Bastille Crack is 8-

There is plenty of friction.  You guys need to try Quartzite.  5.7 is fair to me.  It would probably be a 5.4 in Seneca or Devil’s Lake.  FWIW the Bastille was my first real multipitch and I led the odd pitches. The first one is not that bad if you know how to jam, you just need to think through the traverse. As I recall a common mistake was people went too high.  I think it also helps to be tall and bring a #4 if you’re spooked - there is a bomber placement behind that flake (or as bomber as cams behind flakes can be - but it felt solid to me).  I thought the 3rd pitch was the crux, honestly...pulling out of that finger crack over a small roof on surprisingly small holds felt scary on the sharp end.

Ted Pinson wrote: There is plenty of friction.  You guys need to try Quartzite.  5.7 is fair to me.  It would probably be a 5.4 in Seneca or Devil’s Lake.  FWIW the Bastille was my first real multipitch and I led the odd pitches. The first one is not that bad if you know how to jam, you just need to think through the traverse. As I recall a common mistake was people went too high.  I think it also helps to be tall and bring a #4 if you’re spooked - there is a bomber placement behind that flake (or as bomber as cams behind flakes can be - but it felt solid to me).  I thought the 3rd pitch was the crux, honestly...pulling out of that finger crack over a small roof on surprisingly small holds felt scary on the sharp end.

5.4 at Devils lake? Hm, I haven’t climbed that much there but Bastille is definitely more sustained than Birch tree crack and Curving crack (led both of these before Bastille) to me. Also, you wanna say that Brintons  crack is harder then Bastille? 

Short Fall Sean wrote: All I know is it would be 6- in Cali, bruh.

It would be a 4 in Duluth,MN. 

Hehe that was probably hyperbole.  I’d say it felt pretty in line with Brinton’s, which makes sense why it was old school graded 5.6.  I definitely wouldn’t say there were any moves as hard as the crux on Birch Tree, though more sustained I suppose as that one eases up after the start.

5.7?! , "At my crag (insert any area outside CO) it would only be 5.2!" Says the hardman climber bro.

I suppose it gets enough traffic these days that pigeons no longer nest ( and fly out at you ! ) in the larger cracks. Never did figure out what ducking a pigeon that's flying out of a crack at you does for the rating.  5.7+p ??! 

HughC wrote: 5.7?! , "At my crag (insert any area outside CO) it would only be 5.2!" Says the hardman climber bro.

Actually my argument is more “I managed to get up it so it can’t be that hard,” lol.

Ted Pinson wrote:

Actually my argument is more “I managed to get up it so it can’t be that hard,” lol.

Lol, that is usually what I say about my old ass climbing anything these days.

First, Bastille Crack is quite the classic climb—very vertical, great exposure, an obvious line of weakness in a beautiful hunk of rock, multi-pitch, and so on. Any climber who walks by it would instinctively want to climb it. Thus the waiting conga line... and now the polish on the first pitch.

Second, ratings are funny, very subjective, things. A couple of years ago I took a friend from Spain up both The East Face of the First Flatiron and the Bastille Crack, both on the same day since he was just passing through. He has led limestone sport into the 7a/7b range (5.11+/5.12-) so when I told him that Bastille Crack was 5.7, he translated that in his mind to something in Spain graded 5a or so—a walk up, almost! His impression of the climb afterwards? ”This would be 6a in my book”, he said (5.9/5.10a). He also backed off leading the first pitch on the East Face, First Flatiron once he saw how far apart the pro was whilst on a friction slab. He was pining for overhanging limestone on pockets and crimps. Moral of the story: A whole lot depends on what you are used to. And... the difference between a 5.7/5.8 gym climb and The Bastille Crack is huge—I have gym friends who regularly on-site the 5.11+/5.12 roof routes in the gym here in Barcelona but who would be very much out of their element on a multi-pitch trad route like Bastille (although it wouldn’t take them long to get up to speed in trad/crack if they were to put their mind to it.)

Anyway... bottom line: grades are subjective.

 “Vy kant vee chust climb?“ —Anonymous Austrian climber

I remember standing with a half dozen other young men watching a pair of comely young ladies in painters pants and army fatigues float up that wearing EB's and protecting with hexes and stoppers. Guy next to me said "just another couple of Boulder gals". Wonder if they sport 5.12's now.

Cira 1980.

Definitely 4th class

I remember when it was 5.6 and only used 3 pts of aid. We nailed that mutha!

:P

Daniel Joder wrote: First, Bastille Crack is quite the classic climb—very vertical, great exposure, an obvious line of weakness in a beautiful hunk of rock, multi-pitch, and so on. Any climber who walks by it would instinctively want to climb it. Thus the waiting conga line... and now the polish on the first pitch.

Second, ratings are funny, very subjective, things. A couple of years ago I took a friend from Spain up both The East Face of the First Flatiron and the Bastille Crack, both on the same day since he was just passing through. He has led limestone sport into the 7a/7b range (5.11+/5.12-) so when I told him that Bastille Crack was 5.7, he translated that in his mind to something in Spain graded 5a or so—a walk up, almost! His impression of the climb afterwards? ”This would be 6a in my book”, he said (5.9/5.10a). He also backed off leading the first pitch on the East Face, First Flatiron once he saw how far apart the pro was whilst on a friction slab. He was pining for overhanging limestone on pockets and crimps. Moral of the story: A whole lot depends on what you are used to. And... the difference between a 5.7/5.8 gym climb and The Bastille Crack is huge—I have gym friends who regularly on-site the 5.11+/5.12 roof routes in the gym here in Barcelona but who would be very much out of their element on a multi-pitch trad route like Bastille (although it wouldn’t take them long to get up to speed in trad/crack if they were to put their mind to it.)

Anyway... bottom line: grades are subjective.

 “Vy kant vee chust climb?“ —Anonymous Austrian climber

Sure, but the Bastille was sent long before climbing gyms or those pockety limestone sport routes.  With old school trad routes it is very much expected that it’s not going to feel like that grade in a gym; that’s because gyms are crazily inflated and easy to read, plus you’re not weighted down by 10 lbs of gear.  5.7 is pretty in line with similar trad routes of that age and character.  If they don’t know how to jam it will probably feel at least like 5.10.

This guy’s line shows the easy way to do the transition from the flake to the crack, which I think keeps the pitch at 5.7.  (Most climbers seem to do it the hard way by going higher before moving over.)  Third pitch crux feels like Eldo 7/7+.

Levin’s new guide probably puts it a 5.8- since the intuitive way is the hard way.

Don’t want the beta?  Don’t watch the video.

Wait! The video beta seemed like the most intuitive to me. How are others doing this. Also I agree with the 5.8 rating, seemed comparable to the great dot start on rewritten which goes at 5.8.

Maybe 5.4ish in the Gunks ,Eldo is notoriously soft by ease coast standards.

“Sure, but the Bastille was sent long before climbing gyms or those pockety limestone sport routes.  With old school trad routes it is very much expected that it’s not going to feel like that grade in a gym; that’s because gyms are crazily inflated and easy to read, plus you’re not weighted down by 10 lbs of gear.  5.7 is pretty in line with similar trad routes of that age and character.  If they don’t know how to jam it will probably feel at least like 5.10.”
—Ted Pinson

Agree... Kind of what I was trying to get at. I’d love to see a pure gym climber jump on it thinking... “5.7!? How hard can it be!?”

I think that first pitch is listed on an Eldo info exhibit as one the top five or so places in the Canyon that see bad accidents. Partly because it is so popular (maybe rename it, “Just Another Roadside Attraction”), but also I would suspect because P1, with that little traverse, can cause pro to pull if not set/extended correctly. New trad leaders might find building a solid “protection system” to be challenging, even if “it is all there”. It has been the site of a number of leader ground falls, apparently.

Greg Maschi wrote: Maybe 5.4ish in the Gunks ,Eldo is notoriously soft by ease coast standards.

Yeah.

Cosmiccragsman AKA Dwain wrote:

Yeah.

And Joshua Tree standards also .

Yeah but it’s a crack and everyone knows gunkies can’t climb cracks until they move out west.....

oldfattradguuy kk wrote:

Yeah but it’s a crack and everyone knows gunkies can’t climb cracks until they move out west.....

I agree. JT standards are higher than the Gunks, or Eldo!