Best crack climbs at the Gunks?

No one put

Absurdland

So good

Rauzer wrote:No one put Absurdland So good

As a crack climb?

Oh, so now it's down to cracks that require plenty of jamming. Hunt down Romano, Diamond, or Greene and have them show you the Yosemite Crack. Mandatory jamming and finger locks for most of the way on that test piece.

Gravity's Rainbow.

Gravity's Rainbow? As far as difficulty, It's like the Acid Crack of the East. A short list of hardmen who have sent that rig on lead.

Tony Sartin wrote:Gravity's Rainbow? As far as difficulty, It's like the Acid Crack of the East. A short list of hardmen who have sent that rig on lead.

You just have to decide: Do I place gear up high or just go for it. It swallows gear but it's strenuous to place. One of the best routes in the Gunks.

With a few exceptions, all Gunks crack climbs are what we used to call "Yosemite face climbing."

There are certainly some wonderful Gunks climbs that follow cracks, and some even require a few hand jams or finger locks, but it is relatively rare to require, say, two or three foot jams in a row or have any use for a heel-toe jam, arm bar, or any kind of leavittation, and whatever jamming techniques you do use are usually very short-lived compared to the demands of "real" cracks in granite or sandstone, which often call for various forms of pure jamming for an entire pitch.

You can't learn crack climbing in the Gunks, but crack techniques can sometimes make Gunks moves easier and allow for rests that would otherwise be much more strenuous. I'm thinking primarily of hand jams and finger locks in horizontals that could be used as horizontal holds but with considerably more effort than required by jamming.

A short climb that feels more like Yosemite to me than most Gunks routes is Last Frontier.

vimeo.com/137919255

Raising the dead here but Rusty Jam is awesome and overlooked - short but super fun and very well protected

rgold  I'm thinking primarily of hand jams and finger locks in horizontals that could be used as horizontal holds but with considerably more effort than required by jamming. A short climb that feels more like Yosemite to me than most Gunks routes is Last Frontier.

The secret of many high end gunks climbers like Romano.....

Climb and Punishment, A few jams make it doable for me.  Thanks Ajax!

I think anyone asking about crack climbs in the Gunks wants climbs where it is optimal actually to use crack technique. I think this limitation will take off the list many of the above climbs, like Something Interesting or Double Crack or Ants Line, that don't involve jams even though they may follow cracks. Still most of the real candidates have, I think, been mentioned, and I can add one or two:

Layback 5.5 (nice chimney at start, no gear but not very long)
Big Chimney 5.6 (a real chimney, no excuses or gear)
Baby 5.6 (you don't have to use any crack technique but using the slot for one move is far more elegant and less risky than laying it back)
Yellow Ridge 5.7 (nice off-width slot that can be worked around but it is better to put your leg in it and scrunch for a couple of moves)
Ken's Crack 5.7 (crack technique helps)
Laurel 5.7 (no real need for it, you can reach past the vertical crack at the top, but if you want to practice you can do a couple of nice fist jams!)
Silhouette 5.7 (jams are helpful in top section though not critical)
5.8 Crack Climb (lots of jugs but some jamming is helpful)
Up in Arms 9 (tough overhanging route where jams can be avoided but they are very helpful)
Bonnie's Direct 9+ (you don't need crack technique for the first pitch but I definitely jam in the direct finish)
Last Frontier 10a (a real Bombay slot plus required jamming to get out)
Lost City Crack 10a (I don't jam this, it is thin hands if you want to. I think if you jam it is harder than 10a)
Sonja 10a (a real crack climb the whole way, hands and some thin hands)
Resistance 10c (beautiful finger crack, like something out west)
Low Exposure 10d (jamming mandatory)
Harvest Moon 11a (Someone above said they don't jam it??? The way I figured out the crux was with jamming; jams were critical)
Climb and Punishment 11b/c (jamming critical for a very short, but insurmountable, distance)

I think Evelyn and Persistent out in Lost City also fit the bill though I haven't done them.

In short, if someone wants to get crack experience, while the Gunks has some, there’s actually very little that requires crack technique for more than a couple of moves; it’s best to go elsewhere. 

A few climbs not mentioned in the previous post:

Pine Line 5.4 (no crack technique, just liebacking)

Keyhole 5.7 (massively sandbagged IMHO. There are two variations on the start which are also cracks)

Santa's Escape 5.7 (Deep chimney--deep enough you could do at least 3 different climbs inside it)

There's also the Gill Crack start to The Brat (5.7). This start goes at V2.

David Kerkeslager wrote: A few climbs not mentioned in the previous post:

Pine Line 5.4 (no crack technique, just liebacking)

Then why mention it if there's no crack technique involved?

Keyhole 5.7 (massively sandbagged IMHO. There are two variations on the start which are also cracks)

I agree with sandbagged, yet in all three starts there's really only a couple or three actual crack  moves.

Santa's Escape 5.7 (Deep chimney--deep enough you could do at least 3 different climbs inside it)

Can't speak for the OP, but when people ask about crack climbs, they're usually not thinking of chimneys. If they are, they tend to mention "chimneys".

There's also the Gill Crack start to The Brat (5.7). This start goes at V2.

Again, about 3 moves.

The big problem with the Gunks is while there are some climbs where a few moves yield to/require jams/crack technique, the big problem people encounter when they go to, say, Yosemite, is being able to deal with 55m of jamming for multiple pitches with few or even any face holds. That's what the Gunks doesn't really prepare for.

Marc801 C wrote: Then why mention it if there's no crack technique involved?

It's a vertical crack. shrug

I agree with sandbagged, yet in all three starts there's really only a couple or three actual crack  moves.

Agreed.

Can't speak for the OP, but when people ask about crack climbs, they're usually not thinking of chimneys. If they are, they tend to mention "chimneys".

Meh. Other posters mentioned chimneys too.

Again, about 3 moves.

Yep.

The big problem with the Gunks is while there are some climbs where a few moves yield to/require jams/crack technique, the big problem people encounter when they go to, say, Yosemite, is being able to deal with 55m of jamming for multiple pitches with few or even any face holds. That's what the Gunks doesn't really prepare for.

Agreed. This is why I've got (currently vague) plans for a trip out to Indian Creek at some point, to remedy this gap in my skills.

You can definitely climb more crack in a day at Lost city than the entire Trapps/Nears has to offer.  In the Trapps, the direct start to Ventre de Boeuf has a short well-protected 5.10 wide crack section.   You can do some jamming on Wegetables if you're so inclined, but I'd be hesitant to call it a "crack climb", and I'm sure it wouldn't live up to Marc801's standards.  Space invaders also has a few moves of finger crack, as does Nosedive.  In the nears, the crux of crisscross direct is a thin hands crack.  

Kedron Silsbee wrote: You can definitely climb more crack in a day at Lost city than the entire Trapps/Nears has to offer.  In the Trapps, the direct start to Ventre de Boeuf has a short well-protected 5.10 wide crack section.   You can do some jamming on Wegetables if you're so inclined, but I'd be hesitant to call it a "crack climb", and I'm sure it wouldn't live up to Marc801's standards.  Space invaders also has a few moves of finger crack, as does Nosedive.  In the nears, the crux of crisscross direct is a thin hands crack.  

My standards are pretty low actually. IMO, for a route to be called a crack climb it basically needs crack climbing technique for the majority of the route, be it a pitch or 1000'. It really can't have a bunch of face holds making a non-crack rest almost anywhere possible nor is it a climb where you follow a crack, protect in the crack, but use mostly holds on either side for progress (eg: a lot of routes in Red Rock).

David Kerkeslager wrote:Agreed. This is why I've got (currently vague) plans for a trip out to Indian Creek at some point, to remedy this gap in my skills.

I learned crack climbing on the granite of Cathedral Rock and other NH areas. I got good (an incredibly relative term) at it in Yosemite. IC is kinda strange in that the cracks are so parallel sided that the grade of a given route is much more a function of hand size than at granite areas. In IC, a route can be 11a for one person and 12b for someone else, whereas in Yosemite an 11a feels pretty much like other 11a cracks, there and elsewhere. Yes, speaking in broad generalities as I've done mid-5.11 routes there reasonably well but had a hell of a difficult time on the 10c crux of Lunatic Fringe since I suck at ring-locks.

If you'r'e thinking of IC to fix your gap in crack climbing skills that the Gunks doesn't enable, you might want to consider a Yosemite or Colorado trip before heading to the Creek. Also in Yosemite you'll find a lot more good options in the 5.8 - mid 10 range than in IC, where there is little below 5.10- and tends to be pretty burly climbing. (Don't misunderstand - there's plenty of that to be found in Yosemite as well. I still recall almost hurling my lunch at the top of Moby Dick Center and Entrance Exam nearly killed me.)

SethG wrote: I think anyone asking about crack climbs in the Gunks wants climbs where it is optimal actually to use crack technique. I think this limitation will take off the list many of the above climbs, like Something Interesting or Double Crack or Ants Line, that don't involve jams even though they may follow cracks. Still most of the real candidates have, I think, been mentioned, and I can add one or two:

Layback 5.5 (nice chimney at start, no gear but not very long)
Big Chimney 5.6 (a real chimney, no excuses or gear)
Baby 5.6 (you don't have to use any crack technique but using the slot for one move is far more elegant and less risky than laying it back)
Yellow Ridge 5.7 (nice off-width slot that can be worked around but it is better to put your leg in it and scrunch for a couple of moves)
Ken's Crack 5.7 (crack technique helps)
Laurel 5.7 (no real need for it, you can reach past the vertical crack at the top, but if you want to practice you can do a couple of nice fist jams!)
Silhouette 5.7 (jams are helpful in top section though not critical)
5.8 Crack Climb (lots of jugs but some jamming is helpful)
Up in Arms 9 (tough overhanging route where jams can be avoided but they are very helpful)
Bonnie's Direct 9+ (you don't need crack technique for the first pitch but I definitely jam in the direct finish)
Last Frontier 10a (a real Bombay slot plus required jamming to get out)
Lost City Crack 10a (I don't jam this, it is thin hands if you want to. I think if you jam it is harder than 10a)
Sonja 10a (a real crack climb the whole way, hands and some thin hands)
Resistance 10c (beautiful finger crack, like something out west)
Low Exposure 10d (jamming mandatory)
Harvest Moon 11a (Someone above said they don't jam it??? The way I figured out the crux was with jamming; jams were critical)
Climb and Punishment 11b/c (jamming critical for a very short, but insurmountable, distance)

I think Evelyn and Persistent out in Lost City also fit the bill though I haven't done them.

Nice list.  A touch of history: Joe Bridges and I did the FA of Resistance---the name was supposed to resonate with Stannard's "Persistance" (except maybe it was really "Persistent...").  There are some hand jams and a nifty knee lock on Persistence after the crux bottom section.   Stannard made the first ascent of Low Exposure in preparation for our ascent of the Salathe-Steck (of course LE turned out to be harder than anything on the SS).  

A route that I remember having  mandatory hand jams is the second pitch of No Existence, now part of a linkup called Tough Existence in the Gunks App, which grades the pitch at 9+ and says, "if you are not familiar with hand jams this pitch will feel much harder than 9+."