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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Holy Biotch bump from 2011!
choss slab going in with long modern bolts.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Prime climbs here for the older couch inhabitant.
Up & down & down a beer.
Repeat as often as possible.
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perswig
climber
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Killing me!
Nice shots.
Dale
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Before the first outstanding British boulderer, Oscar Eckenstein, demonstrated the notion of balance climbing on steep slabs, it was common practice to lean into the rock and try to catch part of one's clothing on irregularities. Tweed jackets were popular.
Eckenstein, in the late 1800s shocked Geoffrey Winthrop Young and others by carefully balancing on tiny holds on his eponymous boulder in Wales.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Here's a slab-climbing story for you. I posted it way back in the distant past, but I think it fits in here pretty well because the absolute, hands-down, no-argument, gifted-beyond-belief climbing I ever personally witnessed was on a slab at Washington Pass on North Early Winter Spire.
We'd climbed most of the West Face, and I had just joined Mari at her belay after we'd struggled up the 5.11 tips pitch when we heard a voice below us: "Do you mind if we climb through?"
We looked down and saw a climber starting the pitch we had just bumbled our way up, sort of hanging out as if he were on easy ground.
The hanging belay we were occupying was crowded with just the two of us, but we weren’t in a hurry, and he was obviously climbing ten times faster than us, so we said “Sure, go ahead.” We figured he'd crowd in beside us and bring up his partner, but no, he sauntered part way up the tips crack, but well below us he stepped out onto the face, bypassed our hanging stance, and then moved back into the crack well above us.
Using the crack on that pitch is 10d/11a. So what would the difficulty be if you abandoned it and headed out into no-man's land? I have no idea. Watching this guy (Viren Perumal, we found out much later), it looked like about 5.2. No holds. No pro. No problem. He simply floated by, chatting with us as if we were all sitting on the outdoor deck at our favorite pub. The rope dangling into the distance beneath him.
It had to be at least 12.hard. Maybe harder. There were no holds -- it was pure slab -- and he didn't even notice. And it's not like he was familiar with the place. This was his first climb in the Northwest. His partner (and fiancee) followed the same path, not quite as easily as he did, but not really showing any signs of struggle either.
I've roped up with some pretty good climbers over the years. Climbers who climbed 5.14 before there was 5.15. Climbers who had set speed records on El Cap. But this was like having god draw back the curtain and say "Take a look at what it's really about."
I know slabs aren't everyone's cup of climbing tea, and it's cool to watch Adam Ondra screaming his way up some overhanging crimpfest. But you can at least see the holds he's crimping or palming. But what we saw that day was in another realm entirely.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Cool story ghost.
Not sure if "Poker Face" counts as a slab, since it's really about crimping little flakes. I remember thinking the bolts looked like a ladder when I was belaying le_bruce. But when I followed they seemed a lot farther apart:
Here are a few from Arches Terrace, which is a proper smearing slab much of the way:
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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south Platte slab courtesy Bruno
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Courtright Reservoir has some first class slabbing. This one's on Power Dome, I think it's "Go Runout and Pray"
Rico Miledi took the pick. Yeah I know, I probably shouldn't have both ropes clipped there...
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Another Courtright classic. It's a slab until it's not. Carson Kodas Arete.
Photo by Maya Shimoguchi (using a disposable camera.)
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johntp
Trad climber
Punter
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Wish I had some photos from the dayz at Quartz in OK. Most runout slabs I've seen. More runout than Suicide.
Maybe BASE104 has some.
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bob
climber
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Lyme Line on Fairview Dome
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Feb 10, 2019 - 02:10pm PT
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Laeger and I put up a route at Patterson Bluff on a face called the Wedding Wall (no idea why.) It was, as Moose describes, entirely devoid of holds. It was four pitches of that, with a lot of this low angle 5.11. Quite annoying really. The angle was low enough that at the belays it seemed like you could just un-clip and walk off to the side, of course that would not have ended well.
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StahlBro
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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Feb 10, 2019 - 04:33pm PT
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I have done a couple of pitches of continuous 5.9 with almost no hands where my calves were screaming for mercy. Good times.
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