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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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now that is a line that makes a man want to travel clear out that californee-way.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Apr 10, 2019 - 12:02am PT
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When Muir was around, there were no oak trees preventing a running leap into the river from the top of the boulder.
He would never have needed to downclimb the crack.
For that matter, there was no road down into the gorge until the earliest part of the last century.
Back then, everyone had big old leather boots, too.
Tricouni nails don't help a bit with technique.
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Weenis
Trad climber
Tel Aviv
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Apr 10, 2019 - 09:00am PT
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I led it onsight with tube chocks. It's hard.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Apr 10, 2019 - 09:12am PT
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Donini, one has to have an interesting definition of short-cut to think of downclimbing that is faster than walking around :)
As for rating, I thought GC was the defining standard for 5.10c OW ? A challenge for any precise OW rating, as has been discussed to death but maybe not in the last few years, is the variable geometry of different people which makes different climbs relatively easier or harder for different people.
I only visited GC one time (edit: maybe I'm merging faulty memories of 2 times?), flailed at the bottom trying without the tree, then stemmed off the tree to get started and made it up no falls on top-rope. That was end of a day doing about 10 pitches of cragging in the lower valley. I seldom had cragging days because I was a weekend warrior seeking out the longest adventure climbs I could do during the little time I could get there.
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Russ Walling
Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
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Apr 10, 2019 - 03:56pm PT
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As for rating, I thought GC was the defining standard for 5.10c OW ?
It is, and on the soft side of the grade.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Apr 10, 2019 - 04:01pm PT
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In my day it was "hard 5.9."
And indeterminate grade, but that's what the rating was understood to be.
I knew of no one who either led it or did it as a boulder problem.
Always used the top rope and a spot off the ground.
Use the tree, it ain't free.
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mynameismud
climber
backseat
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Apr 10, 2019 - 05:48pm PT
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5.10C my ass!
5.9
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 10, 2019 - 06:23pm PT
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It’s down to the old and very tiresome ST forum habit wherein a climb is defined by it’s grade and that alone. Give a climb an “old school grade” and it can wax in glory on the ST stage. Yeah...we were real bad asses bitd even if it took us multiple days to climb El Cap. I guess we can bask in the reflected glory of having today’s climbers comment on how hard the “old school 5.9” they just climbed was. Not really hard, mind you, but hard for the GRADE...damn, we were tough.
Now, grades have expanded greatly and, to the everlasting horror of some...softened. Keep in mind that the only ones that have “softened” are the ones low down in today’s grading system...the ones we could climb bitd.
GC was a big part of my progression in Yosemite. I developed my ow skills with repeated visits there one rainy Spring and I will always remember it for that and not for the arbitrary number someone attached to it. The “grade” dropped markedly for me with repeated visits from...damn, I can’t do it to...hey, I just soloed it with my running shoes. I visited GC again five years ago after turning 70 and found the new grade to be...phew, I can still do it, but just barely.
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Russ Walling
Social climber
from Poofters Froth, Wyoming
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Apr 10, 2019 - 06:52pm PT
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Some guys will just never get it....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 10, 2019 - 06:55pm PT
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I guess not...
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Apr 10, 2019 - 07:39pm PT
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Some guys will just never get UP it...whatever the rating.
Fact.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Apr 11, 2019 - 07:49am PT
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I never could get it.
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Barbarian
climber
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Apr 11, 2019 - 08:15am PT
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An assessment of grading of Generator Crack using the Barbarian Simplified Grading System:
GC used to be easy...I could climb it.
Now it is hard...I can't climb it.
Numbers are meaningless.
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Gnaw Mean
Trad climber
Manzaneeter
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Apr 11, 2019 - 08:41am PT
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At south woodson this would be the downclimb, nawmean?
Get that?
Chairs
Dangus
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Apr 11, 2019 - 09:35am PT
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So nobody knows who did the Fa?
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Apr 11, 2019 - 11:12am PT
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Donini, you dragged me down to the GC when I asked you how you got so good with cracks. That was about a hundred years ago.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Apr 11, 2019 - 11:34am PT
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Not quite a hundred Don but whose counting?
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KP Ariza
climber
SCC
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Apr 11, 2019 - 11:57am PT
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Went down there once. 3 1/2 decades ago. Climbed it on a top rope somewhat uneventfully. Yawn. Was able to sneak into the squeeze a move or two before most do I’d bet. I weighed a buck forty. Felt about the same as other wides of the grade at the time. I’d be hard-pressed to get my ass up it today though…
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Apr 11, 2019 - 12:41pm PT
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Jaybro for the win...
I also always thought this was the gold standard for 10c OW. It nicely captures the dynamic range of off width from fist/hand stacks to squeeze chimney. If you got comfortable on this you were good to go on those OW sections that show up on some of the longer routes on Upper Rock, Middle Rock etc.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Apr 11, 2019 - 12:55pm PT
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Yep, looks like none of us is interested in the actual FA, per the OP, how hard it is being the keynote, instead.
ST manages to do this way more than we should.
I suppose wrangling over grades is some class of fun, but it's harmless, I suppose, other than this sh#t affects the outlook of younger climbers who then become infected with "Gradiosis," a horrible affliction. :-(
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