nutjob
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 27, 2007 - 11:45pm PT
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Yeah I know it's better with pictures, but just pretend I put some in here (and pretend I took some)... you've seen it all before.
I broke through a mental barrier today... no longer will I think Yosemite 5.10 belongs in this special place outside my reach. There are plenty of gems that will spank me seven ways to Sunday, but let us leave those for now. This is a story of glory, strength and honor.
I swung leads with Karl Baba (nice to climb with him, I highly recommend it!), and he got the hard leads (the wet piton scars on first pitch, and the 5.10d pitch higher up). No falls on my leads, and no falls while following, even while cleaning gear. I had myself so psyched up for the intensity of the 5.10d part that it was over before I knew it. So all in all, a clean victory on a day I expected to do a lot of hang-dogging! Yeehaawww!
And I was a glutton for more at the end, I scampered up Maxine's something-er-other right next to the start of Serenity crack (it's a 5.10a slabby face climb). Beware the first bolt- it is just beyond reach from the decent stance, and you have to make a solid commitment pretty high off the deck to get the bolt.
There were some cool looking frogs in the first part of the dog-leg crack at the top of Sons... seems like they're common Pacific Tree Frogs (based on my weak ability to google them), but the coloring was solid reddish-copper with no spots. I had to move carefully to avoid crushing them. Of course, the blue-belly lizards were there doing push-ups too. No snakes, geckos, skinks, axlotles, or other oddities.
And I have a tip for the super-dirt-bags out there. Leave cardboard in your trunk- you never know when it comes in handy. I was in a hurry to drive out last night (went to an open mic and played guitar in front of strangers for the first time in 10 years), and I forgot my warm sleeping bag and thermarest. In the trunk I happened to have a lightweight sleeping bag and some cardboard boxes (broke those and used 'em as groundpads). It worked out well enough to survive, but not enough to be comfortable. I was in fetal position most of night, and I checked my watch a few times hoping it was time to get up.
And maybe the best part (or at least a good cap to the whole experience), I was back at home in silicon valley before sunset, with time to play with kids and give them their baths before bed.
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Apr 27, 2007 - 11:57pm PT
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Sounds great. Congratulations! That is one of my very favorite climbs. And now that the mythical 5.10 barrier has been breached, a whole new set of adventures awaits you...
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Hell on earth wondering what I did to deserve it
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Apr 28, 2007 - 12:01am PT
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Great TR even without photos. Thanks for sharing.
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spyork
Social climber
Land of Green Stretchy People
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Apr 28, 2007 - 09:56am PT
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Nice TR. Good job on not freezing also!
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Joe Metz
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Apr 28, 2007 - 10:20am PT
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Way to go, Scott. Congrats on the clean ascent (must have been those burritos, eh?) and thanks for being kind to the froggies.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Apr 29, 2007 - 01:36pm PT
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Congratulation on your ascent. It feels good to do things right, to be in tune... Sadly we will never know how difficult Serenity Crack was. After Tom Higgins led it, in later fall 1967, the aiders for the next several years hammered those knife-blade cracks into bong-tip and boot holes. Likewise when I did the first free ascent of the Center Route on the Slack, someone later went up and pulled out a slightly loose but mostly solid block at the crux move. Whereas one had to use finger-tip lieback jams on either side of the block, now there is a big, open, bomber handjam. John Long, being the man of integrity he is, later told me he felt it still was 5.11 without the block. But people said at the time someone wasn't comfortable with a Coloradan doing the first 5.11. Without the block, the route could be downrated to 5.10 c or d. Even Roper, in Camp 4, simply states that the route was later downrated, without futher elaboration, implying that the original rating never was correct. It was. And I'm certain Serenity Crack was originally solid 5.11. Several of the best in the Valley had tried Center Slack, and Pratt told me it would be the first 5.11 if done. It was never people such as Pratt or Kamps or Higgins...or any of the bigger lights... who could fail to give credit where credit was due. That's one reason I admired those men so much. Within the bounds of a meausre of human imperfection, they had total integrity.
Pat
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Apr 30, 2007 - 07:39am PT
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Supertopo is so great! What other sport can the pioneers and innovators chime in with the history?
Adreniline Crack (11b) bypasses the pin scars in the beginning of Serenity but it's made easier (probably by two letter grades or a little more) by a few key pins scars as well) Who knows how hard the third pitch would be with no scars but I know I'd never get up it, so I don't know whether to be dissappointed or grateful since I love that route.
I hadn't climbed with Scott before or even seen him, so I didn't know if his goals for the season (like Steck Salathe) were pipe dreams or realistic. I was a believer when he just walked up the first pitch (which was wet for 70 feet that morning) with no huffing and puffing. We just swung leads from there and practically ran up the whole climb. The guy is a stud. He didn't want any beta so I was curious about how he would tackle two of his beta-dependent pitches, #2 and the traverse to OW near the top of Sons. He hardly hesitated on #2 and did the Traverse to the OW up high the hard way but didn't make it look hard. I followed it the hard way since I hadn't done it that way before and had a TR. Pretty fun!
Beautiful day on the stone.
Peace
Karl
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Apr 30, 2007 - 03:52pm PT
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I just toproped the crux of Slack Center yesterday (after my friend Koichi toproped the whole thing), and I could definitely see the spot Pat describes where a handjam ends the crux, which could have been created by prying out a loose flake. So, like with Serenity, the original climb features are no longer observable.
I updated a small page on my website which discusses what was the first 5.11 in Yosemite, originally from a 1999 discussion on the rec.climbing newsgroup:
http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/first511.txt
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Apr 30, 2007 - 06:19pm PT
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Allright Nutjob,
The walls are your Oyster now!
Or is it "from now on inside of every oyster rock is a 5.10 pearl"?
That's not right either. Gotta think...
Thanks for the TR
Zander
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nutjob
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - May 1, 2007 - 04:37pm PT
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Pat, in the absence of pin scars Serenity Crack can be filed under "damn hard - impossible for mortals".
Karl, if I wasn't such a hardman, I'd probably blush :)
Zander, those oysters are really granite pebbles inside my shoe with bits of my skin hardened around it!
To all would-be Steck Salathians:
NOW THAT WE KNOW I'M A STUD (EVER HEAR OF BURT BRONSON? PURE SISSY. WEAK-SAUCE. HE COWERS IN THE SHADOW OF MY MANHOOD). HOW ABOUT A PRACTICE RUN UP NEB HCR TO PROVE YOU ARE WORTHY OF DOMINATING STECK-SALATHE WITH ME. YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT. LET'S MAKE IT HURT REAL GOOOOOOOOOOOOD.
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Nohea
Trad climber
Aiea,Hi
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Nutjob, Oli, Karl, Pat great! You guys make this site great.
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Thanks to Pat for reflections on early 5.11s. Wonder how his bod is doing?
Yes, Serenity seemed above 5.10s of the day when I freed it (guess it was ’67), especially, as Pat points out, in Kronhoffers. Pratt gave it a try shortly thereafter, said he couldn’t do it (the last thin part) and thought the grade was right. But, as Pat says, the climb changed. I did it again in the late 70’s I guess (I should look at my diary to get these dates straight) with sticky rubber (instead of neoprene!) and found between the rubber and a slightly more banged up crack, it maybe was closer to hard 10 than 11. Of course, as Pat knows, I was persnickety about claiming anything was 11, thinking it should be reserved for moves equivalent to really tough boulder problems. I also ascribed to the Kamp’s school of rating moves or sections rather than pitches, so that too made my ratings a bit conservative to some. How many campfire hours did we all waste on ratings? Let me count the ways ...
Much later, after doing a few (very few) 12’s, I see how maybe Serenity of the 70’s (and maybe today?) sits in that low 11, hard 10 category. Note how it really doesn’t matter – the grades are fine tuned enough the climber gets a good feel for where it falls relative to ability. And, protection is pretty good all along the hard section, as I recall, so no added worries there, unlike, for example, the really nasty hard and hard to protect thin section of Fish Crack. At least I found it hard to get good nuts in there – maybe all is changed now with newer cams.
LongAgo
Tom Higgins
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Pretty Much
climber
San Jose
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I love reading about serenity crack what a beautiful line - keep the history coming.
How does the .10d section compare to Fracture at Sugarloaf?
Jeff
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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I think the crux itself is kind of comparable: The Fracture only has one hard move, Serenity P3 has 3 or 4 hard moves. Both are on thin but positive locks. The Fracture's crux move is reachier, Serenity felt more powerful. Both have a good stance from which to place solid protection before the crux. Neither has a reputation for being a particularly hard .10d. Both are excellent.
My favorite pitch on the Serenity/Sons line is the first real pitch on Sons, so much variety, and so consistent.
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scuffy b
climber
The town that Nature forgot to hate
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I'm curious, Tom, about the relative difficulty of the pitches
on Serenity Crack. It would seem that there must have been a
time when the 1st pitch was pretty severe.
Was the 3rd pitch clearly the crux when you first free climbed
it?
Steve m
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Pretty Much
climber
San Jose
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Le_Bruce - great analysis. E-beta is awesome.
Thx,
Jeff
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LongAgo
Trad climber
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Description of P3 is right on: good pro, then a short series of kinda hard moves. Kronhoffer toes wouldn't go in the crack very well for one or two of the moves (no rubber toe and stiff) on first free, so I did some edging on the face (very thin and flaky).
First pitch was technically not so hard as third in '67 free ascent, but certainly good 9 or maybe mild 10. It was not nearly so banged to death by pins as when I did it later (early/mid 70’s), so harder to get fingers in. Pin pro was OK (tied off baby angles and Leepers, I think - see, I too helped wreck it!).
On 70's nut ascent, I recall thinking, Wow is this thing brutalized now! Also had a problem with nuts as I (we?) had no cams then. Cams sure work better in shallow pin scars than old hex and sideways stopper nuts. So, P1 felt a little touchy on the brain. Reportedly, now, between rock and hardware change, pro is better.
Other info: there was no bolt on the first pitch when I did it. I recall some post about a bolt coming and going and maybe coming again ...
Tom Higgins
LongAgo
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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The first pitch of Serenity was my first 5.9 lead which I did the same day as my first 5.8 lead (Bishop's Terrace). I didn't even know what the climb was, just found myself at the base of it and thought it looked kinda low angle so I launched without even knowing the rating (called 5.9 then, now called 10a)
Anyway, i tried to lace it up but only had a few friends and no TCUs. NUTS! My calves were BURNING when I got to the belay.
As for that third pitch, theres probably 35 feet of real cranking there with a shallow knob to place a second piece 12 feet into the crux. From there I fire it to the end and it would be airy if I got pumped and whipped. Problem is, you have to be dang strong to stop and place more pro and then I WOULD get pumped and whip. Lately I like to do it in soft shoes so I can get my big toe in the pin scars. Scott did it in high tops which makes it harder in my opinion
A lot of folks feel that first 10a pitch of Sons is as stout as anything on Serenity. Of course when you are being spanked, you don't remember the previous spanking as much and you're already weak from the last couple spankings
Peace
Karl
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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I've got a question about the history of a fingercrack: did Mr. Natural over at GPA come by those amazing and sculpted locks because of hammering, or is the name descriptive?
Which of the classic fingercracks in the Valley are all natural? Did Red Zinger take pitons before it was led free? A partner and I were up in the Sentinel Creek area last weekend - saw a beautiful looking fingercrack, forget the name right now but neighbor to Vanishing Point - looked like it had never been hammered. If a man or woman has a hankering to climb a scar-free fingercrack in the Valley of the piton-scarred fingercracks, where does that person go?
Sorry to steer the thread away from your TR, nutjob, but it's semi-on-topic since it's about beat-out fingercracks and their opposite.
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Mazzystr
Gym climber
Homeless...
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Dang Bryce! I feel neglected! Me and you are supposed to do the Steck-Salathe. Don't be sniffin around no Sentinal Creek area.
hahah! Just kiddin dude. If you want to do it, I'll send you my big bros.
-Michigan Chris
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