Central Pillar of Frenzy 5.9

 
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Middle Cathedral


Yosemite Valley, California USA


Trip Report
Central Pillar of Kick Ass Hand Jams (Frenzy)
Monday March 18, 2013 1:40pm
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!

Check out the vid of The Central Pillar

[Click to View YouTube Video]

  Trip Report Views: 5,137
karodrinker
About the Author
Kalen Glenn is a father, climber, skateboarder and surfer from San Jose, CA.

Comments
ydpl8s

Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
  Mar 18, 2013 - 01:49pm PT
Hey Karo, that was great, so many nice jams! (and I didn't see much chalk in use:-)
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
  Mar 18, 2013 - 01:55pm PT
sublime
willm

Social climber
Oakland
  Mar 18, 2013 - 02:00pm PT
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 video!
matty

Trad climber
Sad the forum is gone =(
  Mar 18, 2013 - 02:42pm PT
cool TR, need to do that route!
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
  Mar 19, 2013 - 12:56pm PT
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.

Thanks again for the post.

John
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 18, 2013 - 10:23pm PT
One of my new favorite routes as well! Hopefully I have the chance to do it many more times.

Too cold to need much chalk.
Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber
San Francisco
  Mar 18, 2013 - 10:26pm PT
Thanks for posting the video! Love this climb! When did you do it? There was a HUIGE rock fall on middle cathedral on Saturday.

Charlie D.

Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
  Mar 18, 2013 - 10:32pm PT
Great video, thanks.....I was surprised to see some sun light on the route, all I could think of was cold shadows!
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 18, 2013 - 10:47pm PT
Vitaliy, did it sunday, blissfully unaware of the danger...
aran

Trad climber
berkeley, ca
  Mar 19, 2013 - 12:54am PT
Badass, great soundtrack. Proper send.
Gal

Trad climber
going big air to fakie
  Mar 19, 2013 - 01:03am PT
That climb is fantastic, great job! Any particular pitch you liked best?

edited... oops didn't watch video, but will now...
limpingcrab

Gym climber
Minkler, CA
  Mar 19, 2013 - 01:54am PT
Yikes, I need to get on that one!
Big Mike

Trad climber
BC
  Mar 19, 2013 - 02:15am PT
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!

Here is a bonus pic of relic following p3

Handjams for miles!!!
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 19, 2013 - 02:31am PT
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.
snowhazed

Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
  Mar 19, 2013 - 03:31am PT
I've never climbed the first 50 feet because of the snow field, but the second half of p1 is 5.9

How about the "5.7" roof. HA

tfpu
Big Mike

Trad climber
BC
  Mar 19, 2013 - 03:57am PT
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.
Andy Fielding

Trad climber
UK
  Mar 19, 2013 - 04:22am PT
Thanks for the video. It's on my list of routes to do. Hopefully I'll get a chance when I'm back in May.
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
  Mar 19, 2013 - 10:13am PT
Great video. I really like the "follow the eyes" approach. Do those head-mounted video cameras have the capacity to zoom in?

Very cool.

The rock texture and color are still enticing.

I always thought the snow-cone was the crux.

tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
  Mar 19, 2013 - 09:28am PT
Music hurt my ears..
Tork

climber
Yosemite
  Mar 19, 2013 - 09:52am PT
Linking pitches 2 and 3 is one of my favorite pitches ever. Great climb.
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 19, 2013 - 12:46pm PT
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

climber
Oakland, CA
  Mar 19, 2013 - 01:11pm PT
Very nice!

Love the second pitch. Do 2 and 3 link with a 60m?

Good rock:

Good views:

Good hardware:

That rockfall on Sat scared the sh#t out of me from across the way.
weezy

climber
  Mar 21, 2013 - 03:22am PT
i always loved the second pitch best.

if you get up to the base and find a queue, head on over to pee pee pillar and do that while you wait. pretty fun 10a.
nutjob

Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
  Mar 19, 2013 - 02:43pm PT
Loved the dosage of crack... I am way overdue, can't even remember the last stretch of bomber jams.

But I did clip some sport routes at Red Rocks 2 weekends ago, hard to complain about that fun stuff.



Edit: Munge called it sub-lime? I took it for granite that it was volcanic, not some calcium deposits.
Tork

climber
Yosemite
  Mar 19, 2013 - 04:24pm PT
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.
Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
  Mar 19, 2013 - 09:41pm PT
My fav part is the hand crack on the 2nd pitch

Cool route
Kalimon

Social climber
Ridgway, CO
  Mar 19, 2013 - 09:50pm PT
Did you guys do the first five pitches?
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 19, 2013 - 10:22pm PT
yep, up to five then rapped the route. no other people around.
justthemaid

climber
Jim Henson's Basement
  Mar 20, 2013 - 10:04am PT
Me want!

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.

Don Paul

Social climber
Washington DC
  Mar 20, 2013 - 09:33am PT
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.
karodrinker

Trad climber
San Jose, CA
Author's Reply  Mar 20, 2013 - 11:14am PT
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.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
  Mar 20, 2013 - 11:41am PT

right on, nice camera work.

Great send!
Roger Breedlove

climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
  Mar 20, 2013 - 01:52pm PT
Don Paul, this the link to the story of the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Frenzy.

First Ascent of the Central Pillar of Frenzy
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
  Mar 20, 2013 - 02:42pm PT
Killer. That was a Jamclinic for sure!
Don Paul

Social climber
Washington DC
  Mar 20, 2013 - 02:49pm PT
Thanks Roger. 6 months ago, or 5 years ago, hard to keep track of time sometimes!
BASE104

Social climber
An Oil Field
  Mar 20, 2013 - 04:26pm PT
That was the very first route that I did in the valley when I was a youngster. I never repeated it, but it remains a classic in my memory.

Big Mike

Trad climber
BC
  Mar 21, 2013 - 03:01am PT
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!!! ;)
saltandgranite

Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
  Mar 21, 2013 - 06:30am PT
Psyched Mike! Love that guy. Nice to see him taking a break from flashing valley v8s for a change.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
  Jan 25, 2015 - 05:35pm PT
The 'schrund was the crux of the route. That 3rd pitch sure was fun
mike m

Trad climber
black hills
  Jan 25, 2015 - 10:21pm PT
I wanna do that route.
hashbro

Trad climber
Mental Physics........
  Jan 25, 2015 - 10:56pm PT
loved the gopro


and the music fit brilliantly
Darwin

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
  Jan 26, 2015 - 09:04am PT
I missed this the first time.

Thanks for the climbing content. I liked the video but no so much the music. But, like not clipping bolts on a retro-bolted trad climb, I just turned the sound off.

Contrast the start with this one just from the drought thread

(photo credit CF from
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2328516&tn=988 )
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Middle Cathedral - Central Pillar of Frenzy 5.9 - Yosemite Valley, California USA. Click to Enlarge
Central Pillar is considered one of the best climbs on Middle Cathedral.
Photo: Chris McNamara
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