Top 100 Kor routes.

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Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Apr 22, 2013 - 11:51pm PT

amazing climbing career

Yosemite Valley FAs

Coonyard to the Oasis 5.9 FA 1960 Layton Kor Yvon Chouinard
El Capitan, West Buttress 5.10 A3+ VI FA 1963 Layton Kor Steve Roper
Kor-Beck 5.8 A3 IV FA 1963 Layton Kor Eric Beck FFA 5.9 1966 Eric Beck Mark Klemens
Sentinel Rock, Kor-Denny Route 5.9 A3 V FA 1963 Layton Kor Glen Denny
Folly, The, Left Side 5.9 A3 FA 1964 Layton Kor Jim Bridwell
Washington Column, South Face 5.8 C1 V FA 1964 Layton Kor Chris Fredericks FFA 5.14 2002 Nick Martino Matt Wilder
Gold Wall 5.10 A3 V FA 1965 Layton Kor Tom Fender
Rattlesnake Buttress 5.8 A2 III FA 1965 Layton Kor Fred Beckey FFA 5.11a 1982 Werner Braun Rick Cashner
Yellow Corner (Turning Yellow) 5.7 A4 IV FA 1965 Layton Kor Tom Fender FFA 5.12a 1992 Walt Shipley Tucker Tech
Flying Buttress Direct 5.9 A3 V FA 1965 Chris Fredericks Layton Kor
Direct Assistance Route 5.7 A4 IV FA 1966 Layton Kor John Hudson Dick Williams
Great Slab Route 5.8 A4 V FA 1967 Layton Kor Jim Madsen Kim Schmitz

goatboy smellz

climber

Nederland-GulfBreeze

Jul 16, 2013 - 08:51pm PT

Upper Great Face, The Crags, Estes Park.

philo

Trad climber

Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?

Jul 19, 2013 - 09:02am PT

Bump

Largo

Sport climber

The Big Wide Open Face

Jul 19, 2013 - 10:55am PT

South Face, Washington Column, Yosemite Valley, CA. (V 5.10a A2) FA with Chris Fredericks, June 1964 .
-

Who hasn't climbed this route at least once? I must have done that line ten times for no good reason. Kor will always be remembered for granfathering what is questionable the most traveled big wall in the world. His desert routes are his real legacy, however.

JL

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber

Fruita, Colorado

Jul 19, 2013 - 11:28am PT

Layton did a lot of climbs and a lot of first ascents.
Many were done in the day when free climbing was something
you did if it happened spontaneously or if it was necessary.
He was a bold free climber when he was moved to free climb or
when he was forced to do so. Routes such as Chief's Head,
Tiger's Tooth, Rogue's Arete, second pitch of Psycho...,
these were brilliant free climbs ahead of their time. But
they aren't exactly what you'd call classics. Tiger's Tooth,
a 5.10 off-width he and I did on Twin Owls in 1963 is perhaps
the closest of those three to being a really classic route.

Thus he did countless first ascents, but a lot of routes
were later free climbed by others.
It's a little tricky to say a route such as T-2 is a Layton
classic, when it's the free version that's good. While
yes he did it, then it was free climbed by Rearick and Culp. And
certainly the free version is what makes it so enjoyable now.
I personally don't mind giving Layton credit for any route
he did, but when we start talking about "best" route, well
then comes that little technicality or stipulation
as to the original climb and the free climbing version which
in fact is what makes the route a classic. Of course a few
routes were classic free or aid. Maybe at this
point it's not necessary to draw a line, as I for one loved
and still love Layton and don't want to slight him in any way.
Many of the original aid versions were nice lines, and I
personally did quite a few both ways, the original aid way and
the later free way, and I have good memories of both, but I
think rarely, if ever, does the aid version have the classic
sense the free version does.

It was a different time, a different consciousness, and when we
did certain routes originally, well, it might
have been during a snowstorm, or we had only soft European
pitons, or we were practicing for Yosemite or the big walls
of Europe, or some such, and we simply wanted to get up.... When
some of those routes were later done free, picked like ripe
free climbing plums, Layton found, as did we all, that we
too could go back and do those routes free, that the only
difference was attitude, a little switch to a free climbing
focus. I seriously doubt Layton would have had any trouble at
all, for example, with a route such as Yellow Spur free. But way
back when he first did it, well, it was just about getting up.

Maybe that's a good thing, to simply give Layton the benefit
of the doubt and assume he could have returned, had he wanted,
and free climbed many or most of those routes that later went
free.... So are we back to square one again?

Seamstress

Trad climber

Yacolt, WA

Jul 19, 2013 - 12:29pm PT

I'm glad to see Kor's lines at Ragged on the list. Kor Crack is a fabulous climb. I always look for a Kor line when visiting an area.

crunch

Social climber

Jul 19, 2013 - 12:36pm PT

From Wind Ridge, one gets a fine view onto the wild face taken by The Bulge. Most of the time it looks steep, blank and fearsome. But, if the sun is just right, the features and holds show up in sharp relief and it's possible to trace the line of weaknesses wandering up the cliff.

Maybe this was the view, from high on Wind Ridge, that drew Layton's interest, back in 1957?

The Bulge was a visionary line, Wind Ridge obvious. Both classic. Both Kor FAs.

Two of the best 5.7's anywhere.

Patrick Oliver

Boulder climber

Fruita, Colorado

Jul 19, 2013 - 12:41pm PT

Yes, now that's a great example of a classic Kor route: the Bulge,
an early route of his that remains challenging and steep and
beautiful. Most people don't know he did not place a bolt on
the crux pitch, when he did the climb first. But then people
scolded him for doing those runouts. So he returned down from the
top and placed that bolt. Just a few years later I doubt he would
have worried about what anyone said....

Of course the ratings. We always thought Wind Ridge was 5.6 and
the Bulge solid and scary (runout) 5.8!!