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Enzo
climber
California
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May 15, 2012 - 12:43pm PT
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The Crack of Doom certainly gets mentioned a lot. As I recall, the 5.10 had nothing to do with cracks, but a few face moves at the beginning of the last pitch; the rest was pleasant, if "old" 5.9.
At least that's what Chuck told me, and I agree.
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B-Dog
Trad climber
LOUISIANA
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May 15, 2012 - 12:49pm PT
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+1 for Sacherer cracker
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Mar'
Trad climber
Fanta Se
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May 15, 2012 - 12:53pm PT
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haha!! El Camino Real. I'm not sure if it was so hard, because I still can't figure out why I took 4 falls trying to put a stopper in at the end of the crux… Oh, I see— because it's a 5.9+!!
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Fluoride
Trad climber
West Los Angeles, CA
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May 15, 2012 - 12:54pm PT
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I always heard the first pitch of New Dimensions was 5.11 til Bev Johnson sent it and it was then downgraded.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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May 15, 2012 - 01:03pm PT
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JB was pretty flustered. His status, you know, was based on the adulation of young pukes like me who couldn't struggle up a 5.11, of which there were so few. She was not just infringing on his space at the top, which is limited, she was a girl and we were young pukes. We universally rated her as a 5.10. She should be a 5.11, but that's another topic. Poor Bird...He got over it.
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Spanky
Social climber
boulder co
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May 15, 2012 - 01:10pm PT
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Don't forget vedawoo, that place is full on burly. I thought mainstreet was on of the hardest 10a's I've done
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pvalchev
Social climber
Mountain View, CA / Calgary, AB
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May 15, 2012 - 01:48pm PT
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Hoodwink roof. The slab was a cake walk in comparison - if the roof is 10a, that slab is 5.7... and the bolt is close by during the hard move.
I found the Hoodwink roof way harder than anything on Blues Riff, which I did the following day - WTF? I seem to be in the minority though...
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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May 15, 2012 - 02:43pm PT
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I never found the Hoodwink roof itself to be very hard. It was being scared when I stood up after pulling over it that was the worst part of the operation.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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May 15, 2012 - 02:54pm PT
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That's somewhat true Fluoride, but the pitch was initially way over rated...it simply isn't 5.11. God, I wish there wasn't such an emphasis on ST on such an arbitrary, flawed and relatively unimportant thing like the grade of a climb- you can do the damn thing or you can't. The elegant, rock architectures that end up becoming the best "climbs" are degraded by nearly everything we climbers do to them. No worries, they'll be there along with the cockroaches long after we are gone.
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BuddhaStalin
climber
Truckee, CA
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May 15, 2012 - 03:20pm PT
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Hoodwink was first to come to mind. Felt like a bunch of old 9+ with a V1 or 2 roof move. It was v2 in my mind before I located the hold of course. The Sting, at 10b felt about the same for difficulty except for that weird move after belaying above the roof, which of course felt a tad harder than 10b.
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GhoulweJ
Trad climber
El Dorado Hills, CA
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May 15, 2012 - 03:24pm PT
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So what this thread (a really good CLIMBING thread too!) says is:
Sometimes 5.8 through 5.10....... Can kick your arse!
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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May 15, 2012 - 04:36pm PT
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INMOP the gear rateing is far more important than the dificulty rateing. If it is harder than I suspected but the gear is good i am most likly not going to die. If the the climb is sandbagged and the gear sucks as well that is not nice.
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eagle
Trad climber
new paltz, ny
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May 15, 2012 - 06:17pm PT
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intimadation at cathedral ledge, nh.
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jfailing
Trad climber
Lone Pine
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May 15, 2012 - 06:39pm PT
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I thought Sacherer Cracker was pretty stiff at the time...
Not really that hard, but a good route name is "Yosemite 5.8" in the Owen's River Gorge, rated 5.10a...
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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May 15, 2012 - 10:08pm PT
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That damn Chin Strap Crack shut me down several times, inches from the end.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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May 15, 2012 - 11:06pm PT
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Fluoride, yeah you are right. First pitch of New Dimensions initially rated 5.11-whoseyourfather!! later downrated to 5.10aish/bish was seen this way because the route was not done yet when Lloyd Price and his belayer Rod McKenzie were diddling around just with the first pitch, over-rating it without adult supervision. It became this little tempest in the teapot back then until top climbers were doing the whole route and it turned out only the last pitch was actually maybe 5.11a. I remember listening to this nonsensical voodoo diatribe about that first pitch and even falling for it for a little while. One of the more extreme cases of losing perspective on a climb or pitch in the Valley that I can recall.
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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May 15, 2012 - 11:13pm PT
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every crimpfest 5.10a on the quartzite in big cottonwood...10a my ass, where are the f*#king holds, why is the bolt so damn far from here and No, it doesn't open up if I keep going, stfu and belay...
...sigh....good times, man....good times...
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davidji
Social climber
CA
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May 15, 2012 - 11:42pm PT
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I'd agree on Doggie Do if the question were "what's the hardest route rated 5.10a you've ever bailed from?"
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Rustie
climber
Coeur d\\\\\\\'Alene
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May 16, 2012 - 07:19pm PT
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I am sort of glad that Granite Mountain AZ has entered the "Sandbag 5.10a" comp. These notorious grades- including the epochal Jump Back Jack Crack - have done much to keep these fine routes from getting too crowded.
However, from a historic perspective, one should remember that, in the 70's, Granite Mountaineers used the Syndicato grading system, not the "objective" Yosemite Decimal System. The fact that very few people knew (or agreed) how this system worked, added to the charm and ambience of the place.
For those who feel, with some justification, that such ideosyncracity leads to insult and injury I can only add (sympathetically) --"Death and Taxes..........."
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