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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:25pm PT
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EB's, Scats, and Scarpa Dominators. All most excellent.
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d-know
Trad climber
electric lady land
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:28pm PT
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yo beev.
i remember you
from the old
"front" days.
glad to hear
yer gettin'
back after it.
edit: those dominators
were the shizzle.
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Gary
climber
That Long Black Cloud Is Coming Down
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:28pm PT
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favorite
slab shoe?
La Sportiva Megas. Yeah, I know, board lasted isn't supposed to work on slab.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:31pm PT
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Sportiva Black Tao's. I have a pair that I got resoled with XS Edge and wore them on the Bachar Yerian last year. Still a great shoe. My more modern pair are Sportiva Trad Masters. I actually really like Five Ten Newtons for anything upto about 11c. After that the rubber is too soft and rolls.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:32pm PT
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Kaukulators,
TC Pros
slabs are cool, like half an offwidth!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2011 - 04:33pm PT
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Branscomb, THANK YOU A LOAD! Cosumnes is a great place, I like it a lot. But I was mostly interested in cracks there before. That 10c face climb to the right (on the arete) of Test Piece kicks my ass. Has some slab moves.
You think it sucked climbing slab for me because I tried it with really tightly fitted LS Muiras?
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cragnshag
Social climber
san joser
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:38pm PT
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Parkline Slab in Yosemite has many moderate and harder slab climbing. It's South facing and only at 2500' elevation so you can climb all winter, so long as it's sunny out. Free camping nearby at the litterbox. Check the weather forecast for El Portal, CA to see conditions for Parkline.
It's inside the park boundry, but you park before you reach the entrance station- so no fees, rangers, or crowds.
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henny
Social climber
The Past
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:42pm PT
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Depends on the board-lasted bit. For steep micro edging they're the best bet - at least IMO. Pure friction/paddling, maybe not. But when you need to stand on true dimes or less, why make it harder than it needs to be?
Assuming the definition of slab includes micro-edging and/or steep thin edging.
It doesn't seem to me that there are all that many really good edging shoes out there currently - for slab.
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:46pm PT
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Miuras work fine for me but have to take them off at every belay to ease the pain. I like Mythos a lot (more comfortable for those long pitches) and Anastazi slippers. Fitted snugly the Anastazis work quite nicely.
But, geez, we somehow struggled up these things with EBs and then Fires so the new shoes and C4 Stealth seem pretty nice. I think Bachar said something about having comfortable shoes, not just super tight so you're not distracted by the pain. Probably some of the best advice there is right there, from a true master.
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d-know
Trad climber
electric lady land
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:49pm PT
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half an offwidth
i dig it.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:53pm PT
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At what point does a slab no longer become a slab. All routes at Devil's Tower are slabs to start out and basically none are overhanging for very long.
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henny
Social climber
The Past
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Nov 23, 2011 - 04:59pm PT
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Right. Slab seems to be a definition that is endlessly debated to ridiculous lengths. When is it slab, when is it face, at exactly what angle does it switch from one to the other? And on and on...
One would think it actually mattered.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Nov 23, 2011 - 05:06pm PT
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I like the always tricky deceptively steep hanging slab. Esspecially on ice climbes. Ussually gets a + rating.
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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Nov 23, 2011 - 05:26pm PT
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That 10c face climb to the right (on the arete) of Test Piece kicks my ass. Has some slab moves.
The route is "Adhesion". The crux is a sort of lie-back off a big side-pull edge with smearing feet. Yeah, you don't want tight bouldering shoes for that one.
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John Butler
Social climber
SLC, Utah
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Nov 23, 2011 - 05:34pm PT
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Place your foot in exactly the right place the first time and then NEVER move it.
Yes... find the next foothold with your fingers, then stick it and don't move it until you've found it's next placement. The guy searching around for a foothold with his foot on thin slab is about to fall...
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Tork
climber
Yosemite
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Nov 23, 2011 - 06:37pm PT
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Ya Bob, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Parkline.
Winter + slab = Parkline
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 23, 2011 - 06:50pm PT
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murcy, yes it is Adhesion. For me the crux is something different though for some reason. I probably do not have the right sequence or something.
Thank you for suggesting Parkline!
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KabalaArch
Trad climber
Starlite, California
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Nov 23, 2011 - 08:17pm PT
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IMHO, Royal Arches slabs are actually micro edging problems - with sometimes loose flakes, and a lot of wandering route finding. Midlife Crises was a note able exception, with very solid and consistently compact stone to put you in the zone where you're not so much looking up for crimps as watching your feet for divots and dishes.
Seems like, to me anyway, that pure glass is climbed in a very intuitive fashion. When you hit your groove, it's about repetitive flow.
In general, I've learned, like others, to keep your heels dropped, to max out rubber contact - no high stepping, unless you're on a really positive edge looking perhaps to initiate a mantle.
I try to align my center of inertia in a straight vertical line: shoulders over knees over your foot tips.
To repeat the foregoing, avoid any foot movement once placed on whatever unctious bump you find yourself on. This includes no foot movement within your shoe.
Pure friction, by definition, means that you will not see much in the way of edges for hands and your feets. "Foonting," as referenced, is about moving up more quickly than you slide back down. Plant your foot ball and bridge pretty much square to the fall line, flat palms just above your shoulders. Move with a deliberate commitment, bear down hard on that foot - hands are for balance only, and not for cranking upward progress. Move at a consistent and rhythmic cadence...do not rush through the easier sequences.
I've found slabs, of which I've been accused of being a bit of a technical specialist, can be very draining psychologically - and this is without the run out factor. Personally, it seems to demand so much intense focus, to chose the optimum dish, divot...the lowest angled aspect of the thousands of options for any given sequence...and, for that matter, move, that I tend to tire mentally long before depleting any physical strength reserves. After you've hit your sweet spot and rhythm, it seems, at least personally, that I become mentally fatigued. At first, the sequence of moves stand out to me as if marked with a highlighter. After some time, ranging from a full day at a 5.9 level, to a couple of hours at 5.10, to maybe 45 minutes at 5.11-, it feels as if the line just merges back into the matrix of the stone, its secrets now reverted back to the blankness that gives this type of climbing its "fly on the wall" characteristic which I find so appealing.
I mean, with all due respect to the crackmasters whose techniques leave me stonewalled at easy 5.10, aesthetically, a crack follows an obvious line (of greater or lesser weakness)...but a pure, steep, slab is a Sphinx.
Constructive practice suggestion:
-Boulders: There are a few lowballs out at the 'Milks. They are not really noteworthy enough for guidebook inclusion, because they're pretty easy, without appeal if you're looking to post high numbers. One is just up and climber's left of Pope's Prow, with a Left, somewhat longer Center, and a RH arete problem. They are only about 12-15 feet long or so. On the east face of Ironman is a short, modest 5.6 of a few low angle moves. Then there is the large boulder just a bit downhill and to the east of Ironman. Grant and I named its N Face "Memories of the Mirrors," we set a TR on the 45 foot N facing glass, due to the large horizontal OW which splits full length, about 8 feet above it undercut base...a slider from this wall could result in serious injury! There are at least 2 lines on this N Face; around to the E Face are 3 easy lines: left, center, and the NE arete (the easiest but most exposed and spectacular of the 3). The Bowling Pin's W Face offers some xnlt glass after a full stretch mantle crank. Others are out there, just obsure but for the looking - and you're looking for the glass, and not crystals.
Up at Tuolomne are a few for the looking. My favorite is a 15 foot south facing slab, right across from the Teneya Lake day parking, only 30 feet north of Tioga Rd. This is actually bulls eye edging, but certainly won't hurt your friction slab technique. If you can make it off the ground, then chances are good for a send. I fell once from midheight into a tuck and roll...so with a spot it should be quite safe.
Off season for now, but GPA offers The Goblet. Its RH side offers about 20 feet of 5.9 padding about...another 40 feet of soloing up an easy 4th dihedral, and you'll find a good stance to set up a TR of a 60 foot 5.6 slab, and this is a good place to take a g/f or your kids to run laps.
Crack Marginal is textbook; the Crack Right is kinda run.
In the Arches Terrace area is Midlife Crises (Morris/Franosch), between Friday the 13th and Greasy Butt Groove. For some geomorphilogical reason, its rock is atypical of the flakey stuff of the Royal Arches slabs, resembling the friction of, say, Stately Pleasure Dome, at least for the first 3 pitches I'm familiar with. Its upper reaches are only 5.9 - but without any intermediate pro; evidently sporty enough that I couldn't persuade their 1st ascentionist, my day's partner, to repeat the leads.
Back on GPA, The Smile (aka The Mouth) offers some classic glass. Never any harder than 5.9, the last pitch of this otherwise moderate 900 foot slab offers only one bolt. (actually, the topo shows 2, and I finally found the 2nd, a FP, further left and out of view around the corner while on rappel. Seems like 6 of one and a half dozen of the other to simply step it up and go directly up to the ledge from the 1st bolt)
Climbing up to the ledge connecting Monday Morning Slab to Point Beyond regular allows for a 5.11 slab TR. It's bolted and can be led, but why bother? Clearly established top down. And below, from the ground, is the perfectly glassy 1st pitch of the safely bolted Cold Fusion (5.10-). The next 2 pitches change character into trad pro, are easier, but are certainly worth doing...perhaps with the 5.11 TR as a warm-down.
Some Sport-pro-ed slab has appeared in The Meadows. The 1st pitch of Zee Tree seems hard for its lowly 5.7 grade, so the slab neophyte will appreciate all of the bolts. Either bail here, or plan on topping out on the headwall dihedral - which, I was to learn later, is best climbed OW than as the lieback mentioned in the Guidebook. The Boltway leads off the top of Hermaphrodite. Beginners might try and edge it...until they soon realize that all they have to do is just plant a big flat foot in all of those dishes.
As far as the Owens River Gorge is concerned, there are about 3 or 4 quality slab leads; .10a to .10c. Last time my son and I visited the very short .10c to the right, Hank LeVine's original bolt, what is supposed to be the 2nd bolt, failed under my son's body weight (after I'd taken a short leader fall on it); this resulted in a groundfall with my bodyblock belay helping mitigate injury among the talus at the base. Since this bolt protects a cruxy bit, it should needs be replaced, if it hasn't yet.
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