Emanuel Hudon wondering how many kneebars he will ...
Description
Pumpy moves out a roof lead to a good, if uncomfortable and undignified, rest. Stand up and enter the steep dihedral (technical crux). "Top out" of this section for another really good rest if you can get it just right. Stand up again (a little awkward) and strive for the top of the "2x4". Clip (phew!) and make your way into the narrow chimney for a series of strenuous, sideways kneebars (psychological crux). Get another rest at the top of this system before pulling through the top little boulder problem to the chains.
Location
The start of Restless is in a V groove just to the right of a nice, flat, stone table. A great place to don your shoes and kneepad.
This route is full of surprises. It is amazing that this line ascends such a stunning section of cliff. The rests are unlikely and unique and creative. The crux is very hard, and can seem impossible upon first encounter. The upper climbing is spectacular and dynamic, peppered with big holds that are sometimes very far apart. The kneebar allows upside down no hands rest!! And the handjam is welcome for those who know how to use it. The journey ends at a beautiful bucket seat for 1 person a body length from the top, which allows a moment of quiet reflection after having clipped the chains. Does climbing get any better than this?
first rappel bolted accent ted hammond. first accent was by me bradley white in 1987. ground up aid route wild and committing to say the least i led it and tom bowker cleaned it. we left some anchors in place for someone to free it someday. tom and i called the route sunami.
Too bad that part of this awesome route's history has been ignored and almost forgotten. Seems like the name should still be Sunami. In my opinion, retro-bolting and freeing an aid line shouldn't be justification for a new name.
There is a long tradition of renaming routes once they are freed. By the way, Ted lead the route using far less bolts than there are today. He has a history of climbing free FAs with sketchy gear on loose rock.
This is one of the first routes I got on at Rumney years ago and remember the technical corner seemed utterly impossible at the time to free and I had to back off. I figured it must have been an aid climb. Funny how seemingly impossible routes turn into the possible with a bit of work.
Also there is now another route named Tsunami at this wall, so the name lives on.