Let's list the hardest 5.7's around

ray. west pole is 10a which puts it in as easier than 9+ everywhere else in the NE but much harder than 5.7 but to be fair it is 7+ in the book however its the hardest 7+ i have ever been on...  done it about 10 times.. 

Ray Lovpalwrote:

Seems like everything everywhere is sandbagged. Makes me roll my eyes a bit cause it’s like you never know what you’re climbing or grades you can hit until you climb all around the country in a tight range of grades to compare climbing grade at on site to another. I’m sure a 5.7 in jtree isn’t going to feel exactly the same level of dofficulty as a 5.7 in Seneca or the gunks or eldo canyon. But who knows, why is west pole at Seneca a 5.7 when seemingly everyone that’s climbed it seems to agree. Is this really a 5.7 or should it be a 5.8/5.9? To climbers native out west would this be a solid 5.7 or maybe an even more sandbagged 5.7 than what Midwest or east coast natives could rate it…5.9.

Meh- the longer I climb, the more I throw difficulty grades out the window.  Though I work on it almost daily, my hip flexibility sucks.  Unfortunately for me, that means that most of the routes in the harder grades at my nearest "destination" area, the NRG are rendered much harder than they're graded because a lot of them require high-stepping and wide lateral stemming.  I've learned to look at something, and if I'm psyched on the line, I give it a whirl.  I hear a lot of people say grades are important so people don't "get in over their heads".  To that I say, well, if we're talking sport routes, it doesn't matter.  If someone is sport climbing and can't bail, they have bigger issues than a stated grade vs perceived grade experience.  Same goes for trad lines that are single pitch.  If you're climbing them, you should know how to bail and get your gear back.  

The obvious caveat to this way of thinking, and the arena where I think the difficulty being accurate vs. perceived difficulty compared to a climber's ability, is multipitch routes.  You can get yourself into trouble there, especially as a novice.  But for anything single pitch, I'm way more interested in things like rock quality and aesthetic appeal vs. difficulty grade.  I've surprised myself by onsighting a grade that I felt was out of reach, and conversely sandbagged myself on something that I thought *should* be a gimme.  The only time I really get pissed is when I've wasted my time climbing something I didn't enjoy, which is seldom.

City Lights at the Gunks has a wicked awkward high-step move that felt desperate as hell for the grade, but it's been upgraded to 5.8. I'll stick my neck out and say that Family Feud at Rumbling Bald (a sport route!) was more intimidating than the trad routes we climbed on Cereal Buttress (and felt trickier than the 5.7/8 routes we climbed at looking glass) but maybe it was the context (expecting to find an easy route to cool down on). You get tons of bolts to protect the 5.4 after the first bolt but nothing on the only difficult move, a thin mantle below the first bolt. Not that hard, but quite committing and physical for 5.7 IMO.

Kor's Flake at Lumpy Ridge

The Thumb in Little Cottonwood Canyon

Not Hobo Greg wrote:

Just climbed Thrutcher here in Josh and for me, it’s the absolute hardest I’ve ever had to work for a 5.7. It’s .8 on MP but a Mike Lechlinski 5.7 so that’s what I’m going with. 

did you get the onsight?

I’ll second kors flake

Didn't read the 5 pages but, Captain Kronos, on the Brown Wall in Josh, and Coffin Nail @ Taquitz come to mind

Phinnwrote:

I’ll second kors flake

That’s actually a “fourth” or more at this point in this thread and I’m reassured to see it as I just did it and Durrance this fall and they both felt harder than .7 to me, esp in comparison to Rewritten which felt much easier than those two.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

ray. west pole is 10a which puts it in as easier than 9+ everywhere else in the NE but much harder than 5.7 but to be fair it is 7+ in the book however its the hardest 7+ i have ever been on...  done it about 10 times.. 

West Pole might be stiff at 7+.....but 10a that’s bit of a leap. 

actually not. 10a is usually a soft grade. I would not give it 10b but 10a any day of the week in NH,Nevada , VT, UT, CO, ID,WY etc   daks, gunks, WV you are correct. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

actually not. 10a is usually a soft grade. I would not give it 10b but 10a any day of the week in NH,Nevada , VT, UT, CO, ID,WY etc   daks, gunks, WV you are correct. 

I might have totally messed up the beta but I felt the roof was about 10a at a non sandbagged area as well. 

Already mentioned at Seneca, both Solar and Prune are stout 7’s. Prune especially. The crux does feel like 10- fingers.  I don’t think West Pole is any harder then 7+. At least not by Seneca standards. All in all the grades there are pretty consistent  though. Aside from Prune, nothing is really “sandbagged”, IMO. 

Absolutly its seneca 7+ which = NH 10a

Maaaan, the Gunks are woefully underrepresented here. Something Interesting and CCK were mentioned, but both felt pretty normal 5.7 to me (CCK is heady, but not too hard)? Thin Slabs though...

Other Gunks sandbags: Keyhole, but offwidths are expected to be sandbags. It's always been funny to me that Oscar and Charlie is 5.7 considering the much more popular (and clearly easier) 5.7 next to it. And I'm actually embarrassed to say I took a TR fall the last time I was on Classic (not very long ago). Yellow Ridge may be on the hard side, but I'm not sure I was on route.

I've also found a few good sandbags in Tennesse. Slip Stream was originally rated 5.6! And I'm Late has 5.8 moves that aren't even the crux.

My first trad lead (also first outdoor lead, and first multipitch, lol) was After Six on manure pile. After all, the first pitch is a 5.6 according to MP, right? Ha. Heat of the day slipping around on polished granite trying to get in nuts I was far from efficient in placing, it was a religious experience to say the least. 

Went back years later to run a quick lap up after other valley shenanigans and damn, turns out it's still proper stout for a 5.7. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Absolutly its seneca 7+ which = NH 10a

Found this in my "back in the day..." guidebook for Seneca. (Plessy?, 197??? Red cover...) 

I know standards can change, but "very difficult" is still means "very difficult..."

West by-god Virginia is a special place...

ed " who's had more than a few sips from a mason jar offered by Buck Harper... " e

That is so cool!

Thanks, Hillbilly, for mentioning DNB.  That opening 5.7 is beyond sick.  I thrashed on it over 30 years ago, and I STILL have PTSD.  I fired the 10+ mantel, but that chimney? Fugetaboutit.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsionwrote:

Another Vedauwoo suggestion. We’ve talked about OW but what about slab?

The start of Edward’s Crack at Vedauwoo is tough.

And I’ll give another vote for Cussin Crack.