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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Oct 12, 2011 - 05:08pm PT
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Notice, John, the sly hand of their wickedness in steering far clear of their waterloo, Yosemite and the towering Pharoah's Beard---the one true-and-terrible part of the story that S.Bartlett hadn't the heart to break to them, knowing all along it would be their undoing.
Relic, normal people would DIE if they merely set eyes on that sucker.
JLP, yeah I hear you. One thing we know is that these things are terrifically hard.
What the numbers are to be applied to them, is somewhat secondary. I join in with others wondering if CC is a 14-whoseyourfather if they bagged it the second day after a little bit of scoping-out the prior day. But listen, if you have been following Ekins on this, it is clear they have been preparing loads and loads for this, and I suspect they knew about Continental Chocolate Starfish Crack for quite some time and were gunning for it all along. Brits DO talk to each other off and on, you know.
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Gene
climber
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Oct 12, 2011 - 05:14pm PT
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normal people would DIE if they merely set eyes on that sucker. (Pharoah's Beard) I guess that puts you and JohnE outside the ‘normal’ category. I have often suspected such.
Which particular route of PB are you referring to?
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Russ Walling
Gym climber
Poofter's Froth, Wyoming
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Oct 12, 2011 - 05:15pm PT
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Seems like these dudes are ticking America's hardest OWs like it was nothing.
What if the routes just aren't that hard? Nobody climbs this stuff, so there is little to no consensus.
Yeah... they are probably like 10b if anyone bothered to try them.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Oct 12, 2011 - 05:16pm PT
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Just what I was thinking' Russter. Gotta be just another english fantasy.
Gene; Scuffy's Overhanging Banzai Crack of Death variation.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Oct 12, 2011 - 10:54pm PT
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I'm hoping that I show some promise in air hockey or maybe curling. It's just too hard these days to impress anybody with one's offwidth adventures what with the British invasion and all.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
Where are you bound?
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Oct 12, 2011 - 11:34pm PT
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Dude, I've bled enough to think that maybe it's not .10B. At least, not all.
They're just Badass, is all.
Rage, you wild Brits! Yeah!!!5!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Oct 13, 2011 - 08:37am PT
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once the catepillar inside is thoroughly excercised,
it is time to mature into your butterfly.
after you polish all the gems chrimson,
perhaps don some ballet slippers and perfect dance.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Oct 13, 2011 - 09:03am PT
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Pharoah's Beard is certainly a nightmare that has got stuck in the awareness web and is now stumbling around in the confused consciousness of yesterdays trolls linked to the even more confused main server of life.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Oct 13, 2011 - 10:38am PT
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yous guys have a short memory for history...
Pharoah's Beard shows up in the first Valley Topo select guide (written by Brits) in 1974, before most people reading this forum were born...
see: ROCK CLIMBS IN YOSEMITE
as for the ratings... it is awfully funny to hear people rant on about OW ratings who have never really taken the time to get on a bunch of them at any grade harder than the whine inducing 5.9 and 5.10a items... 5.10a being problematic in the Valley, it's has the distinction of being the "transition" grade from the days of Sacherer (who rated everything he freed at the top of the rating system then, 5.9, and left as a legacy the job of sorting it all out) and Pratt, who is suspected of using otherworldly technique.
hey, how hard could 5.10b climb? just go and do Ahab and report back here... if that's too easy for you, do it à la Sacherer, left side in, arm bars, classic technique...
These particular Brits have already been in the Valley... they set their sights wider on this tour.
I don't hear any of the OW aficionados that I know complaining about the Brits... they are just grumbling about having to get back into shape again after basking in their glory and floating on their laurels...
...time to eat some vitamin I and get back to the situps...
...suck it up, buttercup, there's a world of hard climbing out there, some of it is in those large cracks that just don't seem a fit for any particular body part.
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Phantom X
Trad climber
Honeycomb Hideout
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Oct 13, 2011 - 01:31pm PT
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Could somebody please post up the beard statistics for both countries?
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Oct 13, 2011 - 02:13pm PT
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These boyz should head to the Black and free Rosholt's Plunge.
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Stainless
Social climber
SLC, UT
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Oct 13, 2011 - 11:34pm PT
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I have no doubt these OW's are difficult routes, but some of these ratings sound like bullsh#t.
How many other super talented climbers send 14d (Century Crack) on their second day, 2nd or 3rd attempt, after never having climbed any other route in the area (or anywhere else) at that grade, nor even several letters below? Why not rate it 5.16?
There are a stack of people climbing this hard now. Most are Spanish, Euro, or ex-pat (Sharma) but it's hardly uncommon amongst the elite. Ramon Julien just onsighted most of Rifle's hardest routes over a weekend while recovering from a comp and probably still jet lagged.
I also believe that they have yet to rate Century Crack. 9a was Haston's guess. Not sure how hard the Wide Boyz climb in other diciplines regularly but I saw Whitaker do the FA on the direct start to Braille Trail and it's one of the more impressive things I've ever seen in climbing. Keep in mind this problem had repelled all the top Brits (some not so weak) forever... on toprope. Pete did it with ground fall consequences. He is not particularly lacking in the talent realm.
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NFB
Mountain climber
Wilson, Wyoming
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Oct 14, 2011 - 02:09pm PT
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A little bit of Gabriel History:
I climbed extensively in Zion from 1995 to 2001. Most of these years I was attending college in Cedar City. While climbing there, I got to know John Varco. Talented, strong dirtbag living in a maroon Safari (he called it a "Seafairy") John was a complicated, sincere, compassionate and at times harsh character. We did some great climbing together, the one outing I remember the most was linking Iron Messiah with the Northeast Buttress of Angels. We simulclimbed both routes and made it back with daylight for a "magic bowl" at Oscars. (magic bowl was the $2.50 beans and rice special)
John put the anchors on Gabriel(I'm assuming Pam Pack named it this) and I spent some time toproping this beast with John and wondering how to protect this monster as it was not cammable. I don't remember the name we had for it but it was probably something dirty like "angels box". John always refused to drill lead bolts but we never had the balls to use Bros as the swinging falls and big bro combo seemed a fools errand. I miss those days.
Years went by, John became a "pro" climber, we lost touch. John was busy trying to kill himself on random 7000 meter peaks and I was making a new life in Wyoming building, skiing, and trying to pay off my college debts.
My facts after this are murky but I believe John was married to Pamela for a time and I am assuming this is how she came to know this OW. Gabriel became "Gabriel", sprouted bolts, got sent, got rated, debuted on the Taco, and is now all over the taco again.
I too am wondering how these things get rated but I'm just a skiier from Wyoming who finds the hardest routes out there to be alpine adventures called "5.9 A2".
That folks is my story about Gabriel.
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Oct 14, 2011 - 04:39pm PT
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Good one, Ed.
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blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
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Oct 14, 2011 - 05:41pm PT
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There are a stack of people climbing this hard now. Most are Spanish, Euro, or ex-pat (Sharma) but it's hardly uncommon amongst the elite. Ramon Julien just onsighted most of Rifle's hardest routes over a weekend while recovering from a comp and probably still jet lagged.
Yes. I saw the comp finals, which had 8 climbers and Ramon did noticeably the worst out of all of them (possibly because of a height dependent crux, but still). If those "kids" competing at the highest levels of comps decided to spend more time on routes, of any style, with a little practice it seems clear that they would be setting standards that far eclipse whatever's been done before
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Jonny2vests
Trad climber
Nottingham, UK
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Oct 20, 2011 - 11:47am PT
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Finally a bit of payback for when 'Team America' came over here (the U of K) a couple of years ago and hoovered up just about every classic hard tick in the Peak.
Team Esoterica? No, thats quite bad.
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