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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 23, 2013 - 02:14pm PT
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Ribbon Falls is a beautiful place and I was wondering if anyone had climbed Ribbon Candy? I heard it is supposed to have a beautiful hand crack. Any photos of where the route goes, opinions on quality, stories or gear beta would be appreciated!
On the other hand, Gates of Delirium is a great climb, 3.5/4 stars for first 9 pitches. It is rated as 5.12c, but very doable as 5.11a/b C1 (the way I climbed it). Really hard cruxes are easy to pull through. Other pitches range from fingers, to nice hand cracks, to two different OWs. Wish I took a photo of the first splitter OW, it is freaking beautiful. The route can be easily rapped with 2 60M ropes from any point, or a single 70M. I thought 2nd OW is significantly harder than 1st even though both are rated as 5.11a on topo and pitch 9 is about 11b vs 10d as per topo we used.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 23, 2013 - 02:53pm PT
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My friends Steve and Erik did it a few years ago. Also Greg and Chandlee.
I remember Erik said p7 is a shallow crack (lieback) so you may have to run it out a little between placements. I.e. bring endurance.
It is left of Chockstone Chimney in this overlay photo.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 23, 2013 - 03:06pm PT
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Clint, you are awesome, thank you. Any overlay like that for the wall just left of the waterfall? Seems like there are a bunch of crack systems there too, but those look more loose with roofs etc.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 23, 2013 - 06:40pm PT
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Vitaliy,
This thread has some info on routes left of Ribbon Falls:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=34245
but the only overlay I have posted is for Persephone Butterfly on the very top tier.
I have a topo for Sky People, so I could probably make an overlay for it.
It goes up the big shadowed corner above the green trees in Ed's photo:
I could use a better photo - the xRez photo from the base of East Buttress of Middle has too much shade.
Do you have any photos of this corner from Gates of Delirium?
Also, I believe this photo of Ed's looks roughly up Ribbon Candy - you can see Chockstone Chimney in the center:
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Johannsolo
climber
Soul Cal
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Dec 23, 2013 - 10:00pm PT
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We bailed on the pitch after the hand crack. I started up it and there was no gear for a long way (after a couple of small pieces). Kind of a groove if I remember. I was with a guy named Ben "bible Ben" who hung out in the Valley probably 15 years ago. I wonder what happened to him? Really cool location though.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Dec 23, 2013 - 11:46pm PT
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What a place. Not sure if anything of interest is shown in these pics.
Vitaliy, TR?
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 24, 2013 - 12:08am PT
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I still need to post a TR about Beyond Lunacy. Hope to make a TR about Gates of Delirium if I complete it some day. We did first 9 pitches and did not free 1st and 2nd. Those parts are hard. Will post a few photos once I will upload them to PC. Rest of the climbing was at least doable with a few more hangs here and there :)
Great photo of Gates of Delirium by the way!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 24, 2013 - 03:02pm PT
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Clint this is the best I have for the wall across. Next time I go, will take a good photo of that arete thing to the left of the waterfall/roofs. I think if you have a topo and post it here, it would be good enough though. Having a topo and general direction is awesome!
Here is Luke starting up pitch 4 of Gates of Delirium. He climbed up into that finger crack on the left, liebacked and dynoed into the hole and tunneled through to the other side of formation. This is the hole for which they called the route.
Seriously though it continues up a good crack to the right, up the dihedral, to a tree (if someone brought a chainsaw to cut it off, would be rad for my coming photoshoot) and links with the next pitch (another great crack). Bueno climb.
BUMP for Persephone Butterfly topo, rarely done routes in Ribbon Falls any more beta on Ribbon Candy and general stoke for sunny climbing in Yosemite! How long is that runout in a pod on Ribbon Candy? Would offset cams help there? Would a few pitons? A chisel? Bigger nuts?
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 24, 2013 - 03:46pm PT
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Gates of Delirium sounds bizarre and fantastic Vitaly. You tunnel through that little hole?
wrt " Wish I took a photo of the first splitter OW, it is freaking beautiful. "
Anyone have a photo of that? If Vitaly is calling it freaking beautiful, I want to see it.
wrt: "(if someone brought a chainsaw to cut it off, would be rad for my coming photoshoot)"
LOL (right?) I guess humor is only good if you keep us guessing.
It's so beautiful up there. Two of the three best days on rock BITD happened for me
up in that general area. Gold Wall with Bruce Pollack: not free and we even bailed,
but it I felt so good on the rock. Rt Side of Hour Glass with Haan.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Dec 24, 2013 - 07:12pm PT
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I believe this is where Ribbon Candy goes.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 24, 2013 - 09:35pm PT
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Darwin, I was joking about tunneling through that hole. But it is not hard to believe if you did Silent Line on Gold Wall. On SL you really climb up an OW, tunnel inside the formation up a chimney and than crawl out on your back through a perfectly cut window..into a splitter hand crack. Freaking insane.
Views of El Cap from the hole
Climber rappelling over that roof. When you climb up you get inside and tunnel out above the roof. Wild
But on Gates of Delirium you just climb up that dihedral. There is some aid route that goes by that hole as I understand. We saw anchors on that wall and there was an aidable thin seam.
Cutting off the tree for the next photo-shoot was a reference to this thread: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2249896
R side of hourglass must be interesting. I wanted to check it out for a while now...maybe will make it out there this winter..or Spring
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cultureshock
Trad climber
Mountain View
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v,
Did you and Tom do ribbon candy?
I did silent line again on the 30th. Weather was HOT!
More people should climb that route!
Easier than Gates for sure!
Luke
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 2, 2014 - 02:28pm PT
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We started up a line that wasn't it. Was super vegetated higher, we realized it wasn't it and bailed. Walked around to look at the walls and figure out where other climbs that Clint listed start and than found Ribbon Candy. Climbed first 3 pitches just to see how it is going. Was a bit dirty but good. There was one section where you are literary crawling through several trees. That was total hell. Still want to go back to climb the full route though. The overhanging crux (11c) looked pretty crazy. Crux of third pitch is pretty hard for 10b.
Also, I realized that the corner I pointed to you when we did Gates of Delirium is a line established by Coz and Werner. And is supposedly 11c R at the crux. Back than I was hoping it was unclimbed. First pitch of lieback/crack in the corner looks reallllly good.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Here's another view inside the amphitheater with no water blocking the lines. I remember taking all kinds of pics inside there, but this is all I can track down (pretty similar to le_bruce's shot, but maybe shows more of the bottom of the waterfall area):
Here's a pic standing at the base of something tasty looking just on the left side of the amphitheater:
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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Has anyone freed or climbed "Rainbows" to the left of Ribbon Falls, first climbed by Russ McLean and me in 1971? It may be in that previous picture since it's on the left side of the amphitheater and that pic looks familiar. I'll check my recently scanned (Thanks Ed!) pix of our route.
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bringmedeath
climber
la la land
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Regarding the photo that has the guy in yellow and mention dyno to the hole, the hole is on "The Ecstasy of Gold" route.
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Looks awesome.....do tell!
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 2, 2014 - 05:08pm PT
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NutAgain! That corner in your photo is the 11c R route I was talking about in the previous post. Crack to the right is supposedly 5.10. Don't have the info about the anchor at the top of it. Would be nice to know, looked good. TOO BAD IT WAS CLIMBED!
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bob
climber
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I climbed both of those cracks in the above photo in 2013. I remember nothing about the anchor on the corner. THough, I think I would if I was gripped about it. I climbed the one to the right and it is a wet one in the spring. Muddy and wet, but damn doesn't it look good? The anchor was sh#t. I don't recall, but I backed it up for TR action. Not a lot of action. The corner is bad ass and I'm sure the Coz/Braun route that continues is scary............. Somewhere on this forum both FAists chimed in on its severity.
I believe it is called Thin Line
Werner? Coz? Any thoughts?
Bob Jensen
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mynameismud
climber
backseat
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I did Ribon Candy with Steve a few years back. The first few pitches are a bit dirty since they are low angle and the route does not get a lot of traffic. There were a fair amount of leaves on the slabs. It get's steeper higher up. The gear description says doubles through #5. We did not listen but it is accurate. For this I think Camalots might be better since the big Friends might be to wide. Do not know for sure since I do nt have any big Friends.
The 11d pitch is good and pumpy. The next pitch the 11a pitch I found to be the crux. There is some bouldery stuff down low then it is a shallow groove just deep enough to get a good chicken wing. A #4 through #5 camalot will kinda sit in it. The inner lobes the crack is almost to small the outer lobes are almost on the outside of the crack. There is one short section to wide for the #5 so I got outside the crack and lay backed for about 10 to 15 feet. Then there is a short face section to a pod for a rest. Just before the pod you can get a good piece a #2 LoweBall. You will climb above this for a bit. I forgot what it is getting out of the pod. then crack to a small pod with a bush, getting past the bush into the fist crack above was tenous. We had a 60 meter rope and I butt belayed on a dirt ramp.
Next pitch is a short OW to the top.
If the raps have not improved they suck. After topping out drop down over the other side off to the right a bit. There is a small Oak tree and you need to get the rope as low as possible in order to reach the two crappy 1/4" bolts. We did not and I had to hang up side down to reach the bolts. Someone told us to bring a bolt kit to replace/put in new anchors. We both wished we had.
I consider the 11a one of my best leads ever. Gear is not the best, you kinda gotta go for it. Maybe it is not as hard as I remember but it seemed burly. Oh, for the longest time there was a one word description in the Yosemite Guide book in the climbing shop. That word.
Burly.
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mynameismud
climber
backseat
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Clint your over lay of Ribbon Candy looks right to me. The Arch is the 11d or 11c pitch, whatever it is rated.
Who ever asked. Yeah the 11a groove pitch is run out and I do not think offsets would help. Unless you have a #4.5/#5 Camalot offset. You can get gear right above the belay but then there is a crux and if you fall the belay is right below you. Then good gear, then nothing, then the groove and I would not want to fall on anything placed in that, then the LowBall which was good and I think I backed it up with a non perfect HB, then not much till after the POD. I keep thinking I did not get another real good piece until the second POD with the bush growing out of it. That bush sucked.
Here's to sweat in your eye.
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cultureshock
Trad climber
Mountain View
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Nice! Great stories. How about some more!
 Luke
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Give us the dope of Ecstasy of Gold.
Also, anyone who has climbed anything in this incredible spot - give us TRs!
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Jan 26, 2014 - 10:13am PT
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Bump for more Ribbon tales !
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G Murphy
Trad climber
Oakland CA
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Feb 10, 2014 - 02:37pm PT
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I did Ribbon Candy with Chan Harrell back in the mid-90s. Really great, full value route. The 11c hand crack is stellar. The next 5.11 pitch is a bottoming crack that's difficult to protect. I think we used everything from RPs to a 5" cam on that pitch.
Greg
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Feb 14, 2014 - 04:23pm PT
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Thanks for the FFA story!
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msiddens
Trad climber
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Feb 14, 2014 - 05:32pm PT
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Nice thread and some great Picts
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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Feb 14, 2014 - 06:29pm PT
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I believe that ribbon candy is the ffa of stardrive?
I asked steve where it went, he could not confirm.
Cool history
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Psilocyborg
climber
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Feb 14, 2014 - 08:42pm PT
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Just wanted to say what an amazing place.
I am not a climber, but I like to hike your approach "trails". Any info on the approach that is tricky or dicey is not necessarily needed, but would be appreciated. Either way I will find out soon on my next trip :)
Thanks for the pictures!
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Feb 15, 2014 - 08:41pm PT
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Sick tale Coz! Thanks!!
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 15, 2014 - 08:50pm PT
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Ribbon Candy
I remember doing that but had to bail before the last pitch.
Me and Merry left camp way too late and didn't want to get caught in the dark.
I thought it was really good climbing ....
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 15, 2014 - 09:02pm PT
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Nope
The climbing was way more sustained then I thought it was going to be thus we got slowed down ....
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WBraun
climber
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Feb 15, 2014 - 09:18pm PT
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Yeah ...
Just see ...
What a stupid way to climb .... :-)
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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I only been to the base as a tourist, but looking at that nut again photo:
When the falls is dry, any direct line up through the watercourse would seem to be a great route.
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cotuclimber
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Go to the bigwalls site, I believe there is a line going up the area of the waterfall. Maybe more than one.
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