hardest on-sight trad lead

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Messages 81 - 100 of total 105 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
bob d'antonio

Trad climber
Taos, NM
Mar 8, 2008 - 12:45pm PT
Thanks Geno...that is really what it comes down too when it is all said and done...memories, good friends and how we treat each other.

You really were climbing well and in great shape...I remember how we tried to explode each other hearts on our not-racing run up Mt. Sanitas one day.

The kids, and Laurel and I loved having you guys stay with us. Really looking for the next Gunks love fest.
bradL

Trad climber
Lake Tahoe, NV
Oct 3, 2008 - 06:47pm PT
I forget what its called... it was a 3 pitch 5.9+ at Donner Summit... the third pitch had a great flared dihedral crux over a bulge.
Forest

Trad climber
Tucson, AZ
Oct 3, 2008 - 06:55pm PT
I gotta go with Nature here. I can think of a number of 5.9 and 5.9+ trad onsights in Yosemite (including fairview, still the best route, ever, IMO.) I think I've done some 5.10s somwhere, too, but nothing comes to mind...
Albert

climber
The Valley
Oct 3, 2008 - 07:05pm PT
Swan Slab Gully...yeah, it's pretty much a rite of passage around here...i think if i get "sick strong" this year i'll go for an onsight, single push ascent of Munginella...
k-man

Gym climber
SCruz
Oct 3, 2008 - 07:16pm PT
I remember being totally Jazzed that I fired the .10a variation on the 2nd pitch of the Rostrum.

It's a razor sharp wide layback flake, hard to pro because of the size. I was up near the top of the layback, and my fingers began to uncurl. I looked down, thinking I'd hit my belayer about a second after the flake would cut my rope.

There was little I could do...except throw a wild foot up higher on the flake, committing more to the layback. Ugh, my fingers kept uncurling, but I gunned my hand up, and barely made the top of the flake.

Since then, I've done the .10d version, and the .11a way.
The .11a seems the easiest way to go...
salad

climber
Escondido
Oct 3, 2008 - 07:23pm PT
donner 5.9+ shudder

i remember following up black september. it was my third day ever climbing and i got worked. shoulder tendonitis flare up was fierce.
jstan

climber
Oct 3, 2008 - 07:29pm PT
It is so sad we are fixated on "hard". How about inspiring?

Once on Dream of Wild Turkeys I looked up and saw a dihedral that started well above us and went all the way to the sky.

Aren't we, really, trying to go there when we go up?
Moof

Big Wall climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
Oct 3, 2008 - 07:38pm PT
Hardest rating, 10a, The Zip in squamish. pathetic I know...

Hardest in feeling, 5.OMGIA!, the dihedral right above the first belay of East Wall, Lover's Leap. Shoulda read the topo... Not 5.6 if you mistakenly go that way...
Tom

Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
Oct 3, 2008 - 08:00pm PT
Randy said:

The true scope of my power and skill is yet to be realized. So, I'll check back with you's later.


But, Marcellus Wallace has said:

This business is filled to the brim with unrealistic mfkrs who thought their ass aged like wine. If they mean it turns to vingegar, they're right. If you mean it gets better, it don't.
mojede

Trad climber
Butte, America
Oct 3, 2008 - 08:19pm PT
A couple of hard .10 FAs in Paradise Valley, MT BITD--not too impressive, but some of 'em I couldn't repeat today in that bold of fashion. I am sooo weak now...where's the crash pad and pebbles to make me feel strong again ?
Nefarius

Big Wall climber
somewhere without avatars.........
Oct 3, 2008 - 08:23pm PT
hahaha Gee, thanks, Tom!!! here have you been hiding, bro?
drljefe

climber
Calizona
Oct 3, 2008 - 09:05pm PT
Hot Rocks

but some of the 5.9+ and 10's at Granite Mountain felt harder.
ChrisW

Trad climber
boulder, co
Oct 3, 2008 - 09:37pm PT
Some 11d Choss pile? Damn i am going to have to check my climbing log. Hardest route? or Hardest Grade? I have onsighted a few 5.11's in Eldo, ground up, no preview, no info, no watching anyone, placing gear on lead. None really stick out. And they all seem so hard. I was really excited about Climb of the Century. I still would like to say i onsighted Windy, but parnter says i didn't. Breakfest of Champions was good, wish i could have done it smoother. All 3 pitches of Rincon Crack was a good one. Many one fall and then send routes wont mention those. Tempory like Achillis was special at the roof routes. Along with the Kloof Roof route. Those where onsights.
It seems like some Eldorado Routes u have no choice. ONsight or die. I would be really excited to onsight Wendego just looking at that route today. But these weak arms gotta get stronger.

There's got be a harder one somewhere i did?

Oh yeah....SPRAY:
I onsight soloed the Rotwand on a very HOT DAY. My climbing shoes felt really gooey and all the holds are upside down on that pile? Felt kind of relieved when i saw a piton half way up. That was a fun solo....(:
AndySan Diego

Trad climber
San Diego, CA
Oct 3, 2008 - 11:54pm PT
Tobin Sorensen on The Edge !
splitter

Trad climber
Cali Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
Nov 27, 2012 - 11:41am PT
A BIG YO, fer Tobin Sorensen's FA of The Edge!

edit: not sure what mine wud be. hav'ta think about it.
GDavis

Social climber
SOL CAL
Nov 27, 2012 - 12:00pm PT
Hardest... hrm. I'd say BlackJack at Josh, there's a few dinky short 11a's I've done that were bolted but that one to me were the hardest moves I had done on a rope without pre-inspection or anything. Hardest boulder problem was a high gravity week in the valley when I onsighted a handfull of one-move-wonderish problems up to V4.

My proudest leads are kind of mixed up, and hard to really say which is which - Decompensator of Lhasa would have to be it because I felt like I wasn't getting away with anything, it felt enjoyable.
GDavis

Social climber
SOL CAL
Nov 27, 2012 - 12:03pm PT
The most memorable and proud lead I've probably witnessed was when my little brother, all of 19 years old, leading off the couch after years on his first real trad pitch on the Mummy Crack on the Long Climb at Tahquitz. I can't believe I put him on the sharp end on that pitch, I had remembered it being tame.... but that was probably his physical limit in leading and he was placing gear in a squeeze a pitch off the deck on a diet of caffiene and fast food.


I've always been the better climber, but nothing I got holds water to that. And isn't that what climbing is?
jahil

Social climber
London, Paris, WV & CA
Nov 27, 2012 - 12:12pm PT
Munginella 5.6.
I was stuck behind a party of three who made me wait on the penultimate pitch for
an hour while they freaked out. They would start to scream anytime I tried to
step on the ledge they had occupied, while contemplating their options for the last
pitch. At least I was in the shade on lead, my belayer was frying in the sun
below me.
Technically it may not have been hard, but as someone who climbs for peace
of mind, it was the hardest thing not to throw those people of the top of the
climb. It was so hard.

steve
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Nov 27, 2012 - 02:35pm PT
time for an update...
nutjob

Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
Nov 27, 2012 - 02:39pm PT
Best on-sights, from a few years ago:
 Lunatic Fringe, 5.10c
 Cookie, Left side 5.10a OW


Dogged my way through the crux on Five and Dime a few weeks ago, blowing the on-sight because of rusty head issues more than technical ability issues.
Messages 81 - 100 of total 105 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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