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Prelude to Insanity, I've done this route many times, the first in 1972 but the most noteable was in mid summer 1974 with John Yablonsky.We had decided to ransack the fixed gear always left by the gripped climbing clubbers on Monday Morning Slab and the Grack as John was committed in days to attempt the Firefall Face with Meade Hargis and wanting to get a better look from underneath too.Someone previously bailed at the bolts above the small "roof" high on the first pitch leaving new slings and carabiners and John was drawn to them like a moth to a flame. He took off in beat up EB's you could see his toes hanging out and free soloed the entire route ending up on top displaying his looted gear like a gold medal and then came sailing down the Grack on someone's rope. I'd seen him solo things but never a grade like this before. A true look into the future.
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Waldo
Trad climber
King City, CA
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I did this climb with Jack Holmgren in June of 1994. We started late and the sun was well gone when we finished. I had a bad right knee and remember thinking that it was pretty dumb for me to be out there on friction always using my left foot to step up. There were a couple of fixed pins, marginal (no pun intended) then, likely gone now.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Did this climb in 1981 with Anne Carrier; she was wanting to try a hard friction lead. She bopped right up it in RR Varappes. Never saw a mountain lion; we did see a large bobcat several times that trip. He must live there scarfing up the marmots.
This is a climb for a late afternoon start. Takes only a short walk to get there.
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Jonesey
Trad climber
Lake District,UK
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Tried this route in 1975 in EB,s with my climbing buddy Dave Steres (anybody know him?...would like to get in touch...he lived in Riverside) anyways Dave was in Robbins boots and found the edging/friction too scary. We somehow backed off.
Finally did the route in 1990 on a brief visit and just before dark (glad I didn't know about the Mountain Lion but hey it probably hadn't been born!)..... , absolutely brilliant climbing!
a must do route for anyone .........also remember placing gear, a rock and a small cam.
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clustiere
Trad climber
berkeley ca
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great route, heads up. pass the doubled up bolt, i clipped it and leaned back to see the real anchor 30 ft away, boo. I also slid at the crux, probably 5-8 feet down into the 5.8 terrain. Still looking down at my bolt and knowing my belayer had no clue what was going on i tennatively cleaned off the balled up rubber (5.10)and kept moving up as fast as I could.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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did it today, wonderful climb, lots of fun.... gotta have a head for walking on the slab with little pro...
the third bolt on p2 is two now, and the partially pulled out button head is one half of a rap station now... looks fine, but still...
also, the fixed angle on p3 looks like it has seen much better times. It can be backed up with a good small cam... maybe the pin should be retired?
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LithiumMetalman
Trad climber
cesspool central
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opposition nuts at the crack, used a #3 bd micronut paired with a #1 Wildcountry rock nut = bomber
Great friction climb, loved every moment of it! Def heady after 1st bolt...
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Minty Alpinist
climber
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We had the stinkin' marmots in our packs too. As we rapped off we had the privilege to watch a mountain lion catch one of those fat marmots. The really spooky thing was that the cat walked right down the access trail and we weren't convinced that a power-bar-fed marmot was filling enough for the lion.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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The Atlantic of Friction- Very zen like mind is required to cruise this. Yeah that one nut placement is questionable. I remember not getting in but one piece on that last pitch and quite a bit of 5.9 climbing, but memory isn't what it used to be.
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johnhl94563
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Climbed this on 6/5/03. I was returning to climbing after a 20 year layoff (did this climb back in the 70's). We finished After Six over on Maunure Pile and felt like testing my oats. This was a tough committed lead. I felt the runouts were more like 30 feet on the first pitch. It was mostly just friction with very few fingernail sized flakes. I found it tested my confidence level at every bolt on the first pitch. I managed to get a BD #4 stopper behind a flake on the first pitch to cut the runout in half (didn't test to see how much of a fall it would hold).
I wouldn't suggest this as your first 5.9 lead unless you are real comfortable with friction climbing and long runouts.
The worst part was watching some squirels tear a hole in my pack getting my lunch from 200 feet up and not being able to do anything about it.
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