Weird Things About Your Local Crag

I feel like there are weird things at every little crag

I have met more people who have sent 13b who have not sent 12c,12d, or 13a at little si than people who have done 12c-13b. 

Also at little si there is a 14a here that starts by climbing a rope ladder, clipping three bolts and lowering back down to the first bolt. The route directly to the right is just manufactured holds up to the real holds. No one bats an eye at these routes. 

Vantage people will cook alive in the sun.

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

I feel like there are weird things at every little crag

I actually like this thread idea. Good Job Trevstar

I have met more people who have sent 13b who have not sent 12c,12d, or 13a at little si than people who have done 12c-13b. 

To me this is less “weird” than it is sporadic grading (or a soft 13b). However I’ve only climbed at little si a handful of times 6+ years ago. So it could just be weird. 

Also at little si there is a 14a here that starts by climbing a rope ladder, clipping three bolts and lowering back down to the first bolt.

That is a little weird. Why not stick clip them, are they too high up for a stick clip? Is it a French free start or do you still climb through the section you initially rope ladder through. I NEED ANSWERS!

The route directly to the right is just manufactured holds up to the real holds. No one bats an eye at these routes. 

Less weird if the wall is truly blank until the “real holds”. Not a fan, but still less weird in my experience.

Translucent purple rock that’s as slick as glass aka devils lake.

CT has a handful of routes where you need 200ft of static line if you wanna toprope some "classic" choss because (anchor) hardware is frowned upon but no one seems to mind severe clifftop erosion/degradation or static tripping hazard lines going over hiking trails... danm bolt wars are weird man.

Princess Puppy Lovrwrote:

I feel like there are weird things at every little crag

I have met more people who have sent 13b who have not sent 12c,12d, or 13a at little si than people who have done 12c-13b. 

Also at little si there is a 14a here that starts by climbing a rope ladder, clipping three bolts and lowering back down to the first bolt. The route directly to the right is just manufactured holds up to the real holds. No one bats an eye at these routes. 

Vantage people will cook alive in the sun.

Trevor - a full post about weird practices at WA crags, and no mention of Index? Missing some serious opportunities there; a target-rich environment for weird practices...

Little Si is odd too though. The jump everyone makes to projecting Chronic is a funny one. 

"The crack is off." - half the climbs. Nothing was hard enough back in the day so everything is "historically an eliminate" or has some cryptically specific start. I guess most of the climbs come from a hand drawn and photocopied zine that barely existed in the first place, explaining the vagueness. But I enjoy the area's history so I have a fondness for the occasionally byzantine "rules."  Taylor's Falls bouldering, MN.

Not Not MP Adminwrote:

That is a little weird. Why not stick clip them, are they too high up for a stick clip? Is it a French free start or do you still climb through the section you initially rope ladder through. I NEED ANSWERS!

The rope ladder start is to get past a 20 foot deep and 20 foot tall holdless cave at the base.  If you look close at this picture you can see the rope ladder coming up from above the bush. The route goes up from there.  Note that this rope ladder is separate from the more-visible metal ladder to the right. The chipped route is to the right of the cave; it starts off the platform at the top of the metal ladder. 

It's a heavily augmented crag, but very well done. It has taken what would otherwise be an unclimbed/unclimbable piece of choss in the woods and made a nice local projecting crag. I spent many, many days there and enjoyed it quite a lot. A good case study for situational development ethics.

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Speaking of ladders, the Waimea ladder (and the ongoing battles over it)  is a bit odd, but makes sense for that crag.

A blasted out railcut turned rail-trail giving bike access to almost 400 sport routes. Frequent/heavy pedestrian usage under cliffs that shed major rockfall on a near yearly basis, and the township (landowner) let's us do pretty much whatever we want development wise. About 100 of those routes are worth doing, and really only tolerable conditions for a month or two in the fall and a couple weeks in the spring if its dry. Safe harbor is a trip.

JCMwrote:

Trevor - a full post about weird practices at WA crags, and no mention of Index? Missing some serious opportunities there; a target-rich environment for weird practices...

The overall dig at Western Washington is that you are never "in", the "in" group. There is also some extreme passive aggressive flexing about "localism" for being in the "in" group. When I sent the warm up at nevermind someone told me, " If you are new, you should try cultureshock." I just humored them and said cultureshock was great, but I had just completed sending all the 5.11s and 5.12s at that wall...

I don't wanna upset anyone at Index/derail the thread.

Little Si is odd too though. The jump everyone makes to projecting Chronic is a funny one. 

It is quite bizarre, people will wait an hour to hang dog something they are years from sending, rather than climb an open route. 

I agree about world wall 2. It is bizzare, in some spots the actual rock is bomber but the holds are held on by mud. Given the heavy handedness, I think I would have just built a ledge under the cave then drilled jugs up to the actual climb. 

Mt. Woodson pseudo ethic of labelling boulders as YDS is super infuriating. 

The heights of the routes change every year. It's a sea cliff with loads of boulders at the base, and some years there are more boulders, some years there are less. This year the 13a sport route is shorter and easier, but the classic 5.9 trad route at the crag has 18' of 5.9 climbing before the first piece of gear.

JCMwrote:

The rope ladder start is to get past a 20 foot deep and 20 foot tall holdless cave at the base.  If you look close at this picture you can see the rope ladder coming up from above the bush. The route goes up from there.  Note that this rope ladder is separate from the more-visible metal ladder to the right. The chipped route is to the right of the cave; it starts off the platform at the top of the metal ladder. 

It's a heavily augmented crag, but very well done. It has taken what would otherwise be an unclimbed/unclimbable piece of choss in the woods and made a nice local projecting crag. I spent many, many days there and enjoyed it quite a lot. A good case study for situational development ethics.

Ahhh I see, this is no longer as weird to me.

Bump to keep this thread going, I love the idea, 2 more form the northeast:

-The Thatcher squeeze box is pretty unique though I haven't been yet

- Hanging Mountain has some of the most remarkable trails/ stonework for such a new crag 

The killer cave has similar rope ladder shenanigans because I'm pretty sure only BJ Tilden is strong enough to climb the first few feet of the cave there :D 

vantage/frenchman's is definitely one of the odder places i have climbed.  i have never seen so many people hanging on the first bolt/piece of 5.7/5.8 routes (while talking about how they are going to do NIAD / Complete N Ridge of Stuart / NEB of Slesse / BeckyChouinard this summer...).  that, and yelling a 100 yards across the crag that they "called" that route next. LOLZ.

slimwrote:

vantage/frenchman's is definitely one of the odder places i have climbed.  i have never seen so many people hanging on the first bolt/piece of 5.7/5.8 routes (while talking about how they are going to do NIAD / Complete N Ridge of Stuart / NEB of Slesse / BeckyChouinard this summer...).  that, and yelling a 100 yards across the crag that they "called" that route next. LOLZ.

Nutcracker in a day? 

slimwrote:

vantage/frenchman's is definitely one of the odder places i have climbed.  i have never seen so many people hanging on the first bolt/piece of 5.7/5.8 routes (while talking about how they are going to do NIAD / Complete N Ridge of Stuart / NEB of Slesse / BeckyChouinard this summer...).  that, and yelling a 100 yards across the crag that they "called" that route next. LOLZ.

And usually also heard saying "I usually climb at Index"

JCMwrote:

Speaking of ladders, the Waimea ladder (and the ongoing battles over it)  is a bit odd, but makes sense for that crag.

Yeah I'm still a little confused about what was up with those battles and whether OSHA was actually involved.

Re: Waimea ladder.  I've only climbed there a few times, but that ladder seemed to be a sensible solution to the layout of the cliff. And the wood ladder is tasteful and attractive (graffiti on it notwithstanding). It seems bizarre to me that it would be the thing people get their knickers in a twist over.

JCMwrote:

And usually also heard saying "I usually climb at Index"

then followed by: "i lead a lot of ice climbing trips, but i don't know how to clean this sport climbing anchor and lower, because it is just soooo different..."

David Ywrote:

Yeah I'm still a little confused about what was up with those battles and whether OSHA was actually involved.

100% sure this was a goofy joke that was done around april fools, OSHA has no authority or reason to care about rock climbing cliffs.

Not my local crag by any description, but at the Uranus Crag at Issili, Sardinia there are (were?) roughly 7 ft. tall fairly precarious seeming ‘cairns’ made of styrofoam ‘blocks’ that you climb up to reach holds at the lip of the deep holdless cave at the base, bigger but similar to those pictured above.