Arkansas Reality

As fun of a roof-crack that you'll find in any part of the country. Don't let the grade fool you, it's well worth the effort. Watching someone TR this and whip outta the base of the roof is hilarious! May 20, 2008

Getting to the roof is a harder than it looks, the gear is small and challenging, two bd#2's protect the roof perfectly though you can also get a #3 or #3.5 in there if you want. Great climb! Nov 4, 2013

A 1/2 inch cam works in the finger crack. There currently is a fixed wire at the end of the finger crack with a red biner ( 4/14). In the roof I used a bd#2, #3, #2 and then a #1 where the crack turns vertical. For me the crux was the last move before reaching the anchors. Kind of sequential and the pump factor played a big part. Fun route. Apr 24, 2014

This route humbled me. All my thrashing and hanging and french freeing wiggled a #2 deep into the top of the roof crack. Even with two nut tools taped together we couldn't recover the piece. My partner worked on it like a champ. I've been trad climbing for about 3 years and never lost a cam. Arkansas Reality took my gold C4. If you can get it out, enjoy. (5/11/2014)

I also thought that getting into the roof was surprising difficult. The lower finger crack is covered in lichen and sand. All the feet are very sloppy. Luckily I had great gear, a .4 and .5, because I fell twice getting into the roof.

I can climb 5.10 hands at the creek. That doesn't mean I was ready for this route! May 12, 2014

Hey C, your gold C4 is still there. I used it for aid myself last weekend! My on-site attempt at this line was pathetic. Although I was not fresh, I could not even work my feet up into the crack and move. Think my buddy and I are going to work on a crack-machine to simulate this route. Nuggets: It is much harder than it looks, for sure! It is smooth with no interior edges I could find. The first wide section is too wide for hand jams unless you go deep. I plan to try and intermediate through this section and get my feet up in the wide spot next time. That seems to position you well for the good hands toward the lip. Oct 7, 2014

Sent this route today! As my 2014 comment suggests, this route crushed me good a few years ago. I didn't touch it again for a long time. Last fall I cleaned it after my wife led it and it felt like a different route. I decided to start working it. I gave it probably 6 burns over a series of months and it went. I'm psyched. I didn't even lose gear this time!

A few potentially helpful notes: this thing is a PITA to clean, so it really helps to have a partner that can follow it. On previous attempts I placed four pieces in the roof. On the redpoint, I skipped the final placement. I'm not sure I could have placed again and finished. The fall is clean and safe. Lastly, (This advice is stolen from Jeremy Collins. He saw me floundering and offered some beta.) treat it like a face climb. I definitely used the crack, but i also took advantage of the bomber jugs and feet around the crack. That helped. Mar 18, 2016

if you want the good beta, hand jam in the corner, invert to sinker feet, turn out to roof jug. pull her.
jay meyers did it using that beta OS. Nov 4, 2016

FA is Jim Karpowitz, most likely in the 1970's or 1980's Mar 14, 2018