Indian Creek routes 5.10 that are thin hands

so I've been to the creek twice now and pretty much realized that generally most 5.10 routes are in the perfect hand sizes (#2 C4s) and 5.11 routes drop to #1 C4 size. anyone know routes that are in the 5.10 range that are mostly thin hands (#1 c4) that don't really get wider than tight #2s?

The Wave comes to mind.

The first thing that jumps to mind for me is Cave Route at Battle of the Bulge, though no doubt many more abound.

They are few and far between. Both of the 10+ routes mentioned above could just as easily be 5.11. In fact, the cave once was until Bloom got his tiny little hands on it.

The bigger question is why climb 5.10?

You are in the ultimate sport area. There is no end of tight hand 5.11's out there, go, climb as far as you can, hang, and climb more. This is the way of the creek. Besides, most of those awesome tight hands cracks turn to bomber hands by the time you finish.

For your suggestions though, maybe Karen's Corner, the cam themed guy who posted above me will confirm that it's casual.

nicelegs wrote:For your suggestions though, maybe Karen's Corner, the cam themed guy who posted above me will confirm that it's casual.

Hahaha, I see you saw my comments about the monster whip on that thing years ago! Right after I took that fall, a guy told me that Woodward had also whipped on the route, trying to do it as a "cool-down" after OSing both Sacred Cow and Twin Cam.

As for a bit more elaboration on the original poster's request, yeah, there are not too many thin hands (red camalot) splitters that are rated 5.10, but this is just a great exemplar of why grades are so subjective at the Creek. For the majority of people who FA'd routes at the Creek, thin hands were pumpy and just a bit too small for comfort, and thus not 5.10. This could be different for you, however.

If the OP has hands that are a touch smaller than average, i.e. can get the meat of the hand into a red camalot splitter, than most "5.11 thin hands" cracks will FEEL lie 5.10. Many of us have seen this, usually with small-handed females who get shut down on 5.10 gold and blue camalot splitters, but casually walk up red camalot 5.11 splitters like Soul Fire, Fatted Calf, Excuse Station, and Pente. When it comes down to red, gold, and blue cams, 5.10 and 5.11 are almost reversible for small handed folks. Hell, in some extreme cases, you can have small-handed 5.11 climbers who easily send routes like Sacred Cow or Slice'n'Dice, which for regular handed people are in the solid 5.12, even 12+ range.

So, short answer, there are thin hands routes out there for you that will only take 5.10 effort, but they may not get 5.10 in the guidebook. Make sense?

I think we can all agree that instead of grades, splitters at the creek should just be identified with crack size since as posted above, grades really don't make sense. Instead of Excuse Station: 5.11-, it would be: mostly reds, some yellow pods and a green finish. Also might work to dim down the crowds since bragging about onsighting a red to green crack isn't nearly as cool as a 5.12 crack

Cat Got Your Tongue on Cat Wall had a good stretch of reds.

As did Evening Ecstacy on 2nd Meat.

I sort of recall The Ooze on Selfish wall took a lot of green and red. Anyone confirm that?

Although it's not a sustained stretch, Cockometer at Way Rambo calls for some green and red too. The short red section on Fuzz made me work.

camhead wrote:The Wave comes to mind.

he said #1 camalots, not #1 friends (and .75 camalots..) :)

karin's corner, 5.10+, yowza. i thought that one was harder than most of the 11-/11 routes i've done out there.

like others have said, don't look so much at the grade. look at the size and length, worry about the grade afterwards.

Chris Wenker wrote:I sort of recall The Ooze on Selfish wall took a lot of green and red. Anyone confirm that?

The Ooze is mostly green camalots, IIRC, but it's lower angle and has feet, hence 5.10 grade.

Chris Wenker wrote: The short red section on Fuzz made me work.

I thought the OP said no wider than #2 camalot?

Not sure what the OP's objective is, but they may not be comfortable .75 camalot sections on 5.11s? Most 5.11 thin hands at the Creek taper down to green camalots (if not purple). The only red camalot splitters I can think of that don't require green camalots are Soul Fire (you can place them, but if you are and you have #2 camalot-sized hands, you're not sending) and maybe Top Sirloin (if you are ok with really tight reds and #2 Friends). If you are taller than 5'5", Scarface maybe a good choice, once you boulder up the start it's pod to pod until you hit the hand crack.

Actually, at the Scarface wall, left of Scarface, there is an unnamed left-facing corner that is graded 5.10(+?) that is mostly red camalots, but has funky wideness (no OW technique required) and facey climbing up at the top.

Soul Fire...meh...I usually use one green for the final committing 10 feet.

Are you looking for a womans friendly route? Or just a less than vertical tight hands test piece.

What about Chocalate Corner that's red red green red blue chains if I remember correctly.

There are 2 routes at O-meat that are thin hands and easy. "Ladies First" and "Wee Doggie".

I forgot to mention I was doing research for my wife. She has pretty thin hands. She hopped on 5.10s there and was fisting/arm bar-ing most of the way up on TR (to scared to lead anything). I'm just trying to find routes for her that could suite her but doesn't really require pulling 5.11 moves

the thing is to look at the gear list, and go off that and not the number grade. Since most IC routes don't have boulder problems or hard sustained moves if she only gets on 5.10 routes then she's going to keep running into the same problem with wide cracks or be extremely limited as to what routes she can get on (1-2 per wall if that).

My lady recently had this same epiphany and has been slaying it ever since. She went from flailing on 5.10 man hands to flashing battle of the bulge because she didn't let the number get in her head.

nicelegs wrote: You are in the ultimate sport area. There is no end of tight hand 5.11's out there, go, climb as far as you can, hang, and climb more.

I've never been but was under the impression that IC was mostly Trad routes. Are there many bolted routes down there?

^^^ Only one that I can think of. Yes it's mostly gear-protected routes, but because the gear is bomber and practically anywhere you want and it's steep (clean falls), it might as well be a sport crag. It's mostly single-pitch cragging too. Also, you can deploy sport climbing tactics like aiding up and hanging a TR on almost anything.

RNclimber wrote:I forgot to mention I was doing research for my wife. She has pretty thin hands. She hopped on 5.10s there and was fisting/arm bar-ing most of the way up on TR (to scared to lead anything). I'm just trying to find routes for her that could suite her but doesn't really require pulling 5.11 moves

The thing with Indian Creek is that the grades are generally based upon hand and finger size, so typically a 5.11 crack just means sustained #1 camalots or pretty burly OW. I know that most of my lady friends LOVE climbing at battle of the bulge because of all the thin hands routes. I have yet to get a redpoint on the route battle of the bulge and every girl I climb it with sends with no problems. My best advice is to look at the gear for the routes instead of the ratings if you're looking for routes for your wife to do.

eat your pudding at the Wall. tight hangs in a chimney esque flare, its rad!

RNclimber wrote:so I've been to the creek twice now and pretty much realized that generally...

hard to generalize after two trips