Front Range Practice Crack

Looking for a steep crack to practice falling on trad gear... Anybody have a recommendation? North of Denver is preferred.

Jeremy Franz wrote:Looking ... to practice falling on trad gear...

What??? The leader should never fall.

Supremacy Crack should do nicely.

Thanks Greg, that looks like a nice one...

mountainproject.com/v/color…

Any other suggestions?

Jeremy, Try Primal Jam at Castlewood
mountainproject.com/v/color…

mountainproject.com/v/color…

This place is more prone to these kinds of shenanigan's.

Greg Hand wrote:Supremacy Crack should do nicely.

Not a lot of room for error there since the climb is short, you are never very far from the ground. If you pop a peice, you hit the ramp. Soulds risky to 'practice' on to me.

Are you trying to solidify the emotion that hte gear will hold, or just see what will and won't.
Gransmother's Challenge, Art's Spar, Midnight Trundler, the Alternate pitch of Blind Faith, Suberb... all have clearance from roofs or overhangs that give you some space Vs the wall below, again provided that a peice does not pop... and all should be able to put in a few peices between you and disaster, as they are far from the ground.

Tony Bubb wrote: Are you trying to solidify the emotion that hte gear will hold, or just see what will and won't.

A little bit of both. I'm attempting to travel the Rock Warrior's Way, and I need to silence the 'phantom fear' that creeps into my head when climbing above trad pro.

Thanks for the recommendations Tony et al!

deviant comes to mind, first pitch of blind faith would be a pretty clean fall near the crux too as tony mentioned.
Also it looks like the 5.10 crack on rincon would be a pretty good one for a fall, and maybe darkness till dawn too? I can't really say as I have not climbed either of them.

What about over the hill and emerald city? Tagger? UMPH slot?(I've only climbed emerald city and the second pitch of OTH) perhaps the owl and the top of the empor.

not north of denver but quivering quill comes to mind aswell. and the central corner on skinner.

Kashmir (less than vertical, but nothing to hit) and Grandmothers challenge come to mind as stuff I have fallen on lately. Tagger, Kings X, and Northcutt Start also come to mind, but those involved falling on questionably fixed gear. Outside of Eldo I have fallen on (without consequences) Dead Boy Direct at Lumpy and Beef Eater at Vedauvoo.

Plumb Line at Vedauvoo although short is slightly overhanging and takes great gear (you could stack a couple of cams for piece of mind). I thought I was going to go for a ride when I topped out on the route. It would have been easier and caused less bleeding if I had tested my high piece. Seriously this would be a good one.

Spectreman at Vedauwoo would be a good one. The gear is bomber cams and the fall is clean.

Jeremy,

Maybe go and do some clean aid climbing and a lot of aggressive bounce testing. You're learn re quick how good a placement is and begin to trust your placements.

Cheers

John

you've got a point there john as none of us had asked about his experience with the gear.....
Personally however I have spent the time in aiders and experienced some marginal placments. I feel comfortable with my placments but I have yet to fall on any of them. There for if im going to push my limits at all I need to pick a route that is supportive of that and has a good clean fall line with good gear. I have noticed on a number of routes that this really does help and almost get's me in the mindset I would have sport climbing(comfort above my last piece and no worries about the fall as I have already anticipated the results of one).

I just assumed the OP was in the same boat.

John McNamee wrote:aggressive bounce testing

That sounds like fun! The weird thing is I am very confident that my placements are good. I have just never fallen on one, so I haven't assimilated that schema. Does that make sense? Basically, it sounds like Jason is in the exact same boat as me.

That said, even though I am confident in my placements, I think I will probably bounce test them prioir to taking practice falls. And place a few extra back up pieces, etc.

I think I will experiment with the aid climbing too. Maybe test a bomber placement. Then gradually work my way into some more marginal placements. See what holds and what doesn't. Good to know so I know if I'm in the danger zone on any specific placement - i.e. possibly entering a no-fall zone if I can't find any better pro.

Thanks for the ideas everybody!

Here's a technical question: how much force can you generate in an aggressive bounce test? How does this compare to the impact force of a typical lead fall (fall factor < 1.5)? Not looking for hard numbers here, just a ballpark... Curious...

Jeremy Franz wrote: Here's a technical question: how much force can you generate in an aggressive bounce test? How does this compare to the impact force of a typical lead fall (fall factor < 1.5)? Not looking for hard numbers here, just a ballpark... Curious...

Seems I've heard 3-5 times your weight (which is a lot more when you have an aid rack hanging off you).

Anyone else? Probably a good question for Dr. Piton.