le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Apr 10, 2007 - 11:00pm PT
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The Riddler, out at Little Wing, is a great line. It's not an offwidth per se, but is great practice. It's a flared squeeze/chimney, it protects well w/ gear everyone has (hand/fist sized crack in the back of the flare), the outside edge is crisp and positive when things get tough. It's not too hard. But, it allows for excellent practice on the body language needed for that size. When you're struggling, you always have the option of a) throwing a hand or fist jam into the crack in the back, or b) yarding on the outside edge of the flake that makes the chimney.
It's a striking line to look at as well. Plus, the Little Wing area is a great spot, with several quality .10's (hand and finger) to climb while you're there.
The Riddler is rated .10a, but that rating is likely for the short, preamble section that leads to the wide.
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LuckyPink
climber
the last bivy
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Apr 10, 2007 - 11:48pm PT
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listen to Brutus, he has cams wider than my butt
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Apr 11, 2007 - 08:12am PT
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A lot of the climbs listed above are not off-widths. Moby Dick, for example, has not got an off-width on it. It's mostly a chimney in varying forms. Someone else rated Sacherer Cracker 5.7? Hmmm. It's more difficult than that, more like 5.10, and at least 5.9+ at the final off-width. But Sacherer Cracker is a good climb to follow. Get a friend to lead it and then follow that final clean, short off-width several times. Go up, wiggle back down or lower down to the start of the off-width, go up again, etc. Starting at Generator Crack will destroy your interest in off-widths. That's a safe place to try, but probably too difficult if you're just starting to learn. They can be beautiful and artful and done with technique, if you have someone to show you some of those Pratt-Clemens-esque artistries. It's good first to follow a strong climber up any number of moderate-to-difficult cracks, to watch and familiarize and then experiment. Whe you're ready for something harder, I think a very safe off-width, but quite difficult (5.10), and yet easily protected, is the far East Chimney of Rixon's Pinnacle, the actual first 5.10 in Yosemite originally led by Robbins as a lieback. You can get some good protection, a couple of good things, in the crux, then if you slip you simply slide down a bit on a smooth wall, not hitting anything.
Pat Ament
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Apr 11, 2007 - 08:53am PT
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I wasn't rating Sacherer Cracker 5.7...just the wide aproach bit to get to the anchors below the 10a thinnish move. "p0"
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WBraun
climber
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Apr 11, 2007 - 08:59am PT
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Pat
Unfortunately East Chimney of Rixon's Pinnacle is potential death zone nowadays due to the unstable rockfall zone on the upper tiers of the wall. The place over there can release rocks at any time in the whole Rixon's to the Good book area.
It remains as an unstable zone as of today.
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Matt
Trad climber
places you shouldn't talk about in polite company
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Apr 11, 2007 - 10:32am PT
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i never understand when people ask about learning to off-width, people always say to try generator crack--- WTF?
go put a TR on uncle fanny's at church bowl, start w/ something you can learn on. then go do chingando over at reeds, then TR ahab from the top of moby dick. probably ought to be comfortable on the NEB of HCR before you bother w/ generator crack.
just my 2 cents
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 11, 2007 - 06:31pm PT
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ablegable defines an offwidth as anything you can get a knee in (but not a body...) so many of those climbs listed or mentioned above are not formally OW... but, they are not straightforward crack climbs, either...
...I listed climbs were the cracks are wide-ish in some cases, and sometimes more squeeze, or chimney, but all of them have some awkwardness that feel like classic offwidth.
As for the Generator Crack regime, it is a good workout on a top rope... but if you aren't climbing at that level it will leave you hating life and feeling like you'll never get it. But it should be something everyone accomplishes at some point. Lots of good lessons there.
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AlexC
climber
Bay Area, CA
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Apr 11, 2007 - 07:14pm PT
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"ablegable defines an offwidth as anything you can get a knee in (but not a body...)"
Yeah, but then you miss out on all the fun with cracks that are too big for fists and too small to fit a knee. Those get to be really tough as they get past vertical to overhanging!
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Apr 11, 2007 - 08:47pm PT
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"...but if you aren't climbing at that level it will leave you hating life and feeling like you'll never get it."
I came away from Copper Penny feeling this way. I thought I was climbing at that level before I tried it.
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Apr 11, 2007 - 11:01pm PT
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About Generator Crack: I guess a lot of people missed my point which is to go to Generator Crack to learn technique not necessarily to attempt to climb the entire route right out of the gate. Its easy to get to and easy to top rope. These are great attributes that can speed up the learning process. The first several body lengths are classic off width size. With a top rope and the right clothes it is perfectly safe. One can step off the tree and get right into it. I used to take people to Short Circuit to learn to climb hand cracks. Bruce Brosman thought I was nuts taking relative beginners to a 5.11d to learn to crack climb, but it worked. In fact it worked real well. I would tape their hands up and explain to them that they were there to learn technique and to not think about climbing the whole route. It was amazing to watch their progress over a period of just a few weeks. They couldn't fake it because it can't be liebacked and there are no face holds. You have to jam it. Of course I am assuming that whomever is out there trying to climb has some level of athletic ability...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Apr 11, 2007 - 11:17pm PT
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Mark, I have no doubt that with you instructing that climbers new to OW would learn quickly... but I have been down at Generator lots when climbers one third to one half my age, athletic, etc... weren't getting up squat 'cause they had no idea and no one to ask. Learning it without someone around to point out the technique is a whole lot more difficult.
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Apr 11, 2007 - 11:46pm PT
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oxymoron.
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Apr 12, 2007 - 07:46pm PT
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Ed,
You are probably right. It really does help to have some pointers. It took me forever to learn to climb hand cracks back in the day because I had no pointers what so ever. For some reason wide cracks came more naturally to me. Generator Crack was my first off size at the tender age of 16. I actually made my way up it starting off the tree. It was a grand struggle though. John, the guy who took me there, gave me some pointers. It probably helped to be skinny teenager as well.
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Blinny
Trad climber
TheHolyMont
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Apr 12, 2007 - 07:59pm PT
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The center of Bongs Away was a favorite OW of mine.
Reed's Direct to Bongs center is a nice 3 pitch excursion.
Mark
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Apr 12, 2007 - 10:27pm PT
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That Yosemite offwidths page didn't list it, but I recall the first pitch of Twinkie, at the Cookie, as being good and clean. The topo shows it as fists, but it got a lot wider than that. It was great practice at inchworming up a crack, but still do-able for a newbie to offwidths. I made one note in my guidebook: "YUK!"
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The Warbler
climber
the edge of America
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Apr 12, 2007 - 10:36pm PT
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One of the best offwidths IMHO is the Left Side of Reeds. Hell, it's so classic Ansel Adams photographed the first chimney pitch!
The second pitch is 10a, 5 or 6 inches, and about as user friendly as a wide crack can be. You can even toprope it after the squeeze thru behind Reed's, if you don't wanna lead it.
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TomT
Trad climber
Aptos.
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Apr 13, 2007 - 09:17am PT
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another thing to remember is most of us learned to do squeeze chimneys before offwidths
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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Apr 13, 2007 - 01:01pm PT
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Said Pat: ". . . the far East Chimney of Rixon's Pinnacle, the actual first 5.10 in Yosemite originally led by Robbins as a lieback."
I remember doing this as one of my first climbs in Yosemite and being totally maxed. I barely made it. And the second pitch squeeze ruined my knees. Man, those old school climbs were super burly.
As I recall (this is like 80 years ago) I finger jammed this thing till I could get into it, and I'm wondering how in the world RR ever lybacked the thing. Bridwell later told me Dick Erb did the same thing in desert boots.
I thought the West Face of Rixons (also freed by Pat I believe) was a super good 5.10 route. Pretty much a classic on perfect rock and a nice hand crack corner to end.
But Rixons East was always a bear. . .
JL
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Apr 13, 2007 - 01:18pm PT
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First pitch of DNB...rated 5.7 :p
Edit: I guess it's more of a squeeze, now that I read more...
Warbler, Left side of Reeds sounds like something fun...thx
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