Freeeblast - Gunks training

Owl's Head has plenty of routes far away from the rockfall area, all of which are challenging slabs, such as Jupiter (5.10b), Dallas (5.11), or Tilbury (5.12a). Bird of Prey (5.11b) is close to the rockfall event but was affected minimally: there's just a single smashed hanger that you can girth hitch with an alpine. If you want to tackle safe 5.11 friction slab climbing on granite, I can't think of a better place than Owl's Head.

There are some decent slab routes on Cannon - Odyssey, Stairway to Heaven and so on.

Routes at Owl's Head look great but how muddy/marhsy is the approach? 

Peet Danen put in a lot of work and now the approach is much, much better. You need to make sure to park on the big pullout a bit further east than the other pullouts and then just follow the orange and green tags. Now you can do the approach happily in any footwear you want.

Ben Hostewrote:

Thank you! Sounds like a trip to Sugarloaf would be fruitful. I've also wanted to visit Owl's Head for a long time, and haven't been back to Cathedral in years. These sound like perfect places to do some slab climbing without leaving the NE. Thank you for directing me to Soul Fusion / Confusion!  

I guess the last specific question I would have would be Gunks routes that are similar to the undercling traverse on P3 of Freeblast (the first one that pops into my head is Dry Heaves, but it's far to easy comparatively) and the Half Dollar Pitch. Would love your thoughts on 5.10-5.11 climbs that would help with those parts. 

I think lots of Gunks routes have similar roof moves. P2 of Erect Direction comes to mind, as there's a similar scrunchiness to the feet. 

I can't think of anything that approximates the Half Dollar entrance move. Gunks rock is mostly too featured to provide much comparison.  My memory is placing a tiny cam, standing on the tiniest, glassiest foothold imaginable, and then grunting and sweating and cursing until suddenly I was in and it was over. You just have to do it. But if you make it that far, you'll figure it out!

Thanks!

I was thinking the first pitch of matinee might be good practice for the 11 traverse.

Maybe there’s some awkward chimney type off worth in the gunks that would be good problem solving practice for the half dollar.

It has been a VERY long time for me, so these comments may not be accurate, but my recollection of the first pitch of Matinee is that there are 2 ways to do that traverse, but neither is an undercling---either a sloping hand traverse with hands above the lip or a thin crimpy face traverse below the roof.

As for awkward chimney/off-width struggles, Ventre de Boeuf, both with and without the direct start, might work. I also recall some cracks that might be appropriate at Lost City, especially amongst the big blocks on the right ( north?) end  of the outcrop.

just go to north conway instead and train your heart out on friction slab all over whitehorse.