Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
|
|
|
Aug 10, 2009 - 01:38pm PT
|
Yes, the usual deproach walking down the right side as you look at the dome from the road, is one of the several Tmds deproaches that terrify me. For the Dike, much better to climb the corner at the top and walk off to the east and around.
|
|
Fluoride
Trad climber
Hollywood, CA
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 10:12am PT
|
This was a heady route. I'm so glad I didn't have to lead the crux pitch. Geez, even the 5.6 runout lead at the top was heads-up.
|
|
Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 10:45am PT
|
I got to follow Clark Jacobs up it once several years ago. It was thrilling even as second. I remember being very impressed with Clark's lead. He was very nonchalant about the whole thing.
|
|
Dapper Dan
climber
Menlo Park
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 11:04am PT
|
How does the difficulty of the dike route compare to 'Marginal' on the apron?
How about compared to 'Stick to What' in Joshua tree?
|
|
Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 11:12am PT
|
I've done both Marginal and Dike Route this "summer" and the climbs are very different technically, but psychologically similar. Marginal is a classic GPA friction climb (GPA=Glacier Point Apron). You are standing on and pulling on dimples. While you're on it, it seems to be very steep but it isn't really all that steep. The crux moves are delicate friction moves.
Dike Route is a classic TM knob route with a dike feature, and some of that gold patina climbing thrown in for good measure. I think it is steeper than the GPA and the crux moves are going over the steeper bulges on knobs.
Both climbs would be considered "run out" adding to the thought that they are comparable.
|
|
meclimber
Trad climber
Dover, NH
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 01:04pm PT
|
Chiloe, was that Jay who used to work at ime?
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 08:46pm PT
|
ME, my Tidal Wave photos above feature the original poster, Pennsylenvy (aka Tim), on the sharp end.
Here's two other friends, Matthew and Dan, on the Dike Route itself.
|
|
marty(r)
climber
beneath the valley of ultravegans
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 09:43pm PT
|
The second-to-last time I did the Dike Route Clark Jacobs was telling the story of his partner falling off the crux upper pitch in PAs as well. Sounded like a tumble for the ages! Of course on the more recent occasion Clark made it look like a piece of cake.
|
|
Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 10:05pm PT
|
Technically easier and more secure than the crux on "Stick to What."
Curt
|
|
martygarrison
Trad climber
The Great North these days......
|
|
|
Aug 11, 2009 - 10:23pm PT
|
I remember when I first did this route I had already done golden bars and fort knox. I thought lets just run up the 5.9. I got totally freaked way out and thought, never again.
|
|
Pennsylenvy
Gym climber
A dingy corner in your refrigerator
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - May 14, 2010 - 02:56am PT
|
flooding trip reports
|
|
Delhi Dog
Trad climber
Good Question...
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 04:18am PT
|
Done that route a bunch of times...was glad someone (Thanks!) finally threw in some updated bolts...
It was my first TM route. I'd heard all TM routes were run out so I didn't think twice about it because I was expecting it to be so.
Still do it every now and then when I go up there, just as a reference point for my head and how times change...
Sure'd hate to whip on it...
DD
|
|
Watusi
Social climber
Newport, OR
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 04:29am PT
|
Curt got it right when he said that the crux was easier than Stick to What? at Josh...But remember I think that one at a time got the F10 grading. I've led and soloed The Dike but for the onsight 5.8 leader, it's gets a heads up from me as well...
|
|
Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 09:49am PT
|
i had a long tuolumne fall back in the 80s on footnotes--was hoping for a bolt up there and found, as i recall, three chopped bolt holes. (ah, those bolting wars.) it was pretty much at my limit at the time and the little peanut gallery i had attracted wasn't helping, but i went for the move and off i came.
my partner that day did a great job pulling in rope and walking back to minimize the distance. i guess it was 40-60 feet before i was caught. i seem to do instinctive things at such times--got through a bicycle-pickup truck collision without injury once by quickly turning the handlebars so the bicycle would be going in the same direction as the truck. on this long slider i put one fist with the heel of the hand against the rock--the drag kept me oriented up and down and prevented it from becoming a tumbler. gave me a nice big blister there--really could have been much worse. and no one wore helmets then.
btw, climbed the pywiack dike with the same fine partner. don't remember it being nearly as scary, being one point below my limit at the time. there are only three difficulty ratings: hard, way hard and too hard.
|
|
aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 11:49am PT
|
After one quick lesson, and maybe 3-4 other climbs, I did the Dike's Route in around 1970. This was pre-EB's, I think I was wearing Robbins Boots. I recall hesitating for about 40 minutes at one point, but finally made it. I really didn't think that any one move was 5.9., but I was(and still am) a very inexperienced climber.
Gerhughty told me that there was some disagreement as regards the difficulty of the route. I think he said Robbins thought it was hard, but Pratt thought it was not so hard, but I'm not sure, its been so long.
The exposure and the run-outs scared the whits out of me though. I had to do all the leading.
|
|
corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 12:33pm PT
|
The climber who remains calm while others panic probably doesn't realize what is going on." -suggested Dike route comment.
"It doesn't have to be fun to be fun."
|
|
Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 12:56pm PT
|
i'd chime in to say that the descriptions of the headiness of this route are slightly exagerated, IMO.
there are some long runouts in fairly moderate terrain, but it's pretty low angle at those times and you can kinda stop to chill every other step, even in poor footwear. the lack of bolts in those stretches is cause you don't need them.
at the crux, you step up a bit of a mini headwall and then it's thin as it rounds back to the slope of the dome, if you go for it and fall it seems like you'd be landing hard, but it's no 70 foot runout, not by about 50 feet, and by the time you are more than 10 or 15 out, the difficulty is backing off quickly.
it's one of those places in TM where sure, there could be a bolt right there just after the bussines (there's not a reasonable drilling stance in or leading into the business), but if you can get to that point where you exhale ans saw "phew", you really don't need a bolt there, and so there isn't one. the runout goes on a bit, and if you miss that next bolt, then it's a ways... =)
edit-
i wonder if any route in TM has seen more folks back off in good weather?
|
|
James
climber
My twin brother's laundry room
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 12:58pm PT
|
I onsight free soloed this route. It was balls out.
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
|
May 14, 2010 - 10:24pm PT
|
Here's a scanned slide from the late 1980s of someone who looked like Bachar (blonde hair, no shirt, ripped, red shorts, high top fires) who free soloed past us when we did the dike route. When I got a closer look at him I realized it was someone else.
here are some future climbers working out on the Dike
|
|
Matt
Trad climber
primordial soup
|
|
|
May 15, 2010 - 02:45am PT
|
hi jimmy-
must be true, what you say, since you said the same thing a yr ago (and a bout 20 posts back)
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!