As part of training up for this year's climbing goals, Mike and I jammed up the Central Pillar of Frenzy, then bouldered "A Balance of Opposites" a V6/7? on the riverside boulder, and finished up the day by demolishing ourselves repeatedly on "Short Circuit". What a great day!
God I love that climb. I repeated that climb last year about this time and saw a rock the size of a beach ball come hurtling down the route just to the right of us. Thankfully it didn't hit anyone upon impact, but it was the first thing I thought of when I saw your friend without a helmet.
Thanks for the excellent video of one of my favorite routes on my favorite rock in Yosemite. The start -- on the snow -- brought back memories from 42 years ago. In late April of 1971, Art Brook and I started up the Chouinard-Pratt, whose first couple of pitches are now part the Central Pillar route. It was the first Grade V we'd ever attempted.
Unfortunately, it took all of our rather minimal snow and ice skills just to get up the snow and across the moat (all of about two feet wide) to the rock, and to psyche ourselves up to make a serious effort. We dawdled for so long that we ended up bivouacked only about 500 feet up. When it snowed that night, we beat a frosty retreat, grateful that we weren't higher.
One of my most favorite climbs I was fortunate enough to get on in Yosemite!! Nice to see that it's still intact after the rockfall! Such amazing pitches! My favorite was pitch 3 with the awesome 5.7 roof start that looks much harder till you get there!! The hand jams were so perfect for my 6'7 mitts on that pitch!! I ran up of laughing with glee!!
Thanks for the video!! The snow cone start looked exciting too!! Never had that to deal with in the fall.. What did you think of the first pitch! I found it quite interesting at 5.9 to say the least!
Mike, I thought pitch 1 was pretty tricky. Scratched the camera lens and worked up a sweat! But with all the face holds on the right side, 5.9 seemed about right. Glad you got on that climb while you were here, heal up and come on back down and we can romp up it, pitch 3 was the sickest, that wide section was perfect fists.
I thought the roof would be harder than 5.7 also, but I found lots of face holds everywhere!! And the wide section was locker fists for me!!! Hahaha so fun!!!! I was screaming at relic!! "I LOVE THIS SH!T"!!!!
As for the first pitch, getting off the ground is very interesting in the summer! I was groggy when we did it and it got my attention real quick!
The moves at the top were what I found the trickiest.. Maybe just my 6'7 frame but I found them quite difficult my first time on toprope and a lot easier the second time on lead when I knew the sequence. (We did the first pitch twice because of my stupid rope idea... See going back to Cali thread)
I would say true Yosemite 5.9 but I have been shouted down on the topic before.. ;)
Karo- I am mending as we speak and will be happy to take you up on that offer once I am I a condition to.
My partner Mike linked 2 and 3, only had one piece that would fit in the fist section above the roof. Following that long pitch was so cool, just jamjamjamjamjam.
Roger, the gopro cam i used does not zoom in, maybe you could stick a dslr on your helmet!
le_bruce,
Yes, 2 & 3 link with a 60. You can also link 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 with a 60. I have done it in 3 pitches several times. But 2 and 3 are for me the nicest together.
Route looks awesome. Great footage. We're definitely hitting that one next time we are in the Valley
My only Debbie Downer complaint.. definitely gets the Oscar for most annoying soundtrack. Had to turn the sound off after 2 minutes. Sounds like my cat recorded it. Meh.
I could have sworn that about six months ago or so, one of the guys who put up this route was on here talking about it. Was really interesting to hear all the planning that went into it. If its the same route, after the crack pitches everyone does, there is some wandering face that was hard to do back in the days of climbing in leather boots etc. I just looked for the thread but cant find it. Also I havent done this route so may be making a mistake.
lol justthemaid, I used a buddy of mines music for it. It was free and I liked it. It's hard to get royalty free tunes!
Don Paul, yea I understand the route goes to the top, but I think the upper pitches are closed for Peregrines? I remember Largo's story about using a shrub to get past a difficult section up high, then removing the shrub to bout other climbers.
We rated all of the pitches except the first at 5.10. Amongst the group was Will Tyree who drawled, "That would make it the hardest free climb in the Valley. Maybe the whole world."
Strong evidence that most of this climb could be considered harder than 5.9.... ;) fact is, If your limit is 5.9, you're gonna get spanked on this one!!! ;)
