First 5.12 in Colorado?

Some friends and I were talking about Eldo the other day, when we realized that we've climbed the first free 5.10 in Colorado (Northcutt Variation) and the first 5.11 (Supremacy Crack). I was just wondering if anybody new what the first .12 to go free in Colorado is?

Any truth to the rumor that he led it with a single stopper and the #11 hex?

This is a little off topic but I'm pretty sure that Robbins' and Ament's "Athlete's Feat" in Boulder Canyon was the first 11 in Colorado, if not the country.

Peter, hilarious, I was going to suggest "For Turkeys Only" as well and
then realized it was up to you on that call. Knew you'd come through. Hope your well and see you in the Spring in Castle Valley?

Pete, I just flipped through High Over Boulder and Athlete's Feat does indeed get marked up as a 5.10. It also gives Cosmosis a 10- so go figure! I guess it all depends on whether you're working with a 1960s or 1990s YDS scale...

This is a fun post. The queston at hand now is where, when, and whom did the first 5.9 on the planet? The answer is mind blowing. As old as Peter is I can assure you he had nothing to do with it. Thanks for the call Pete

Thanks Pete. I'll have to make it out there to climb it.

Actually I remember driving up 24 with Harvey to visit Jimmy or maybe to simply drink at the Tres Hombres... anyhow Harvey had me pull over and he pointed out an obscure fat fang of granite and with great confidence told me he in fact had done the first 5.10 in Colorado on this very rock when Northcut was in diapers. I had no reason and still have no reason not to believe Harvey T. Carter.

Northcutt in diapers!!! Wasn't the NC variation freed in '59?

Pete, a Queston of Balance in Taylor Canyon? I was questoned as a suspect of a robbery that had taken place in the Butte the night before at the climbing store by the Sheriff as I was leading that thing. Funny as can be in retrospect. Thanks for the CC climbing deal. It's about time.

No worries, Pete. Like Allen said this is fun stuff to think about. It sure beats the 5.14f vs. 5.14g debates that permeate most of the contemporary climbing lit.

Bryan

here's the answer to the trivia question. The first recorded and confirmed 5.9 was done in 1909 in the sandstone rocks south of Dresdin Germany by an American eccentric by the name of Oliver Perry Smith. I followed the climb last Summer and it is stout. Certainly glad I had not led it with the normal rack of knotted slings used in that part of the world as the only exceptable form of protection. No tcu to a bolt, then a bolt, then a tcu. Real climbing in that part of the world for sure.

The first 5.2 was climbed by Unk, ten thousand years ago in France.
The first 5.8 was climbed by Tlichit Twofeathers seven hundered years ago in Idaho.

First .9 in CO?

Ellingwood Chimney was the first 5.8 in the Platte maybe even the first in Colorado. Albert Ellingwood climbed it in 1924.

I'm pretty sure that Cinch Crack was the first in this area.
John Bragg did a fine job on the lead and without all the fixed tat that now exists in it.

Jack

Sean,
For Turkeys Only is rated 5.12 because people can't believe anything harder was lead in 1975. Jimmy loves to bring OW "Pro's" out to the Tail and watch them flail. It is probably one of the harder OW's in the state....

5.8 - Ellingwood also downclimbed the damn thing!

Otto's, circa early 1900's?? hacked out, but, would any of us do it today in cowboy boots?

Bryan Gartland wrote:Pete, I just flipped through High Over Boulder and Athlete's Feat does indeed get marked up as a 5.10. It also gives Cosmosis a 10- so go figure! I guess it all depends on whether you're working with a 1960s or 1990s YDS scale...

Also depends on what holds broke off. Athletes Feat feels like most 11's these days, but I hear say from others that they recall some presently missing holds and some once not-so-polished ones.

Wasn't Vertigo a 9+ or a 10 once upon a time as well?