Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 2, 2010 - 12:00am PT
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Two contenders have been posited in the Southern Belle thread.
Being a lover of slabs, I find the question really interesting.
what are the criteria?
Peter tossed out these ideas for SB...
length, placement, difficulty, history, quality of rock, nature of the climbing, drama. Clint added Hall of Mirrors...
especially in the smooth and edging departments. It has had only one repeat. but indicated also...
Southern Belle is harder, has the hard crack climbing start, and of course is notorious for being more runout than the Bachar-Yerian.
For a single pitch slab climb? less than 90 degrees, preferably with the fewest features possible, so knob climbs may be out.
Let me throw out a controversial idea to get the ball rolling....
the Grack Marginal
I'm biased toward this one. What would make another line better?
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Wayno
Big Wall climber
Seattle, WA
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Lembert Dome.
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flakyfoont
Trad climber
carsoncity nv
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Crested jewel, North dome
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Guangzhou
Trad climber
Asia, Indonesia, East Java
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First Pitch of Rainy Day Woman at Stone Mountain. (NC)
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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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I guess "ultimate" is going to be relative to the skills of the beholder and how strong/fresh the memories are. For me, Goodrich Pinnacle Right Side is the latest...
It had me saying stuff like "Only the Penitent Man Shall Pass" and "Take the Leap of Faith", while thinking of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when I was strung out on lead committed on fingernails and squeaky wet rubber.
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Degaine
climber
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Table of Contents, Stately Pleasure Dome
Excellent slab, quality rock, and relatively moderate in terms of difficulty for us "mere mortal" climbers.
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Ryan Tetz
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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Only one repeat on Hall of Mirrors?
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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I don't know about "ultimate", but some memorable ones are:
Rawl Drive in Tuolumne: scary!
Smoke Screen at Cal Domes: fun
Miroir d'Argentine in Switzerland: long cruiser
Honeymoon in Almo at Castle Rocks State Park, ID: short but fun
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 2, 2010 - 01:18am PT
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care to elaborate?
are you saying it's not pure slab, so it is disqualified?
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o-man
Trad climber
Paia,Maui,HI
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dogtown
Trad climber
JackAssVille, Wyoming
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The classic Valhalla (5.11) at T&S also comes to mind as well.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
SoCal
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Suicide Rock, especially the Weeping Wall, has an abundance of fun slab routes.
I think the ultimate slab is hard but not that steep because the joy of slabbing is facing the fear of the unspeakable consequences of the low-angle fall.
Nice low angle slab out at my favorite choss-pile:
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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As an aside, I find it interesting that slabs were considered cool stuff 30 years ago, certainly not trivial, but something with the right approach in your head, you could develop the style and mental/emotional strength to do well. Now, 99% of the climbers around here are really quite good at the sport thing, like doing 12s and 13s and some even 14s, but they think slab climbing is absolutley insane and scary and make all sorts of vague statements about how they're going out to Lankin Dome and Moonstone and get on those 10s (because holy sh#t, I'm a 5.12 climber and I can't let this 58 year old geezer skunk me on some low angle 5.10, heavens no), but they never seem to make the trip. I'm not all that great on the sport thing, it sometimes hurts too much to throw around 180lbs on that stuff, but it gives me an evilly good feeling inside to still be good at something they are totally freaked about. HEEHEEHEE.
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Ron Anderson
Trad climber
USA Carson city Nev.
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"set the controls for the heart of the sun" across the road from calveras....
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Tattooed 1
Trad climber
Sebastopol, Ca
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How about Beacons From Mars at Cal Dome? I have only done the first 3 pitches but they certainly got my attension.
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Ron Anderson
Trad climber
USA Carson city Nev.
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yeah that one too!!;-) they are certainly "burly"...
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