ORG Crack Climbs

Heading out to the ORG in about a week and looking for some crack recommendations. We’ll also probably go to Pine Creek a few days but specifically curious about the ORG. The more jammable the better!

already on my list

Yellow Peril

O.R.G.asm 

Quail Crack (maybe a bit hot?)

Wacked Scenario

Life During Wartime

What’s your objective? Some of the things on your list require a rack - I’ve taken a rack into the Gorge for a mostly crack day. But others liked Wacked Scenario and OrGasm are fully bolted. You can place a supplemental piece if you want but not needed typically. Are you looking to avoid the bolts on the sport routes and do them on just gear? If so, the rack for something like Wacked Scenario would be pretty big.

Some of the pure cracks I’ve done down there, like Life During Wartime, have decent rock, others are pretty chossy.

If your on your way to the dihedrals, you walk by Silence of the Poodles, nice fingers.
If you at Elbow Room anyway, Stella’s Fellas is nice.

You’ll find more if you just do a route sort for the Gorge for T. If the route has a bomb or one star, odds on it’s pretty chossy. 

Lots of things around the dihedrals are great, in addition to what you have already Not Proud Enough to Name is a fairly chill 5.8 and Pumping up the Slots is a nice 5.9.

There are a bunch of sport routes that have lots of jamming at the gorge... a few random ones that come to mind are Hardly Wallbanger  (5.10), Spinal Fracture (5.11a) and Posers on the Rig (5.11b)

Bob and Eric crack in the Lower Gorge is great--pure trad, tho.  10a.

I posted this ages ago (on Supertopo I think), and some of these have been retrobolted (typically with permission). I first gave the guidebook rating (9th edition), then my opinion. This list is old - doesn't even include my route To Knee or Not to Knee, which is a fun crack route (at the roof you'll discover where the name comes from...), or Noble Mouse & King Rat on Riverside Island (we added the bolted traverse to get into those cracks - the original start was flooded by the river):

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Here’s a micro guide/notes to SOME of the trad and bolted crack routes at Owens.  Routes listed south to north, page numbers are the latest Marty Lewis guide (9th edition).  First rating is the book rating and stars, second (if given) is my opinion.  Getting good pro at Owens takes skill, it’s not a good place to learn to trad climb.  Enjoy!  Greg

Mile High Crack 5.8**  5.8**** (p.30) fun, mostly face/arete, can TR killer 5.10a R face from it. Lots of good med/large nut placements.

Corvus Mortis 5.7**  5.6  (p.32) shit rock, large loose blocks, dangerous.

Hireaeth 5.10a** 5.10a  (p.32)  shit rock, poor pro at start, stay away.

Valley 5.8  5.10b***  5.10a****  (p.34)  Killer steep 5.8/5.9 hand crack to tricky dihedral to face.  All bolted, could use #3 camalot before first bolt, and other 2-3” pro between bolts.

Electric Kachina  5.8**  5.8+****  (p.40)  Burly, quality, steep crack in corner.  Best Valley training of the easier cracks in the Gorge.

Just Under the Wire  5.10a**  (p.40)  Tricky slab past bolts to fun fingers.  Poor pro at top on traverse right, but easy.  Work on getting some pro before traverse to protect follower.

Tempest  5.10b*  5.10b  (p.41)  Haven’t done, my friend Brad Young said it’s a total choss pile, and he’s done 500 routes at Pinnacles, so it’s gotta be REALLY bad…

One Holer 5.10a****  5.10b**** (r)  (p.45)  Killer, thin, very sustained face with trad pro.  Not really run-out, but with poor, tricky, thin pro, this is a serious lead, with a nasty landing if you blow it near the deck.

Butterknife 5.8**  5.8****  (p.45)  Fun, steep hands, off-hands, and tight offwidth with lots of jugs.  Good forearm locks.  Two each cams 2-4”, I used a 4.5 Camalot as well.  Can TR One Holer.

Feudal Beerlords 5.10c****  5.10d****  (p.45)  Burly, off-balance, off-fingers crack on cool arete.  Very tough lead, but lead Nirvana, use long slings on the anchors, and traverse right and finish Feudal, then you can TR.  Watch out for loose rock on traverse.

Spinal Fracture  5.11a***  (p.45)  Quality route, face climbing crux, bring tiny cams.  Crux is 40’ up, safe fall, good lead.

Black Ice 5.10b***  5.10c***  (p.47)  Powerful, slick route with tricky pro.  Can TR by carefully traversing right from 5th bolt of Imprisoned Behind Lies, and pulling rope, then later leading IBL again to get draws back.

Z Dong 5.9***(r)  5.10a*****  (p.47)  One of the best cracks at Owens.  Runout from the ground, but instead of doing it that way, do Fear of a Black Planet and belay from the top as if you were going to do James Brown (killer 5.11b Wheat Thin-like flake to face sport climb straight above).  The second pitch starts with an easy traverse right and up to gain the crack, then an outstanding thin hands/off-fingers traverse up and right with surprisingly slippery feet.  Bring extra 1-1.5” cams.  Can TR Ambassadors of Funk, a long 5.10b, with 2 ropes from the top anchor, or TR each pitch on the way down with one rope.

Sweet & Sour 5.10a**  5.10a*, or Sweet 5.8***  (p.47)  A killer, steep 40’ dihedral (“Sweet”) leads to a chosspile with loose junk, followed by a technical crux off of poor to OK pro behind hollow flakes (“Sour”).  But just do the first dihedral, then traverse left 15’ to the anchor for the first pitch of Ambassadors of Funk, and you can also TR the first pitch (5.10b face).  Note that the chalked holds to the left of the bolts on Ambassadors are the hard way to do it, stay to the right arete to keep it 5.10b.  If you want to do the Sour part, a taxing undercling can let you place a bomber thin nut high to protect the crux.

Stradivarius 5.8****  5.8***  (p.51)  Fun crack to face, but short.  

Narcolepsy 5.8***  5.8****  (p.53)  Excellent, long crack with several tricky spots.  Bring extra 1-1.5” pro and a good selection of nuts.  A bit loose on the easy blocky terrain at the start.

Genghis Khan  5.11b***  5.11a***  (p.55)  Sport climb, but the first 30’ crux section is crack.  Good practice for finger stacking and liebacking in varied finger cracks.  The first bolt is too low, so use a single locker and a good belayer.  Whole upper section is a fun easy jug-fest.

Go For The Gold  5.10c*** 5.10c**** (p.55)  Fun juggy face to fingers to rest ledge, followed by overhung thin hands to hand crack, slick and burly.

Black Hole/Focus  5.10d*** (p.57)  Fun bolted crack, link 2 sport routes by following crack.  Bring a couple smaller cams to protect even better.

Brandenburg Gate  5.7***  5.7****  (p.61)  Good, long, moderate 5.5 crack to face/lieback crux.  Can TR tricky 5.10c thin edge slab from anchor.  Save 2-3” pro for top.

Cobbler’s Delight  5.9***  5.10a***  (p.61)  Fun hand and finger crack to tricky face crux as the crack disappears for a time.  Can TR 5.10-11 face climbs.  Bring extra finger size pro.

Sulu  5.8***  5.8****  (p.76)  Good steep hand crack with a bit of wide fist/offwidth.  Bring extra 2-4” pro.  Can TR hard 5.10d face.

Another Day In Hell  5.9**  (p.77)  Fun dihedral, but somewhat loose.  Can TR 5.11d dyno route.

Jesus Built My Tri-Cam  pitch 1: 5.8** pitch 2: 5.10a**** (p.77)  Fun varied approach pitch to killer crux pitch.  Bolted climbing up a flake off the belay leads to a sweet, clean, splitter dihedral.

Drill Sergeant  5.8***  5.8****  (p.82)  Nice dihedral with hand crack, and bolted all the way.

Hey Amigo  5.7*  5.8  (p.90)  Fun easy traversing crack, but not worth the loose, dangerous, lame approach.

Kicking Ash  5.10c**  (p.92)  Burly overhung short crack in a corner, can TR from Lava Haul.  Extra 0.6-1” pro for lead.

Fine Dining  5.7**  (p.100)  OK wide crack/dihedral.

Alfred Hitchcrack  5.8**  (p.100)  Fun, but sharp, hand crack; a bit loose.

Cinderella  5.8**** (p.100)  Superb little corner, totally bolted, good stemming and funky crack crux.

Silence of the Poodles  5.8***  5.8****  (p.103)  Fun, challenging crack climbing to reachy face with great edges.  Extra 0.75-1.5” pro.

Machine Gun Jumblies  5.10a****  5.10b*****  (p.103)  Sport climb, but almost entirely crack.  Absolutely excellent fun!  Shares first section/pitch with Dr. Evil.  Powerful lieback crux with long reach.

Dr. Evil  5.10a*****  5.10a/b*****  (p.103)  Killer climbing!  Totally bolted, a bit of face.

Not Proud Enough to Name  5.8**  5.8***  (p.104)  Short, but quality, thin hands crack.

Mildew Encrusted Shower Stall  5.10c**  (p.104)  Major burl-fest up overhung widening slick offwidth, a good place to find out if your offwidth technique is up to overhangs.  Can TR 5.10d or Life During Wartime. Hard to set TR on without grinding the rope.

Life During Wartime  5.10a***  (p.104)  Thin crack to thin, dicey face.

One Armed Bandit  5.10b***  (p.104)  Thin finger/lieback dihedral right next to previous route.

Pumping The Slots  5.9***  5.8*****  (p.104)  A face move past a bolt to a long, killer, fun dihedral with multiple hand cracks, stemming, and a long sweet hand crack finish.  Extra 2-3” pro.

O.R.G.asm  5.11a*****  5.10d*****  (p.104)  A sport climb, but bring some pro for before and after the first bolt (0.75” cam before the bolt and a 1.25”-1.5” cam which sneaks into a perfect but tricky placement between first two bolts).  Sweet, pumpy, committing overhung lieback to a fun, technical face.

thanks for that amazing list GB!

Wow. What a gift list. Thanks for sharing. 

Wow what a list.

Kicking Ash was retrobolted and the open shuts replaced with mussies fyi. 

Here's a few more:

Chipmunk Pancakes was also retrobolted and is fun jamming. 

Love Gun isn't purely crack climbing but the cruxes are. 

5.9d Crack is more bolted crack climbing, unfortunately the swifts are also enjoying the crack midway up. 

Supersweet has a fun dihedral. 

Cinderella and Poodles should get 5.9 IMHO.  Good routes.  Poodles is now bolted.

Wow I love the community here you all are awesome.  Got on a few of Greg's recommended routes (O.R.G.asm and Dr. Evil were some of the highlights) and Life During Wartime (thanks phylyp phylyp!).

Doesn't seem like it was mentioned here but the crack finish on Slip N' Slide was awesome.  Obviously a super popular route but the 5.8 crack was some of the best climbing I did down there and would definitely recommend it to anyone reading this in the future.

Also highly recommend the guidebook to anyone, it's probably one of the best guidebooks I've seen.  Overall the ORG is an incredible place.  We had a blast!

Thanks for the trip report Bailey, people so rarely circle back but it's nice to hear about people's experiences.

Marty Lewis does great guidebooks.  He's done other east side areas too. I've owned all the ORG guidebooks since edition 1 and I think I have what is the most current edition (11).  Every time I get a new one, I donate my last old one to some climber visiting internationally who's asking for info. But now that you have one, it's more incentive for you to come back!

bailey b wrote:

Wow I love the community here you all are awesome.  Got on a few of Greg's recommended routes (O.R.G.asm and Dr. Evil were some of the highlights) and Life During Wartime (thanks phylyp phylyp!).

Doesn't seem like it was mentioned here but the crack finish on Slip N' Slide was awesome.  Obviously a super popular route but the 5.8 crack was some of the best climbing I did down there and would definitely recommend it to anyone reading this in the future.

Also highly recommend the guidebook to anyone, it's probably one of the best guidebooks I've seen.  Overall the ORG is an incredible place.  We had a blast!

Thanks for the solid report! This thread has definitely made me want to check out the east side of the sierras. I found the 2018 publication of the guidebook at the used book sale for the Truckee library and was blown away with the quality ($2 for it was a steal). Easily one of the best guidebooks I've used. Like you and phylp mentioned, it's pretty well put together. 

Greg Barnes, I appreciate the throrough to-do list you've given us! I'll try to head over to the ORG this next month and give a trip report as well. Definitely more a crackhead climber, so it's nice some crack lines to fall back on in a mainly sport zone.