New and experienced climbers over 50 #38

In the last thread it seemed that everyone in this  thread is climbing slab routes and clipping bolts. Anyone here still like to climb crack routes?

I love cracks, especially thin hands.  But lately I have been board climbing at 50 degrees.  The Kilter Board was occupied so we got on the Tension Board 2 at 50 degrees. I did a bunch of V2’s, the wooden feet are slippery and hard, but I may be a convert. V2’s at my gym are basically hiking, but V2 on the TB2 at 50 were plenty challenging.  I flashed most of them, but not all.

GabeO: "You're welcome to your opinion, but i, for one, am skipping over these political rants. I don't see any positive whatever coming out of them"

I agree. Nothing wrong with the pleasure of confirmation bias. But it is a little boring for others. 

Thanks for the pictures Rich. Classics all around. Both the climbs and the people.

Wards post at the end of #37 sums up the political portion of this thread. I did actually manage to climb once in my life this weekend. It’s always fun to be outside and with friends. Stay safe and have fun. 

Here is a picture of one of my favorite crack climbs at Josh, taken sometime in the 1980s. Got a quick TR run from some visiting German climbers. Bowline on a coil, Gallencamp Scat tennies (pre-fivetennies) and borrowed chalk bag.

I was climbing easy crack  Saturday.  this is 4 miles from my house and painfull for me finger crack.. 

we got some good crack climbing in this spring in Seneca

there does seem to be a lot more slab and face around here than crack. 

Some of us out here on the active margin only climb cracks and will only do slabs and face climbs if we have to in order to get to the next section of crack.

But since we are talking cracks, where do you all stand on the wide ones? 

Here are some possible scenarios, but feel free to add a category if these don’t cover…

1.Avoid them like the plague

2.Will only follow if someone else leads it

3.Will do them if you have to, but it won’t be pretty

4.Treat it just like any other crack and master the technique required to do them without suffering

5.Get fanatical about them to where it is mostly what you do

6.Regularly goad your friends into leading them so you can watch them suffer and laugh at them

7.Start a climbers forum called Wide fetish

I myself fall in the number #4 category and occasionally venture into #6. I have never been shy about getting on them, but it has really been in the last three years that I feel I’ve gained mastery at them. This was aided by the fact that I found a number of quality offwidths that had not been climbed, so I figured I best get to where they are fun to do so I could snatch them up and include them in the regular circuit.

Here’s one of me from BITD on a climb called Block and Tackle at the Deadman’s area in the Eastern Sierra, around 1980. Finger cracks were always my favorite, since it’s more like face climbing!

I was climbing with Yosemite legend Werner Braun that day, and Bachar was there too, free soloing all over the place. Werner and I decided to set up a toprope on Block and Tackle. Up on the top I slotted in a textbook bomber stopper. As I started to put in another one, Werner waived his hands and said "No, no, no, that's all we need....that's a PERFECT stopper placement. If that pulls out, you were meant to die today." He believed in karma.

I waited until Werner scrambled down, then I put in another nut.

"I waited until Werner scrambled down, then I put in another nut."     

Long and Bachar visited me in the 1970s. Long must have been in his early twenties and Bachar about 19. Here Long takes a swing on my Juggernaut in Lost Canyon, east of Pueblo.

Since we're looking at old stuff, here's me on a nice crack climb in the late 90s, that (at least in this form) is not not even in a guide book!  From the end of the first pitch of Lost Fingers (where my belayer is peeking out at me on the first pic) climb the dihedral directly above and continue straight up through the steep section of Abrojos e Centellas. Then finish up the handcrack of the last (3rd) pitch of Lost Fingers (just above me in the last picture).The traditional route does some unesthetic traversing to avoid the harder steep section, which is good quality 5.11. No offwidths!  

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/107449548/lost-fingers

On the other end of the spectrum, I need to use exactly five different jams in this little crack boulder (two finger jams and three hand jams), but it's fairly technical and I call it stout V3 (6A+). Another kind of crack fun! 

This field is about 7 miles from my house 

I just saw a blip about Letchworth State Park in upstate NY and it looked in the picture to have some big cliffs? looked very much like the Gunks. 

Fossil, I guess for me I felt I had to learn to climb wide cracks so I could climb big routes where you will eventually find a wide crack blocking your way. I got competent enough at them but I didn't really go out of my way to pursue them for fun. So on your scale I guess I would fall in the #4 category. 

I might have fallen to #1 category though at this point in my life, like Bob, I have always enjoyed finger cracks much more. Then again there is also the perfect handjam that feels you could hang on to all day. Hard to beat those.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

This field is about 7 miles from my house 

My office manager sent me this yesterday. We have an annual sunflower growing contest and I haven’t been winning lately. Your field is beautiful.

She has been a consistent ray of sunshine in my office for many years. 

As to fossil’s cracks… imo a crack should be perfectly smooth, symmetrical, vertical with no overhang and exactly the size of a fist. Certainly no wider. Forget all the others. Finger cracks are the worst.    

Cracks are just the means to get to the good slab stuff.

 

I saw a video over the weekend of a female climber who got her head wedged in a wide crack and seriously could not get it out. She kept saying “I got myself in here, I can get myself out.”  (And she did) 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I just saw a blip about Letchworth State Park in upstate NY and it looked in the picture to have some big cliffs? looked very much like the Gunks. 

Nick, I'm pretty sure that the rock in Letchworth, like almost all the rock in central NY, including the Finger Lakes region, is primarily poorly bonded shale, much too loose for climbing. Additionally, looking at the Park website, climbing ( either rock or ice--multiple impressive waterfalls) is not listed among the permitted activities there--and I expect that further 'digging' will show that it is expressly prohibited.

Norm, where is that beautiful finger crack in the second picture you posted to initiate this iteration of our thread?

Fossil, As you know, wide cracks are quite rare in the Northeast, though some are definitely around, so little opportunity to practice on them. Way BITD, I spent part of my season in Yosemite trying to 'learn the secrets' of such things as wide cracks and flaring chimneys, by putting in multiple top-rope efforts on climbs such as Generator and Church Bowl Chimney Wrong. I eventually obtained what I felt was at least a basic level of proficiency on such 'fissures'. But. when I returned to the Valley a few years later, having had little further 'exposure' in the interim, I quickly discovered that such techniques are not like 'knowing how to ride a bike', and I was back again at the start of the learning curve. Since then I've been in category #1.

For many years, though, I did love finger cracks, especially thin ones given my small hands--almost a specialty. However, for several years now I have developed significant arthritic 'lumps' on my knuckles, as a result of which my fingers no longer 'fit' in them---or if they do slot into a widening, there is a very real possibility that I won't be able to get them out!!!! One of the 'joys' of an aging body!!!!

Good story Cherokee!!!!

Norm Larsonwrote:

In the last thread it seemed that everyone in this  thread is climbing slab routes and clipping bolts. Anyone here still like to climb crack routes?

Good god, yes.  Those photos have me drooling a river.  I like lots of kinds of climbing, but my absolute favorite place in the world is Indian Creek.  

Look Ma, no hands! (Way Rambo - taken about a dozen years ago)

Fossil, I love all kinds of crack, and I have made several concerted efforts over the years to get competent at the wide, with all the suffering that entails, so I'd put myself solidly in the #4 camp.  My "current" project (with quotations around it since I haven't been on it since last fall) is a steeply overhanging crack, but it doesn't really climb like one.  Journey to a Mushroom Planet is at Rumney, where the cracks tend to be good enough for gear, but often lousy for much else (though I do get a jam when I get the chance).  My next project, if I ever either send or give up on this one will likely be a bit of wide.  I kind of have my heart set on trying out Bulletproof, at Farley.  Here's a video (not me) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2_4hyT_FI..  If I do go for it, I might wind up building a little crack machine in my garage, as I've never done inversions before, and will need to practice.  

When I was living in Colorado, I struggled mightily on several cracks at Indian Creek where lots of tight green Camalots (ring locks) guarded the send.  I built a .75 crack machine in my garage at the time.  It was so slick that the first time I got on it, I could only just hold myself in place for a few seconds, and could not make a single move.  Over the course of six months, I got to the point where I could do a few laps up and down without rest.  Those climbs became easy after that.

Edited to add:  Cherokee, thank you for sharing your story.  I can almost feel the warm fuzzies from here.

GO

Haven't been on a rope a ton lately, but here is a recent ascent.  Some people may see some familiar things:

fossilwrote:

But since we are talking cracks, where do you all stand on the wide ones? 

Define "wide"? There are some large crack climbs in the Gunks, but I'm not sure if they are technically categorized as "wide cracks." I.e. what makes a wide crack different from, say, a chimney?

Bill and I got out on Jackie, this morning. Nice way to start the week!
It had rained a bit yesterday, but this section of the cliff was pretty dry. My impression is that the hot hot temperatures this time of the year help the cliff dry off fast after a rain.

Bill nearing the top of Jackie:

I am somewhere between 3 and 4.. gud enough that most of my Eastern partners expect me to get the rope up the wide pitches. Bad enough to get spanked occasionally.