots. Leader should have a nut tool to clean the crack.

Photos of Don's Crack Slideshow

Add Photo

Shot of the first ascent, courtesy of Ben Fairbank...

About to embark on the trip that resulted in the f...