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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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Mar 18, 2017 - 09:25pm PT
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I like this thread. I hadn't thought of it this way before, but now that I do I realize that so many of my favorites were put up by Royal. Doing the Vampire with Eric Beck was a great day. It feels more like be on a wall than anything else at Tahquitz. So many others are also wonderful. Open Book, Hoodenett, Half Dome NWF, Nutcracker. Fantasia is fascinating.
In Colorado Athletes Feat, that was the hardest free climb I had done yet back in '66. When we got back to the car I was aware of the effort it took to raise my arm to reach the door handle. The Yellow Spur was my introduction to steep Eldorado face climbing. I got off route , pumped and took a 35 foot whipper, had to come back another day after I found out where to go.
These are the best that come to mind.
If there is one route I haven't done that I wish I had it would be the Salathe.
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Tripod? Swellguy? Halfwit? Smegma?
Trad climber
Wanker Stately Mansion, Placerville
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Mar 20, 2017 - 09:47am PT
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Met RR once and thanked him for Fantasia at Lovers Leap, my local area. I told him I thought it quite run out even with modern micro cams. He simply said "now you need to do it without cams".
I asked about Fat Merchants crack 10b at Sugarloaf. a 150ft chimney with no gear for a 100 feet. He said he could not remember it! I was taken aback that something that big, hard and scary was so insignificant to him that he could not even recall it.
Such is a life led filled with so many grand accomplishments.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Mar 20, 2017 - 10:14am PT
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So many good ones. Maybe not my favorite, but Athlete's Feat stands out as mind-boggling that Royal did it when and how he did. I couldn't touch the first pitch mantel last time I tried.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mar 20, 2017 - 10:40am PT
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I had to use my forehead as a point of contact in order to reset hands and complete the mantel!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Mar 20, 2017 - 01:26pm PT
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Ahh, the Noggin Sprague second only to the Chin Sprague as an expression of truly extreme climbing. LOL
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Mar 20, 2017 - 01:46pm PT
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Yeah....Athlete's Feat, the so called 11a mantle.....hmmmm.
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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Mar 20, 2017 - 02:30pm PT
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Based on my last outing, I'm thinking that I would need to strap-on Tarbuster's cowboy hat and somehow use the brim to catch an edge and maybe mantel on it. I love the rest of the route. It is in your face and relatively unrelenting.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mar 20, 2017 - 03:02pm PT
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I thought Athlete's Feat was supposed to be 10D?
At least that's what I was told at the time.
Erickson's Rocky Heights has it as 10+, while Rossiter calls it 11A.
Erickson:
A classic Robbins pun, a classic route, and the most continuous free climb in the country in 1964. The first pitch, which was originally more serious, now has a bolt above the bulge for protection, Thanks to some idiots who didn't believe it could have been climbed free. A broken hold has increased its standard a little. Mostly strenuous liebacks, though the fourth pitch will keep you on your toes.
*Owing to reportage of a broken hold, it probably wasn't quite as hard when Robbins did the FA. Still, gutsy without the added bolt.
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Inner City
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Mar 20, 2017 - 03:08pm PT
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Plus one more for Fantasia, which I recall finding very challenging.
Never did any of those longer, harder routes, never could have...
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Mar 20, 2017 - 03:20pm PT
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It's stiff at 11a.......makes a lot of the 5.11 grades for Boulder Canyon sport climbs look pretty silly.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Mar 20, 2017 - 04:07pm PT
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Wow, waY too manY to chose from -- did Robbins ever put up a route that was less than five stars? But off the top of my head:
Vampire, Tahquitz
West Face of El Cap
ROBBIN'S CRACK! WOODSON! OH HELL YEAH!
Grossman wrote: With the nuts that were available at the time, the crux mantel was an ankle breaker. Royal was really good at mantels.
The first time I did The Nutcracker, with first-generation Chouinard nuts, it was *still* an ankle breaker. Off White, Mike Paul and I did it together, and all I managed to get in was a #6 stopper that did not inspire a lot of confidence. If I had fallen, and the nut pulled, it would have been a real drag. Off captured the drama!
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splitclimber
climber
Sonoma County
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Mar 21, 2017 - 08:42pm PT
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Coronet on Queen's Throne - FA 1973
route starts 8 feet to my right and goes up to and out the right corner of the long shaded roof.
Specter and Pit and Pendulum are to the left which are also RR routes.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Mar 29, 2017 - 11:14am PT
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I gotta agree with Turnkorner, great setting (like most routes on Lumpy).
2nd or 3rd trip to Castle Rock in Boulder Canyon I was coaxed into bouldering Final Exam. Not knowing how hard it was, I made it past the first bulge and then leaped off and ended up with an orange sized bulge on my left ankle.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 20, 2017 - 01:58pm PT
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Bump for the Royal Roster...
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Tamara Robbins
climber
not a climber, just related...
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May 20, 2017 - 05:14pm PT
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Having just retrieved Alpinist 58 from my mail box, I'm gonna insert a daughter's sappy take on the thread and say, "His life".
....as a non-climber, hopefully I'll be afforded some latitude there ;)
Cheers....
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Ian Parsons
climber
UK, England
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May 20, 2017 - 06:09pm PT
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I had to use my forehead as a point of contact in order to reset hands and complete the mantel!
I'm honoured to relate that my first thought on reading this - ie before checking context - was 'Athlete's Feat'.
Except you'd all say "honored".
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