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Let's list the hardest 5.7's around
Tristan P wrote: Inspired by this post in Greg's triumph of Dolphin as well as this thread... I thought it could be cool to get a list of those classic 7 sandbags. Where have you seen strong gym climbers fail to jam up pedestrian grades (thinking this happens a lot at cracks), or been on climbs that seemed impossibly exposed for the level? To me it seems to happen a little more at 5.7 than at any other grade. It can be a little bit ambiguous where real climbing begins but also sometimes where even an easy route can have one ten move and the FA will just say, "yeah that's a 7". I can even recall a sport climb in St Mattheui du Parc last summer that stumped a visiting Squamish climber who mistook size for difficulty and had trouble getting off the ground for a bit. A few climbs that came to mind: After Six What else lurks at Ragged, The Needles, Suicide, Seneca, etc that would make for a real fun struggling-climber watching? |
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I’ve experienced a few (til the next one) LCC: The Great Chockstone, Crescent Crack Lumpy: Kor’s Flake |
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Cussin Crack at Castle Rock in Boulder Canyon! Super fun but makes even the old school Eldo 5.7s seem soft. |
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Harding's Chimney at Sugarloaf is a 5.7 that is not for the budding trad climber. It's not physically hard like The Dolphin, but the runout in the chimney is pretty real and different feeling than runout face climbing. That being said this was one of my first leads and it was a blast. |
Jarod Swrote: Ha... that's the one that came to my mind upon reading this thread. |
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I’d personally nominate prune at seneca. Weird doin a 5.10 finger crack section on a 5.7, or maybe i was just scared? |
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1st pitch of DNB in Yosemite is by far the hardest 5.7 I've ever done. Nothing else comes close. Could be 3 number grades harder in other climbing areas. |
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Handjacker at Vedauwoo leveled my pride. |
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The nw ridge of citadel. The 1960s guide book calls it 5.4 most people today say 5.8. the hard section is really 5 feet of a six pitch climb. |
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Anyone agree with matthes crest? Before doing it, I thought i had gotten to the point where i could mostly cruise any 5.7.. then i fell about 5x following the crux. I fell because the moves were hard, not because of any flukes like a foot slip. edit: I meant the crux on the 5.7 pitch up to the summit. I found that following the 5.7 pitch was harder than down-following (exposed to lead falls) on the 5.8 downclimb. |
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Dolphin in Jtree. No large cams for extra intensity. |
new yosemitesamwrote: I also found Prune to be quite a bit harder than “5.7” |
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I'm glad my post inspired another thread. Other than dolphin, I'd have to second Crescent Crack; that offwidth pitch is wicked hard!! Also Mother 1 at veduawoo is tough. Pretty much any old-school 5.7 offwidth is not gonna be a walk in the park. And please no one say double cross... |
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Solar at Seneca. |
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How about that little but very awkward overhang on the last pitch of The Cozyhang on The Dome in Boulder Canyon? MP gives it 5.7+, so not sure if that qualifies as 5.7 since adding a plus is an automatic “buyer beware”. Also, Bastille Crack in Eldo maybe? I did it one time with a visiting climber from Spain who, when in shape, pushes into the 7s (French grades) on limestone, but he wasn’t at all comfortable on Bastille saying it was easily 6a in his mind. Sometimes it’s all what you are accustomed to climbing. |
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Not sure if this couts because it's 7+ but West Pole at Seneca has a nice 10b roof .. and west pole direct finish 5.6 in the book is really engaging. |
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I thought Bastille was 5.8 in the Roper book. |
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Thin slabs direct, gunks |
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CCK gunks |
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I have watched “All I wanted was a Pepsi” at currahee shut down a lot of people. It’s a 5.6, but it has a 5.9 slab sequence to get to the first bolt, and many cheat by using the bolt hanger as a hold. |
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Something Interesting @ the Gunks |
