Serenity/Sons

I'm/was a half assed 11 trad leader (12 sport when lucky) and the first 30 feet i absolutely refuse to lead. Been on it multiple times, never fallen, but scares the goobers outa me. Climb the last pitch of Super Slide. If that is chill, and you can afford the chance of a fall, do it.
Just my $.02, YMMVED

Saw a guy crater from  25-30' up, pulled an offset cam, broke his ankle, self rescued to the clinic.

w/e the popularity of the route will lead to those not quite up to it attempting it but it is nothing a competent 5.10a trad leader should be worried about. They should never fall on straightforward 5.8...

So it is not particularly hard though there is a spice factor.

This ain't no Double Cross! :P

I heard some guy last year took a monster lob off the crux and landed on the belay tree. Broke a bunch vertabrae and self rescued.

Anyone else hear this?

EDIT- Found it      ​https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/115363854/lost-gear-at-serenity-cracktrial-by-fire-after-big-ol-whipper​​​

Ha another time climbing this route I saw a shirtless guy above us fly off the crux and get flipped around. The sound of his bare back slapping onto the rock was impressively loud. I guess Harumpster is right: "the popularity of the route will lead to those not quite up to it attempting it"

Harumpfster Boondoggle wrote: They should never fall on straightforward 5.8...

Seems to me that either you must have had a very good day on that pitch, are not sensitive to the grades at that level, or are not engaging in honest discourse here.
Were it not for the plenty of more realistic assessments present to counter this idea, I'd consider that recklessly indifferent to someone's health and safety.

Yes, I've probably sandbagged in my career.  But should hard-to-protect terrain be the place to participate in that?  

You can sew up the first two pitches with Tricams. After the first 30’.

Max Rausch wrote: I heard some guy last year took a monster lob off the crux and landed on the belay tree. Broke a bunch vertabrae and self rescued.

Anyone else hear this?

EDIT- Found it      https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/115363854/lost-gear-at-serenity-cracktrial-by-fire-after-big-ol-whipper

Having climbed with that guy, I can confirm he is very good at ripping pieces. Ripped two aiding Diagonal crack at Diablo. No broken bones luckily. Past the first pitch all the placements are in splitter cracks and the pin scars before the P2 traverse protects well with offset nuts and a sling. 

The 10d section is about 10 feet long low angle with one move and a big rest before the move. The stuff above is fun stay left at the wide on P1 of sons. I did not think any of the climbing was scary or so call spicy, just fun as heck.

Agree with the above comment, one of the best of it's grade in the valley, and easy for .10d … for the *solid* 5.10 leader.

Malcolm Daly wrote: You can sew up the first two pitches with Tricams. After the first 30’.

And you can get at least 2 of those tricams in the first 30'.

Pretty sure if it came right down to it, I could probably walk through camp 4 with a $100 to get a rope gun for the morning...go back the next day and lead it, or not, depending on the vibe.

Being a flatlander, I do not get a lot of opportunity to climb sustained routes. The hardest sustained crack I have ever led clean was Soler>>Assembly Line.

But the description of Serenity sounds quite different than the Tower cracks.

Like I think I mentioned up-thread, I LOVE crack climbing, hate crimping, and am indifferent to slab. By crack I guess I mean fingers to fists, once past about 4" it turns into suffering, and I am too old for that, even if I have the technique to do it.

Tony B mentioned that S/S isn't a real crack...and is more of a flare....does he mean like weird Lumpy butt crack flare?

Buck Rio wrote:
Tony B mentioned that S/S isn't a real crack...and is more of a flare....does he mean like weird Lumpy butt crack flare?

Serenity is primarily a weird flaring pin-scarred seam, yes. But the top half of Sons of Yesterday is as "real" as it gets. Perfectly laser-cut. There are enough MP photos to verify this.

Buck Rio wrote: Tony B mentioned that S/S isn't a real crack...and is more of a flare....does he mean like weird Lumpy butt crack flare?

My comment only referred to the first pitch, really, where the issue at hand for marginal leaders would be shallow flaring pods, not a crack, per se.
After that, it is crack and some face or offset where the crack is too thin to get jams.  IE: the 10d crux, which is short, protects well, and could be aided without fanfare.

Tony B wrote:

My comment only referred to the first pitch, really, where the issue at hand for marginal leaders would be shallow flaring pods, not a crack, per se.
After that, it is crack and some face or offset where the crack is too thin to get jams.  IE: the 10d crux, which is short, protects well, and could be aided without fanfare.

OK, that makes me think I can do the technical crux, not afraid of the pain. Just need to get dialed in on the mental aspect. 

I would be most worried about holding other faster parties up than actually getting hurt myself, I am pretty good at managing risk for myself, touch wood.  I think there is a video of someone sliding down the first 30-40 feet of this but staying on their feet...amazing.

Hey, gang, has anybody considered putting the bolt back in?

Just asking for a friend of a troll.

Great to see a lot of discussion about this route.

Nawmean?

ES

Colonel Mustard wrote: Hey, gang, has anybody considered putting the bolt back in?

I think there's about 30 pages on this at the Taco.

Tony B wrote:

Seems to me that either you must have had a very good day on that pitch, are not sensitive to the grades at that level, or are not engaging in honest discourse here.
Were it not for the plenty of more realistic assessments present to counter this idea, I'd consider that recklessly indifferent to someone's health and safety.

Yes, I've probably sandbagged in my career.  But should hard-to-protect terrain be the place to participate in that?  

Sorry, Tony, you and I are going to agree on many things but are going to have to disagree on this one. It is possible to face climb on dimes at the exact same angle as the start of Serenity and instead you have gigantic boxed out scars to stand in all day long. Its extremely secure for the grade, just doesn't protect well until it does at that 25' level and then has bomber pro for the rest of the pitch. 

IF you have no business on the route AT ALL you CAN fall off there from 5.7 just like people lob off of 5.7 all over the world every day. But its nothing any legit climber of 10A should worry about. Just do it.

Leg fitness will be important, so there's that. If you have been doing a lot of jamming with your feet then its trivial. If you try it in sport climbing boots with knuckled toes the pain might be a factor that is not noticeable to the fit.

Marc801 C wrote: I think there's about 30 pages on this at the Taco.

The bolt that got placed decades ago was too high to do anyone any good now anyways. The bomber first cam pro is literally a foot higher and the bolt was placed in the hexes and stoppers only days when its utility may have been more justifiable.

Serenity and Sons of Yesterday are probably the most popular routes of their length and grade in the world. There is a price of admission that should not be lowered or the route will degrade in quality that much faster ie the 5.9+ boulder problem at the start is progressively getting slicker and slicker and that should NEVER be accelerated by removing the spice above at the start.

We should be thankful that Yosemite granite is as resistant to polishing as it is but the fact of the matter is that every rock climb that gets climbed often has a finite life where the holds eventually get polished and the climbing adversely affected. 

Harumpfster Boondoggle wrote:

The bolt that got placed decades ago was too high to do anyone any good now anyways. The bomber first cam pro is literally a foot higher and the bolt was placed in the hexes and stoppers only days when its utility may have been more justifiable.

Serenity and Sons of Yesterday are probably the most popular routes of their length and grade in the world. There is a price of admission that should not be lowered or the route will degrade in quality that much faster ie the 5.9+ boulder problem at the start is progressively getting slicker and slicker and that should NEVER be accelerated by removing the spice above at the start.

We should be thankful that Yosemite granite is as resistant to polishing as it is but the fact of the matter is that every rock climb that gets climbed often has a finite life where the holds eventually get polished and the climbing adversely affected. 

TL;DR