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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 11, 2015 - 02:10pm PT
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The guidebook has it as 5.11a * R,
so that should help with your questions about quality and runout.
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Northern California
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Topic Author's Reply - May 11, 2015 - 03:30pm PT
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Thanks. Doesn't seem like anyone has done this since the mid-1980s? Wondering if offsets or other cams cut down the R factor...
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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May 11, 2015 - 07:54pm PT
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IIRC the FFA party was pretty tolerant of the odd runout.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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May 11, 2015 - 09:42pm PT
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Looks super fun. I'm down!
Lots of routes up that wall on the left.
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bob
climber
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May 11, 2015 - 09:54pm PT
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I went up there last year with some good intentions, but lacked the gear. Gear, which I'm pretty sure the FFA team didn't have. I wanted it.
Sweet looking route. There was some loose gong show stuff on the first and second pitches.
It would be nice to have my lead head under control and go back up there. Great position.
It looks quality, runout, and fun.
Next time. :(
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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May 12, 2015 - 07:17am PT
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Le_bruce might have a very good idea...
He and I tried Bridalveil East as one of our first adventures together, and I recall as we were climbing, he was saying "Return to Stoneage Buttress" was off to climber's right from the line we started up. Waterfall was cyclically hitting this before the wind kicked up, after which we we got blasted for a while every 30 seconds amidst our hasty retreat.
I'm not certain we started up the right line for Bridalveil East, though I suspect we were close- maybe too far to the right. so that would imply RTS is even closer to the left (edit: I meant right!) than the line drawn by Clint.
Le_bruce since went back with Alexey and gang and did the actual Bridalveil East, so they both should have a better idea.
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bob
climber
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May 12, 2015 - 07:24am PT
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Clints line is too far left. It goes up between his line for RTS and Bridal East. Straight up between them for the most part. You can really see it in the OP's link pic.
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WBraun
climber
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May 12, 2015 - 09:56am PT
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Return to the Stone Age is a Coz run out route.
Be prepared to die ....
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Northern California
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Topic Author's Reply - May 12, 2015 - 11:15am PT
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If the route is that buttress, then that makes sense. I did a route to the right of Bridal Veil East in 2006. The buttress looked really good. Maybe I'll have time to check it out later this summer when the falls calm down.
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WBraun
climber
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May 12, 2015 - 01:40pm PT
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If the route is that buttress, then that makes sense.
It is on the buttress.
Coz showed it to me.
I've done quite a bit of climbing with Coz so I know how he climbs.
Be careful as when he runs it out it means there's no pro .....
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 12, 2015 - 02:37pm PT
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Here are my (hopefully improved) guesses at where the first 2 belays are.
The first belay is at some bushes, and there seems to be just one obvious set of bushes low enough on the buttress, so hopefully that's right.
I used 4 different photos, since corners appear or disappear depending on the angle.
Am I getting closer, Bob?
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Northern California
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Topic Author's Reply - May 12, 2015 - 04:14pm PT
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Heh! Thanks Clint! That second photo is one I took when we though we were on Bridal Veil East.
I recall that buttress looking really good. I'll have to find someone who doesn't mind 5.11a runouts.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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May 12, 2015 - 04:41pm PT
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Clint, I think the buttress you marked is still to the left of Midget Chimney in Bridalveil East, but I'm not 100% certain.
For reference, this is what le_bruce was calling Return to Stone Age Buttress when we were in the area. We screwed up the approach first time with some 5.6 soloing in hiking boots to dirt-covered top-out, bushy traverse, and then downclimb to the start.
Not the proximal buttress, but the one behind it (inaccessible here because of the waterfall conditions):
All of the preceding are climber's right of Bridalveil East (out of frame right in the picture below). Whereas, what Clint marked in the topo is on the outside of this formation (left of frame) to the left of Bridalveil East:
I might be dead wrong here- just relaying what may have been conjecture on le_bruce's part when we were there first time.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 12, 2015 - 05:05pm PT
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Here's the Cosgrove annotated topo:
Note that they used Lowe ball nuts as shown. I wouldn't skimp there.
Note the bad bolt.
Note the pitch/belay corrections.
Note the 10 D crux upgraded to 11+. I believe Scott said this is a height dependent crux. (If not here somewhere else on the route: I don't recall whether he said it could be aided or not. Knowing Scott it probably has to be *climbed*). Cosgrove is tall. Ed Barry, a wiry average sized climber, may have had some trouble with the reach.
At the top it says "1, 3 easy [pitches]. 2 the sh#t."
This route and other Cosgrove routes, such as the North Face Left on Higher Cathedral (The Affliction, 11D), that thing he did over in the Ribbon Falls amphitheater (Thin Line, 11+ R) are likely much more serious routes than most of us are accustomed to ... Be very strong at the grade.
(I have the annotated topos for those two routes as well)
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 12, 2015 - 05:35pm PT
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Thanks for the topo edits, Roy.
Mr_T - cool, I thought that was likely your photo!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 13, 2015 - 03:00pm PT
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Good read and good times there Bob J!
Sounds almost exactly like a post-FA Shipley rant. It's all about the territory!
Pretty sure the rock on Return to the Stone Age won't be nearly as crunchy!
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Northern California
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Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2015 - 03:58pm PT
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Somehow I thought this was the free version of an aid route (no idea now why I thought that). Was that the case? If so, I'd think there would be decent pro to be found.
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Northern California
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Topic Author's Reply - May 13, 2015 - 04:07pm PT
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So, more to the point - this Coz guy. When he did this, was he a 5.13 climber who is totally comfortable on 5.11 terrain? Or was this someone who was just comfortable about pushing his limits and going big on the fall? Or both?
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