What is the hardest route rated 5.10a you haveever done?

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Levy

Big Wall climber

So Cal

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 28, 2010 - 01:43pm PT

I was discussing the vagueness of ratings with some friends recently & we were noting the wide degree of variation of routes rated 5.10a.

Some are relatively easy & some are really hard for the grade.

I'll start out with some examples of routes rated 5.10a that I would consider stout for the grade.

Moby Dick Center ~ tough, finger wrenching moves off the ground

Lost Arrow chimney ~ full value slithering & grunting I hear but I have not done it yet.
Crack of Doom ~ I also have not done this but I think it is also rugged

The Spell ~ Needles - a beautiful crack that has lots of wide moves.

Hoodwink ~ The roof seems much harder than 5.10a & the slab moves on the final pitch are quite thin for a 5.10a rating.

Chin Strap Crack ~ Tahquitz another wide flare that is hard to protect.

Post up your selections, I know there are many more than what I have mentioned here.

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 28, 2010 - 01:45pm PT

Doggie Do!

Gary Carpenter

climber

SF Bay Area

Aug 28, 2010 - 01:58pm PT

Reed's Left

Melissa

Gym climber

berkeley, ca

Aug 28, 2010 - 02:01pm PT

N Buttress of Middle

I'll second the crux of doggie do.

I can think of several 9's harder than both of those.

Matt

Trad climber

primordial soup

Aug 28, 2010 - 03:20pm PT

i think possibly the last (slab) pitch of hoodwink, at least that sounds plausible enough, that bit seemed really inobvious to me, while i thought the roof was fine, and moby dick center/ sacherer cracker always seemed fine to me (onsighted sacherer cracker as i think my 3rd crack climb).

i can remember many more routes that seemed light for 10a than hard for 10a, even in Yosemite.

copper penny (at five and dime) is not easy, i think that's 10a...

Steve Grossman

Trad climber

Seattle, WA

Aug 28, 2010 - 03:26pm PT

Tell me that you haven't done Aunt Fanny's Panties skeezer P-dude!?!

bjj

climber

beyond the sun

Aug 28, 2010 - 03:34pm PT

There's a couple of slabs at J-Tree, none of which I can remember (as they were fairly obscure) that really gave me a hard time. One of them was over by (I think) super roof. I was with a group of friends and volunteered to take the lead. The route was ok at first, a bit grainy but not too bad.

Then it got more grainy, more runout and on top of that was baking in the sun. I went a good 15 feet past bolt #3 and meandered left, totally off route. Friends lounging on the big flat rock below were shooting the sh#t, eating lunch and probably smoking a joint - totally unaware that I was completely gripped and unable to move in any direction.

Finally I had to yell down and sheepishly request someone run up to the top and lower me a rescue rope. I just wasn't in the mood to take a 25 foot sideways slab scraping ride.

I took a lot of sh#t for that, even after the top rope was up and everyone got to see what I was faced with.

TrundleBum

Trad climber

Las Vegas

Aug 28, 2010 - 03:53pm PT

Any 5.9+ in New Hampshire ;)

franky

Trad climber

Ford Pickup Truck, North America

Aug 28, 2010 - 03:59pm PT

i agree on doggie do, that thing is hard, I didn't think the start of moby dick center was that bad, maybe just because it was short though.

martygarrison

Trad climber

The Great North these days......

Aug 28, 2010 - 05:01pm PT

maybe crack of doom. also the dnb was rated 10a when I did it and it sure felt a little sketchy for the grade.

August West

Trad climber

Where the wind blows strange

Aug 28, 2010 - 05:03pm PT

The start of Moby is really dependent on finger size. It is not 10a for thicker fingers.

It probably gets downgraded being right off the deck, but I never understood that line of thinking. Oh, the move is so close the ground that you have to immediately fiddle with gear and/or taking a chance of decking, so we are going to call what otherwise would be a 10c a 10a...

allapah

climber

Aug 28, 2010 - 05:10pm PT

Crack of Doom for sure

nutjob

Trad climber

Berkeley, CA

Aug 28, 2010 - 05:15pm PT

August, I'm with you on that opening jam of Moby Center being ridiculously thin and painful, but many folks probably side-step it to the left and the rest of the route is much easier.

My vote (from a relatively small sample size):
Left side of the Cookie

steelmnkey

climber

Vision man...ya gotta have vision...

Aug 28, 2010 - 06:28pm PT

Although I haven't done it yet, I'm going to go with
Jump Back Jack Crack (5.10a), Granite Mountain, AZ

k-man

Gym climber

SCruz

Aug 28, 2010 - 06:39pm PT

Beer Pressure next to Jump for Joy on Ranger Rock.

A .10a I backed off of...don't usually do that.

Static Cling next to Kaukulator was also stout for the grade.

Friend

climber

Aug 28, 2010 - 07:23pm PT

The Spell is 5.10 per the guide, which seems about right. I remember thinking, no way I could fall out of here, so why do feel like I"m going to puke? Same with Midterm. I guess chimneys are not my strength.

The first two pitches of New Dimensions are 10a.... both felt desperate to me.

Also, New Diversions. Pretty rad.