Best 5.5 in the Country?

JSH wrote:Vegas should definitely be represented in the "date grade" range, so I guess that would have to be Cat in the Hat.

JSH,

It already was - I submitted Solar Slab! But CITH is a good 5.6, also.

Ryan Kelly wrote: I was waiting for someone to say that. Word on the street, 5.5 Gunks is 5.9+ out here in the West.

can anybody actually name a 5.5 route that would be graded 5.9 in the west? fwiw, the softest 11- i've ever climbed was at the gunks.

Chuck Norris can't climb 5.5. in the Gunks.

slim wrote: can anybody actually name a 5.5 route that would be graded 5.9 in the west? fwiw, the softest 11- i've ever climbed was at the gunks.

Pains me to say, Slim, you failed to attain sarcasmogasm.

Line 4

I'm guessing that easy Gunks .11 was The Stand or On Any Monday?

Sorry in advance for the thread drift.

DL

Shawn Mitchell wrote: Pains me to say, Slim, you failed to attain sarcasmogasm.

not so sure... there are a lot of folks that say this as if it is gospel or something. i wasn't questioning ryan, i was questioning the folks that he is poking fun at.

lucander, good guesses for sure, but low exposure is the answer.

FWIW: Low Exposure is dowgraded to 5.10d in the "Grey Dick," our most recent and authoritative guidebook. Personally, it might be in the 5.10a/b range if you can fist jam a #3 camalot.

Now - let's hear about some more awesome 5.5s, I'm loving the pictures of crazy Colorado ridgelines!

DL

lucander wrote:FWIW: Low Exposure is dowgraded to 5.10d in the "Grey Dick," our most recent and authoritative guidebook. Personally, it might be in the 5.10a/b range if you can fist jam a #3 camalot. Now - let's hear about some more awesome 5.5s, I'm loving the pictures of crazy Colorado ridgelines! DL

#3 is good hands for any real man ;)

I just did a CA road trip and I was constantly finding myself looking at classic 5.5 to 5.6 mountain climbs and saying "yea I'll do that someday when I don't have anyone to climb with." In that sense there are plenty of routes at that grade I'd like to do, many of them have been mentioned already. But if I'm going to haul up a rope and gear I want to be on something a little more interesting than what basically amounts to 4th class with a few real climbing moves.

Cowboy Route, Bath Rock, City of Rocks. Rusty Baillie once told me that if you took anyone up it as their first climb, they'd be a climber forever. He's right. It's only really one and a half pitches, but it's awesome, exposed (somehow gymnastic for a 5.5) just protected enough, tops out on a great summit, with a cool downclimb to finish. I once spent a month in the city camped right across from Bath Rock, and soloed Cowboy for breakfast every morning. Never got old.

P.S.
+1 for the Upper Exum.

Andy Matthews wrote:Dislocation Buttress, Granite Mountain, AZ no crowds sort of backcountry and phenomenal climbing

Clearly I don't know enough about AZ - that looks beautiful.

+1 for Right On in JTree. Varied climbing on good rock, and the tallest route in the park. A sandbag, though.