jvSF
Trad climber
San Francisco
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A few notes from our Lurking Fear in-a-day climb this weekend (5/17/14). Climbed the route in 19:47 at 5.10 C2. I believe we aided and/or french freed on every pitch except for the last pitch. We block led 1-3, 4-9, 10-14, 15-19, with pitches 14-19 in the dark, which slowed us down.
Approach: Pretty straightforward hike to the base of the buttress. You have to drop down a little bit before starting up the 4th class so don't try to climb up too early. Fixed lines up to the base were in good shape.
Hooks: We only used a single cliffhanger and camhook. Used the cliffhanger on P1 and P12 (maybe a couple other places). Used the camhook at the top of P10, on P12, and start of P13. No hooks on the P7 traverse but still was tricky to follow.
Rack:
1 set DMM peanuts and offsets stoppers
C3: purple, red
Aliens: blue, green, yellow, red
C4: #0.3, #0.4, #0.5, #0.75 (2), #1 (2), #2 (2), #3, #4 (2), #5
offset metolius: purple/blue, blue/yellow, yellow/orange
Hooks: Cliffhanger, camhook, talon (not used), medium beak (not used)
special weapon: 1 Peztl Spirit quickdraw with a stiff gate for long reaches
Fixed gear: Very little fixed gear on the route (besides the bolts). A couple lower out slings on P7 and P12. A few pitons on P11 and P12 helped too. The fixed rope on Thanksgiving Ledge is in really bad shape and I would not trust it at all. It looks OK at first but as you traverse to the right it's totally shredded in a couple places.
Anchors: Most anchors looked good. Gear anchors were required at top of P14, top of P16, and right end of Thanksgiving ledge.
Ledges: Lots of hanging belays. Descent stances at P1, P3, P9, P13, P16, P18. Great ledges at P14 and P17.
Pitch lengths: Many of the pitches were longer than indicated in the supertopo.
Top out: We did the top out in the dark so it probably seemed more complex than it is. From the top of P19 you can step right to a sandy platform (exposed). From there we scrambled up and right to the base of a slab that had a ~60 ft fixed rope up to a tree (~210 ft). From the tree we again headed up and right, traversing/walking right to a large tree with a steep dropoff to the right and headwall above. From the big tree, headed up about 15 ft then walked left about 50 ft to the base of a gulley. We took the gulley straight up about 100 ft with scrambling on rock through some manzanita to the summit. Once on top we were much higher than expected and had to descend a bit to get on track for the east ledges descent. Would be tough with a haul bag.
Descent: Ropes on east ledges appeared to be in good shape.
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Erik Sloan
Big Wall climber
Yosemite Big Wall
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Amazingly splitter line, that only lacks the views of West Buttress or Lost World.
Pitch 6 anchor bolt nuts were very loose. They are big Petzls so you need a crescent that goes big.
If you're not planning on freeing much of the 8th pitch, it is nice to just continue
pitch 6 to the rappel belay at the end of the traverse(easy hooks and bolts). This allows you to link the last part of pitch 7 with pitch 8 for a 55-60m C1 pitch. The best part of this strategy is the cleaner on pitch 6 has all the rope to do the lower outs and clean the traverse. This effectively splits up the pitch 7 traverse so you never have to lower out your bags far and the sideways leading is easier as it is divided between the pitches. And it saves you a pitch.
With the new camalot sizes it was nice to have 2 ea #5 for the section before Thanksgiving.
There are many loose rocks near the lip on the Thanksgiving ledge traverse(from the cave over to the last pitch). The bushes had died so I broke them back but if anyone has extra time it would be nice to move these loose rocks away from the lip toward the back of the ledge(kinda a two person job but hard to explain).
Thank you Blake and Le Cap! Awesome times!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Just got back from doing this one with Gomz.
I'll add some thoughts @ Ned's mantle pitch for now...
go 'the better way' but leave most of the rack at the belay. Tag it up once are in the groove part. Sticky rubber was critical for me to feel like I could even do it.
The upper part of the block above the bolt move of 'the better way' is loose and may come off if you yard on it. Don't! The rail part is still solid to pull up on though.
email me if you need more/recent before I get back around to this...
for pitches that I had info on or lead...
1. we did the crack and broke this pitch up to prevent rope drag from the corner. Not a 3" piece for me to make the reach to the bolt.
2.
3. Window Pane - stay lowish in the aiders. eyeball the crack size as you go and guage which pieces to leave behind. remember to save some larger and a gold camalot for near the top after the pendo. Lower to below the roof for the pendo. Use the bolt off right from the belay at the top of the pitch for the second to jug without the rope in the crack.
4.
5. pretty straight forward as I recall.
6.
7. sport hooking. start with a tension traverse. The pitch is longer you think. The last blocks before the anchor I had to free since the pro was expando in the blocks. The last good piece I had was a #4 camalot.
8. Gomz had to keep leaping. 60' run still possible even with 3 #4 camalots and 2 #5 camalots. all new style.
9. Tension step is easy. have a #2 camalot ready to go. I used big gear #5 camalot to pro the final moves plus some small gear. I missed that there is a bolt on the pillar itself just before the belay sloping ledge.
10. Seemed like a short pitch. We could see the hangers from the start.
11. The "tricky" move is just a hard to see placement. Not impossible. make sure you have hybrid aliens on this route. there is a hollow block that I avoided above the fixed head. The belay has some old pins up and right in addition to the 2 good bolts.
12. cam hook... fixed stuff. bring tie off sling to replace for lower outs. 'hook var' is the way to go. one moderate top step and some easy free got me away from the moves on the crack off left and low.
13. some loose. stay right, don't step into gulley too soon.
14. do 'better way' for sure, but there is a loose hand hold to avoid there too. carry a light rack and tag up the rest after freeing the ramp. sticky rubber saves the day. awk in the groove. use Russ/Fish topo instead of Supertaco for the upper part of this pitch. After the groove, get around a hollow block and pro with big gear before stepping left. use long slings for sure. the pitch is longer than as supertopo'd. the 5.7 is easy, but you'll need a #4 before you move left above. great belay ledge. some water was left here by a party before us. green soda and mountain spring 1.5 liter and some purple drink mix in a gallon jug with torn handle.
15.Gomz used cam hooks on this pitch. There may be more than one way to get thru this.
16. some cool free moves mixed with aid.
17. right above belay is a loose block to be avoided by a move right before going up. then 2 #5s and a #4 are the meat of the wide. but you'll need a range of sizes. tie off the chockstone in the second offwidth you climb around. above .75 and hybrid alien worked to protect the final free climbing thru a steep section. Haul off the bolts near the green lichen not by the cave. there was water on this ledge when we did it. multiple liters.
18. move the belay all the way to the corner, not just the far end bolt. go left into the slot groove, then take the crack in the left wall to the tree.
19. easy free to bolts. hauling is pretty easy still.
20. move belay kind of deal to next slab at boulder mantle. longish pitch.
21. another longish pitch to one of the trees next a boulder. surprising slab moves.
22. another slab haul since we were tired, used 3 #1 camalots in a crack just above a tree.
23. another slab haul since we were tired, 2 #3s and 2 #4s
24. another slab haul since we were tired, tied off boulder with the rope. easy to walk off from here.
gear:
1 talon, 1 grappling, 1 cliffhanger was sufficient for us.
there were no rivet hanger placements needed for leading, though I did some a couple belays down low that might accept a Moses hanger for stringing gear/ledges.
generally the hook moves were reachy. sometimes the tat was all I could reach from high steps on other placements.
I'm a punter, and I would want 2 #5 new, extra #4s new for pitch 8, and triples in the rest down to purple camalots, only doubles if your alien rack overlaps truly to cover for triple sizes. I would have like to have 2 green standard aliens for a couple pitches, but made do with only one in addition to our double rack of hybrid aliens up to red/yellows. offset nuts very nice addition. New style offset DMM nuts that replaced the HB are very soft alloy and get stuck easy.
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cmclean
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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We climbed it this past weekend (5/8-5/9). Pitch 15 was the only wet one; I was trying to free most of it since it's 5.6 to 5.8 to 5.10b and got pretty damp. The rest is bone dry. All required fixed gear is there (at least if you do the 5.10/A0 3rd pitch variation) so no hammer necessary. Didn't see any need for rivet hangers either.
In general I thought a number of pitches were longer than their stated supertopo lengths (at least in the upper 10 pitches).
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Good beta, holly. BUT i will say that pitch 8, two modern #4 camalots are much nicer. I did this pitch yesterday with a modern (gray) # camalot and an older (purple). The purple is just not nearly as stable and not as nice for that size crack. so in the future i think i will just suck it up in bring the 2 new numper 4's and once #5 for pitch 17.
Here is the rack i brought
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Based on the recent El Cap tragedies, I feel compelled to mention again that loose blocks kill. Even the most trade of trade routes have them. Be aware. There is a block on pitch 11 that will probably release in the next decade and likely because someone puts a cam behind it instead of using a nut to the right. Don't be that person!
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micro_marc
Gym climber
Squamish
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We climbed this route a couple days ago, took maybe 10-12 hrs, it felt straightforward and we freed maybe 85% including P4-5-6 which were sublime. I felt compelled to Hebron however to WATCH OUT for a block in the corner in P11 that at first glance seems wonderful to throw a finger sized cam behind. It is hollow and will rip and likely cut the lead line and kill someone in the next few years, use a small bomber nut to the right. Please be safe and enjoy!
M-A
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Oso Flaco
Gym climber
Atascadero, CA
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Chris,
What is included in the 3 groups of small cams in your rack photo below? I can't quite tell everything from the photo. Particularly the alien & hybrid alien sizes.
Also, I notice you racked cams like nuts with multiple pieces on a single biner. How many QDs, alpine draws, and/or free biners would you recommend bringing if using this setup?
thanks!
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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A hammer is no longer necessary. A large pecker, cam hooks and offset micro nuts can get you around any of the places that fixed heads used to be mandatory
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Update: In July, 2000, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden made the first free ascent of this route. Lurking Fear is now rated VI 5.13c or 5.7 C2F. Pitch 2 is now rated 5.13c or C1. Pitch 7 is now rated 5.13c or C2
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Here is the beta for soloing Lurking Fear in as few pitches as possible: Bring a 70m rope - you can lead the whole climb in 13 pitches (instead of 21). here is how to climb the route in 13 pitches. THIS BETA ONLY WORKS WITH A 70m ROPE and you have to backclean a lot so most soloists will probably NOT want to link all these pitchs.
1: solo up 5.4 and belay at the open circle. climb past the 1st belay (taking the bolt varation) and then achor at the open circle before
pitch 2.
2: climb the bolt variation out left to belay 3 (bring free shoes)
3: climb p4
4: link 5 and 6
5: climb 7
6: climb 8
7: climb p 9
8: link 10 and 11
9: link 12 and 13
10: climb 14
11: climb past 15 until the rope runs out.
12: climb to 17
13: climb 18 then solo 5.3 to the top
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erskingardner
climber
Blacksburg, VA
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I am wondering if anyone knows what the best way to climb lurking fear really fast. 1-2 days...I am trying to compile extra info (aside from the obvious stuff like back-clean and use a backpack and short fix) , so any helpful stuff is more than appreciated...
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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MISSING PITCH LENGTHS
Somehow I spaced out and forgot many of the pitch lengths for Lurking Fear in my book Yosemite Big Walls: SuperTopos. So, here are all the missing pitch lenths:
P2 120'
P3 150'
p4 130'
p5 100'
p6 110'
p9 100'
p10 110'
p14 120'
p18 90'
Also, pitches 7 and 8 are longer than i wrote them down as. I am not sure their exact lengths but the important thing is that you CAN'T link them with a 60m or 70m rope.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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LEDGE WIDTH CORRECTION
The ledges on Lurking Fear are not as comfy as i made them out to be in my book "Yosemite Big Walls: SuperTopos"
Here are the correct ledge sizes:
P9 don't even think of bivying here
p14 ok bivy for 2-3
P17 great bivy for 10+
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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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Are there any pitches that link with a 60m rope, if soloing?
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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If you're a strong 5.10 climber you can do the free variation to get past the fixed heads low on the route. Or, if you have not issues using your stick clip, you can stick clip the free variation.
I thought that the hauling on top sucked w/ two people and often required simultanious team shoving and hauling or two-body counterweight to budge it.
We took the circuitous route down (Tamarack??? Not sure, because it was kind of an accident...It was an old paved road that lets out a few hundred meters west of El Cap Meadow.) It took over 5 hours. Not recommended.
Here's my question...Does anyone have any beta on the LF rap route? From the rim, where do you go to find its start? Is it horrendous w/ haul bags?
Obviously, rapping El Cap w/ haul bags isn't the prefered method of decent in general, but I'm having knee issues as well and am see getting down as a bigger challenge than getting up at the moment.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Melissa,
The rap route starts just below the cave on thanksgiving ledge. Lean over the edge in a few spots and you will find it. After 3 or 4 rappels you just rap the route (in a few sections you need to skip belays). All this info is on the SuperTopo.
Cheers
chris
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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I think the first pitch is around 140' from the ground or 90'
from that optional 2 bolt belay about 50 feet up.
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Mick
Social climber
Dutchland below the seas
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Since pitch lengths seem to be a fashionable topic, I'd like to add that P7 (80ft) and P8 (120ft) must be somewhat longer. We did the climb in early November, and though the cold may have shrunk the ropes and account for some of the problems I would guess P7 is the real culprit.
They do NOT link with a 200ft rope, even though P7 is traversing and we barely linked them with our 220ft(?) unclipped (duh) trail line since we were having a party of 3. This of course we only found out after the fact, resulting in the biggest clusterf*ck of the century (4" cracks are not a good spot to setup an alternate anchor if you don't bring many big cams). It makes a good story afterwards and now we can laugh about it, even though we've been (and still are) ridiculed by our friends to no end.
Chris, how do/did you link P7&P8 with a 70m rope?? Backcleaning the entire traverse?
As an answer to the C2+/C3 question earlier in the thread.I don't think I've done much A3, but still I found all the aid on LF pretty tame (offset Aliens rule!). That however is beside the point since the first few pitches are absolutely beautiful... and
taught me what an open mind and some vision can do.I have NO idea how anyone has ever been able to free those and would not have believed it possible if it hadn't been done. (actually, I still don't believe it).
All in all a great (fairly easy) aid climb, with horrendous hauling near the top if you bring too much (but we did enjoy our summit beers!).
Have Fun,
Mick
BTW Beware of the Ringtail Cat at the base. It attacks without warning and jumps on your sleeping bag in the middle of night.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Mick,
Sorry for hosing you!
I linked 7 and 8 with a 70m rope without much backcleaning but i did it just barely. Guess some 70m ropes are shorter than others. I'll correct that in the next book and above.
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jmartin
climber
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Chris, in reference to your post about bivy ledges, at the top of 9 you put "don't even think of bivying here" does that go for just the pillar of despair, or the bivy up and right that is labeled "bivy ledge: good for 1, 2 ok"?
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clustiere
Trad climber
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the pitch (or two?) above the pillar of despair is a great place to swing over to the nice bivi to the right also there is a nice looking ledge for 2? down and right of this bivi approx 80-100 ft (not in Supertopos). The pillar of despare would be what chris is talking about as a no go.
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jmartin
climber
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As per the topo, there is a bivy ledge up and right from the pillar of despair which is ok for two people. This is best reached by swinging down and over (climbers right) from the top of pitch 10. This ledged CANNOT be reached with a 60 m rope from the top of pitch 8.
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crotch
climber
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If you are hauling the final pitches and belay at the final set of bolts on top of pitch 19, you won't have enough rope on the next pitch to reach the big tree that marks the end of the technical difficulties.
Either stop at the bolts and haul, then walk the bags up to the big ledge before the final slab, or continue past the bolts and belay/haul on the big ledge off of gear.
From the base of the final slab, you should be able to reach the big tree with a 60m rope.
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Kathleen Kerry
climber
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I was wondering if someone could edify me about the last slabs on Lurking Fear. Are there anochors at all, trees or bolts? Also, is october a good time for this route? Any special gear needed? This will be my first yosemite wall, although i've done several in zion. Is there a big difference in grading? Any other tips you found helpful would be appreciated. Thanks.
-k.k.
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Kathleen Kerry
climber
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Thanks for the info. Are the belays fairly comfortable or should i plan on setting the ledge up at every belay? Thanks again.
-kk
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Most of the belays are hanging. I wouldn't bring a ledge at all...The hauling is too harsh. But I would bring a sturdy wooden belay seat.
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Spanky
Social climber
boulder co
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I was planning on climbing lurking fear next week and was curious if anyone knows the condition of the fixed heads on pitches 3 and 11. thanks for the beta.
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crotch
climber
boulder co
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Fixed gear was fine in June. Things change though.
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salad
Big Wall climber
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can anyone report on the nature of the fixed gear on LF?
tia
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ibclimbn
Trad climber
Riverside, CA
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Last weekend, my partner and I got to p.4, then decided it was too hot ( bailed and drank beer ). I noticed that there were no fixed heads on p.3. Just one blown out piece at the start ( which you don't need anyway ). As for the fixed gear on p.11, I don't know. I would take a couple of small heads just in case.
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salad
Big Wall climber
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as of 7/24/05 all the fixed stuff is there. there were a coupla gallons of water on t-giving ledge when we split on 7/24.
look out for the silver fish on pitch 18. also, i think supertopo misplaced the bolts at the top of this pitch. as you face the rock, they are to the right of the tree, not the left. quite obvious unless you are climbing in the dark like we were.
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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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Is it fair to assume this route gets alot of spring runnof similar to Never Never Land and Aquairian?
Is it easy to tell from the deck?
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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the 3 pithes leading up to thanksgiving ledge will be wet. but not too bad. not as bad as aquarian
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climbingbuzz
Trad climber
SF, CA
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Route is dry this year as of Saturday.
The new C4 #4 isn't too safe in the OW before T-Giving ledge. It does work in a few spots, but it is either completely tipped out or barely cammed/contracted. Bring a new #5 or old #4, which is 8mm bigger than the new C4.
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AronStock
Trad climber
Joshua Tree
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Does anyone know if this route goes clean right now? Is all the fixed stuff in place, or do I need a hammer? Thinking about doing this one in 2 weeks!
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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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Just like the book says, bring one hammer and a few heads. It may be clean/fixed now but a head could allways blow on you under body weight. Thet would leave you SOL. My guess is a lot of parties don't take a hammer up on LF.
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Impaler
Social climber
San Francisco
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The fixed heads on pitch 11 are in good shape as of 5/10/08. However, the ones on p. 3 "Window Pane Flake" were missing. A party that we passed on this pitch had a few heads with them, so they might have replaced those. We took the left "5.10 A0" variation and it worked great with a long stiff draw for clipping just out of reach bolts. The bolt on p 11 is the only rusty 1/4-incher on the route and needs replacement.
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Isaac Tawil
Trad climber
NM
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I was the dude you passed on pitch 3. As it turned out the heads were gone, but we didn't have to take out the hammer. A couple of cam hooks get you through. The heads up higher were intact. ;)
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Luvshaker
climber
eugene
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Pitch 2 bolt ladder has a 100 lb flake that is going to let go soon. Be sure not to hook it, even though it looks safe from below.
If know one is below, have your cleaner let er fly!
My partner almost pulled it off in his lap.
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slt climber
Sport climber
South Lake Tahoe, Ca
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I guess I should've read this page a few days ago. On Sunday afternoon while leading the second pithch in pouring rain I hooked the flake ( couple hundred pounds )not knowing it was loose.I was just able to yell down to my partner to watch out and it was off in my lap. Luckily nobody was below and it missed the rope and my partner ( by only a few feet ). There is now a nice ledge where it used to be.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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here is a discussion on rapping the route from Thanksgiving ledge. I dont recommend it.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=797959
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Joe Stern
climber
Santa Barbara, CA
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Anybody have in-a-day beta for LF? Not really looking for techniques, but maybe a comparison between NIAD, 1/2 Dome, and LF exertion. Thanks - Joe.
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Stonewalker
Big Wall climber
Smartsville, Ca
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if bypassing the window pane flake and taking the bolts to the left at the second belay, what kind of stick clip is needed? how long? what have others used for a stick clip?
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Rudyj2
Sport climber
UT
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For bypassing the Window Pane Flake by using the left hand variation on pitch 3, a short cheat stick is all that is needed, as long as you are willing to bust out an easy free move or two between bolts. There is really only one place where the blank section between bolts requires a cheat stick or hard free. I used the tent pole for the portaledge fly and only used about 2' of it.
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pattonclimber
Trad climber
Scotts Valley
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Hey, hoping to do this route in the winter if weather allows. Is there major ice fall if there is snow up top? Weather looks good right now. Planning on doing it the second week of December. Also wondering about how much sun hits the route this time of year. Any thoughts?
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Buju
Big Wall climber
the range of light
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I think that is a pretty bad idea. The last third of the route is low angle, ledgy, and subject to much runoff. Right now, there is 2-3 feet of snow on the summit, and it is probably melting down that section. Last time I did LF, it was early spring and the last pitches were soaked and lame. I cant imagine going through that right now with the temps we have been having.
Go do something on the right side and stay warm!
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