Another HARD High Sierra Route from Dave Nettle and Peter Croft

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Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 20, 2004 - 12:11am PT

It's been the "Year of the Hulk" in California's High Sierra. Only a few months after Peter Croft and Dave Nettle established "Air Stream"--the High Sierra's first 5.13--the pair has established another test piece on the Incredible Hulk. The "Venturi Effect" climbs just right of the classic 5.11b “Positive Vibrations” for 10 independent pitches rated up to 5.12d on almost 1500 feet of grade A alpine granite.

I belayed Peter on the route a week before the complete ascent. We both thought that the pitch 4 crux was one of the coolest stemming corner we had ever seen. It’s dead vertical, 100 feet long, and unrelenting. As you get higher on the 100 foot pitch, the features disappear until you reach the crux: 20 feet of near holdless stemming. Peter hiked the pitch doing an incredibly intricate series smears on non-holds. The pitch was completely protected by RP’s and tiny cams.

From there, the climbing stays unrelenting with three more pitches of 5.12 and two of 5.11. Below are some notes from the first ascent from Dave Nettle:

Peter and I did the full sweep ascent on Saturday the 11th. We hiked in that morning and were back at the car at 8:30, making the final bit of hike out in the dark..what an ass kicker day. Peter is amazing, leading all the hard pitches with no falls.

I think Peter felt the same way about it being more sustained and "obligatory" as Europeans would phrase it. There is no doubt, however, that the Crux face pitch on Air Stream will perplex most suitors. I think it will take a few more ascents to see what the general opinion is. The final set of moves to the belay at the top of pitch 9 is WAY hard and comes up after a full pitch of strenuous climbing...it looked like that gave Peter as much bang for his buck as the Air Stream face moves, though shorter.

The Venturi Effect came about from the way I always described the main feature of the upper part of the route. You have these two massive corners that frame the impressive blank headwall and they cap the face with huge roofs EXCEPT for one gap that funnels up through the roofs and forms a "Venturi" ...ironically one of the definitions for a Venturi Effect is when you take an "Air Stream" and compress it into a smaller opening it creates an incredible force. There are some parallels there for sure!

We spent some time talking about ratings on the route and the topo reflects our best guess. I left it as plus or minus ratings on the topo until more ascents have been done, but FYI the thought of detailed ratings were: (pitches) (1) 5.11b (2) 5.10a (3) 5.11d (4) 5.12d (5) 5.11d (6) 5.10a (7) 5.12a (8) 5.12b (9) 5.12d (10) 5.11c

Download a PDF of the topo by clicking the link below:
http://www.supertopo.com/topos/obscurities/VenturiEffect2.pdf

dave

climber

Oceanside

Sep 20, 2004 - 12:43am PT

One of these days.... I'll have to go back to the hulk, could be more like years though, or maybe another life?

I was wondering, does Peter have a Guinness (sp.) before or after the send?

Kudos

Slablizard2

Sport climber

Bay Area

Oct 5, 2004 - 07:58pm PT

Wow. sounds like a killer route. WIsh I could climb it. Hm Motivational material here.

Clayman

Trad climber

Nov 11, 2004 - 01:17am PT

Looks and sounds so killer! Any pictures you are able to post? This makes me wanna get strong.

Alexosaurus

Trad climber

Koblenz

Nov 26, 2004 - 09:33am PT

Are there any informations about the route "Air Stream" available (topo, route description, gear etc.). Would be great if someone can halp me out.
Thanks!!