|
j_ung
Dec 2, 2004, 4:24 PM
Post #1 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 21, 2003
Posts: 18690
|
Personally, I can't think of anything I like more than steep trad routes. I love love love jamming and firing cams into deep horizontals. There's nothing quite like letting your feet cut loose when you're 3m out from your last piece and knowing that if you fall, you're gonna just fly without hitting a single stupid ledge.
I think it's a style of climbing that, to some extent, bridges a gap between sport and trad. The moves are gymnastic, the routes are pumpy and powerful and the falls are clean -- like a sport route protected with natural gear.
So what are your favorite steep, roofy trad lines? NC is filled with them; just check out Hawksbill and Shortoff. Post up pics if you have 'em!
Here are a couple from Hawksbill:
Lost in Space .10b
http://img117.exs.cx/.../ab-chrisonroof1.jpg
Winged Mongrel .10a
http://img108.exs.cx/...7-steveonroof201.jpg
|
|
|
|
|
caughtinside
Dec 2, 2004, 5:03 PM
Post #2 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 8, 2003
Posts: 30603
|
The feeling you describe is why I love to sport climb. 8^)
I did do a really nice 5.9 trad climb in Josh last week though, Touch and Go, that was a really steep dihedral, with some killer double cracks in the corner. Loved it. Sucked up pro, big hands, small feet. Yeehaw!
More steepness, please!
|
|
|
|
|
shakylegs
Dec 2, 2004, 5:08 PM
Post #3 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Aug 20, 2001
Posts: 4774
|
Damn, some of us are too weak to plug in gear on overhangs. And by "some," I mean me. And by "too weak" I mean "pass the tissues, I'm crying from fear again."
Thanks for reminding me of my status. Thanks a lot. I'll just go back to my run-out slabs instead.
|
|
|
|
|
jdouble
Dec 2, 2004, 5:23 PM
Post #4 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jun 15, 2004
Posts: 564
|
I need more of those trad roofs!!! That picture j_ung posted of the 10b got me looking at plane tickets to get back to the gunks! Oh yea, probably a little cold this time of year. Damm! My first trip there absolutely blew my mind, hanging by one arm, plugging gear in, all on a 5.8!!! What a rush.......
|
|
|
|
|
yanqui
Dec 2, 2004, 5:59 PM
Post #5 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Feb 24, 2004
Posts: 1559
|
In reply to: So what are your favorite steep, roofy trad lines? Post up pics if you have 'em!
Damn you to hell j_ung, but your photos are way better'n mine. Anyways, here's a few photos I have of nice, steep trad lines.
1) Yours truly on 'Abrojos y Centellas' (11b) in Argentina's Frey :
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=44335
In reply to: There's nothing quite like letting your feet cut loose when you're 3m out from your last piece
Actually Abrojos y Centellas has one bolt and two dicey looking fixed pins (which I backed up with TCUs). But if you look carefully, you'll see I have the route fairly LACED with gear. I won't be screaming 6m. HAHAHAHA
In reply to: I love love love jamming and firing cams into deep horizontals.
2) My wife toproping 'Have a Cookie' (10b), a route in Balcarce, Argentina put up by visiting friend Mike Pleinus. It has bomber hand jams and bomber horizontal Camlot placements (eagerly accepting a 1, a 2 and a 3 Camlot):
http://www.celb.com.ar/...0de%20Gaby/Gaby3.jpg
3) Just to prove not all steep trad routes are beautiful to behold, here I am looking sick while seconding the first of ascent 'This May Feel a Little Weird' (10d/11a), another climb in Balcarce:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=35074
|
|
|
|
|
crackmd
Dec 2, 2004, 6:23 PM
Post #7 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 444
|
In reply to: The feeling you describe is why I love to sport climb. 8^) I did do a really nice 5.9 trad climb in Josh last week though, Touch and Go, that was a really steep dihedral, with some killer double cracks in the corner. Loved it. Sucked up pro, big hands, small feet. Yeehaw! More steepness, please!
To me the ultimate in trad is steep cracks. Low angle slabs=not so fun, but more power to those who love and thrive on them. I have always found sandstone desert crack climbing to capture that steep, sportclimbing feeling. Placing gear in parallel cracks if often very easy and quick. You can climb till you have the whole-body pump and keep pushing on, either getting to the chains with nothing left or taking a good safe whipper. There is nothing more rewarding than getting an onsight/redpoint on a route where you are on the edge for many moves in a row. Desert splitters seem to lend to staying on despite fatigue because they are less forearm intensive than sport climbs (your whole body and mind get pumped). I have had some epic battles there. You should go if you have not already been.
|
|
|
|
|
caughtinside
Dec 2, 2004, 6:41 PM
Post #8 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Jan 8, 2003
Posts: 30603
|
crackmd,
Thanks for the info! Sounds like the kind of climbing I'd love. haven't made it out there yet, now I'll have to go. I'm much more comfortable hanging out on steepness than standing on slab/nubbins.
But you gotta work your weaknesses, eh? So I climb trad at Josh, too. :lol:
|
|
|
|
|
brutusofwyde
Dec 2, 2004, 6:55 PM
Post #9 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 3, 2002
Posts: 1473
|
One of my favorites is Geronimo Roof on Old Woman Formation in Joshua Tree. 5.7 roof. Wild. Sorry, no pictures.
Brutus
|
|
|
|
|
bandycoot
Dec 2, 2004, 6:56 PM
Post #10 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 25, 2002
Posts: 2028
|
O'Kelly's Crack and Wangerbanger in J-Tree are real quality overhung cracks. No roofs, but no ledges to hit if you fall either. My current goal this season is to lead More Monkey than Funky out in J-Tree. It is a perfectly horzontal roof hand crack for roughly 12' then you pull through the lip with thin hands. I just top roped it last month for the first time and I started training for it. Steep crack is definitely where it's at.
Josh
|
|
|
|
|
j_ung
Dec 2, 2004, 7:05 PM
Post #11 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 21, 2003
Posts: 18690
|
In reply to: One of my favorites is Geronimo Roof on Old Woman Formation in Joshua Tree. 5.7 roof. Wild. Sorry, no pictures. Brutus
Here you go, Brutus.
http://www.cascadeimages.com/.../southwest/01024.JPG
©2003 Joseph Puryear Collection
|
|
|
|
|
cracklover
Dec 2, 2004, 8:00 PM
Post #12 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 14, 2002
Posts: 10162
|
In reply to: One of my favorites is Geronimo Roof on Old Woman Formation in Joshua Tree. 5.7 roof. Wild. Sorry, no pictures. Brutus
I agree - and I found it soft for 5.7, too! Wonderful and bizzare! Found a nice pic of Geronimo taken recently by Adamd.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=43025
Click on the photo to rate/comment.
For lots more mouth-watering pics of roof cracks, click here. And Indian Creek is a passionate love of mine. (with a name like Cracklover, go figure :roll:)
But for the horizontal cracks and steepness the original poster desires, you simply *must* look to the Gunks, where the well protected steep routes go from 5.3 (Bunny) to 5.13 (Twilight Zone), and from A (Airy Aria or Andrew) to Y (Yum Yum Yab Yum). Well protected horizontal steepness galore.
I'll let you troll for pics yourself, as that's half the fun. But here's two good places to start:
rc.com
gunks.com
Enjoy!
GO
|
|
|
|
|
cracklover
Dec 2, 2004, 8:49 PM
Post #13 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 14, 2002
Posts: 10162
|
Okay, just to be fair, I realized I can't sing the praises of the Gunks without at least showing *one* photo. There's plenty of good ones out there of Shockley's, but here's one you don't see every day.
Bonnie's Direct.
http://www.gunks.com/...Roof_Direct_web_.jpg
GO
|
|
|
|
|
crackmd
Dec 2, 2004, 10:08 PM
Post #14 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 444
|
Who here has done the Inhibitor at the Red River Gorge? That is about as "tradical" a crack as I have ever come across. It overhangs as do most of the routes at the RRG. This one probably overhangs 15 feet. Awesome thinhands at the bottom to an amazing chimney grovel. Intricate transition leaving the chimney and finishes on a bomber handcrack when you are fighting the whole body pump. My partner followed me up this, then proceded to vomit and fall asleep for 2 hours. Best of all are the looks you receive from other climbers in the area for climbing this gem. I will never forget a really strong local kid who routinely cruises 5.13 stopping his boulder session and marveling at us doing one of the few routes at the Red that intimidate him.
|
|
|
|
|
crackmd
Dec 2, 2004, 10:15 PM
Post #15 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 444
|
In reply to: O'Kelly's Crack and Wangerbanger in J-Tree are real quality overhung cracks. No roofs, but no ledges to hit if you fall either. My current goal this season is to lead More Monkey than Funky out in J-Tree. It is a perfectly horzontal roof hand crack for roughly 12' then you pull through the lip with thin hands. I just top roped it last month for the first time and I started training for it. Steep crack is definitely where it's at. Josh
I seem to TR More Monkey every trip I take to Jtree. It is flat out awesome! I have thought about leading it many times, but that slab below seems to make the margin for error real thin. Granted, it is bomber hands that I have not fallen out of. You just never know. Then there is the issue of the rope. I think if you try to lead with one rope you may come to a standstill past the lip with ropedrag because you really can't afford to sling the pieces under the roof with the slab looming. Maybe using 2 ropes and dropping one once a piece is in over the roof. These are the issues that have kept me setting TRs of this classic. Did you score the killer kneebar?
|
|
|
|
|
bandycoot
Dec 2, 2004, 10:57 PM
Post #16 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 25, 2002
Posts: 2028
|
I did score the knee bar. I found it by accident but it definitely helped. I look forward to working this monster, but the hand jams are just so damn good that I think leading it is definitely a possibility. I'll just clip one rope in with a carabiner and drop it when I no longer need its services as you recommended. I hope to video tape it since it's just such a killer line!
Josh
|
|
|
|
|
eyecannon
Dec 2, 2004, 11:32 PM
Post #17 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 4, 2004
Posts: 517
|
Awesome pics, I'd like to try some of those!
|
|
|
|
|
trapdoor
Dec 3, 2004, 12:29 AM
Post #18 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 27, 2003
Posts: 183
|
You can get some vert at the needles.
|
|
|
|
|
takeme
Dec 3, 2004, 2:00 AM
Post #19 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: May 7, 2003
Posts: 367
|
I love these kind of routes. Wish I was better at climbing them.
Lots in Eldo. Vertigo, Psychosis, Grandmother's Challenge, Kloof. Those are all in the 10+/11 range, but there's some pretty steep stuff at easier grades--Hair City, Alice in Bucketland, Out to Lunge, etc. Most of these routes, even if they have cracks, involve climbing on jugs and face holds, but they all protect with gear.
But the best route of this sort that I've done has got to be Death and Transfiguration, in the Flatirons. It goes over two huge roofs with strenuous and bizarre sequences beyond mere jamming or jug hauling. Unfortunately it's an hour+ bushwhack to get there, and there's not much else around to do. But it's worth it. Another route in the Flatirons that I haven't done, but belongs on this list as much as anything, is the West Overhang of the Maiden. Almost shit myself just looking at it.
Others--Turnkorner, Cave Exit, Bat Crack at Lumpy, pitch 3 of Lightning Bolt Cracks in Indian Creek, pitch 3 of the Journey Home in the Black Canyon. Maybe the last pitch of Third Pillar of Dana, though it's not actually a roof.
|
|
|
|
|
crackmd
Dec 3, 2004, 4:11 AM
Post #20 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 444
|
In reply to: You can get some vert at the needles.
Absolutely! Any route on the Sorcerer. The second pitch of Don Juan Wall is one of the very best.
How about Arch Rock in Yosemite? Some of the most physical climbs I have done live there. Midterm, Leenie Meenie, New Dimensions, English Breakfast Crack, Anticipation(my favorite valley pitch).
Rostrum and Astroman for awesome steep cracks stacked on top of each other. I need to get on the Crucifix which looks way steep and cool.
|
|
|
|
|
ldsclimber
Dec 3, 2004, 4:28 AM
Post #21 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Dec 27, 2002
Posts: 90
|
This is a totaly tadical line in Queen Creek, AZ.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos.php?Action=ListPhoto&PhotoID=40789
|
|
|
|
|
rqf4
Dec 3, 2004, 5:27 AM
Post #22 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 1, 2004
Posts: 16
|
Don't mean to bring negative vibes to the party, but, cracklover, in that pic of "Geronimo Roof" thats mad 'foot behind the rope'. gives me the shivers looking at it. -Corey
|
|
|
|
|
murf
Dec 3, 2004, 3:45 PM
Post #24 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Mar 15, 2002
Posts: 1150
|
In reply to: I did score the knee bar. I found it by accident but it definitely helped. I look forward to working this monster, but the hand jams are just so damn good that I think leading it is definitely a possibility. I'll just clip one rope in with a carabiner and drop it when I no longer need its services as you recommended. I hope to video tape it since it's just such a killer line! Josh
I tried using two ropes on MM once, it was a complete cluster. Just use one and either place your first piece fairly far from the stance, or back clean your last piece.
|
|
|
|
|
bandycoot
Dec 3, 2004, 4:39 PM
Post #25 of 29
(4210 views)
Shortcut
Registered: Nov 25, 2002
Posts: 2028
|
So did you lead it with one rope? I've thought about having the belayer up under the roof to reduce rope drag a little. Then the drag only occurs from the lip of the roof which should be more managable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
