Airtime 5.10a

Currently 4.0/5

Lover's Leap, Dear John Buttress

Lake Tahoe, California, USA

Trip Report

Two New Routes at Lover's Leap on Dear John Buttress

Sunday June 19, 2005 11:21pm

I just put up two new routes today with SuperTopo designer David Safanda. They are on the Northwest Face of Dear John Buttress (the part that faces the campground).

The routes are:
Airwaves - 5.10b
Airtime - 5.10a

Both routes are mostly gear with some bolts (drilled ground up). Both are super-super-exposed and go to a true cool summit (a rare thing for a Lover's Leap route). Both routes can be climbed in 190-super stretcher pitches... or you can cut them into smaller lenghts to cut down on roper drag. if you want to lead them in 190' pitches, you need to use TONS of runners to reduce rope drag.

On the topo below, i also included two other routes.


	SuperTopo Obscurities Topo - Dear John Buttress, Northwest Face, Airtime and Airwaves. Original hand-drawn topo by Chris McNamara after first ascent with David Safanda. Credit: Chris McNamara

Trip Report Views: 4,096

Chris McNamara

About the Author
Climbing Magazine once computed that three percent of Chris McNamara’s life on earth has been spent on the face of El Capitan—an accomplishment that has left friends and family pondering Chris’ sanity. He’s climbed El Capitan over 70 times and holds nine big wall speed climbing records. In 1998 Chris did the first Girdle Traverse of El Capitan, an epic 75-pitch route that begs the question, “Why?”

Outside Magazine has called Chris one of “the world’s finest aid climbers.” He’s the winner of the 1999 Bates Award from the American Alpine Club and founder of the American Safe Climbing Association, a nonprofit group that has replaced over 5000 dangerous anchor bolts. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and serves on the board of the ASCA, and Rowell Legacy Committee. He has a rarely updated adventure journal, maintains BASEjumpingmovies.com, and also runs a Lake Tahoe home rental business.

Comments

The Dude

climber

Truckee, CA

Jun 20, 2005 - 01:38am PT

Some dude was moter-drillin on lead on tuesday 6/14 left of Sinbad-Herbert. Anybody know what the route is?
cheers

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Jun 20, 2005 - 09:25am PT

I don’t really deserve any credit. Chris did all the hard work and took all the chances drilling on lead with a heavy drill. I was simply happy to tag along and grab second ascents. Both routes are moderate and a hell of a lot of fun! Nice exposure, fun moves and even a cool top out.

The proportions in Chris’ drawing seem just a bit wacky to me. This might be helpful.

Tripod? Swellguy? Halfwit? Smegma?

Trad climber

Wanker Stately Mansion, Placerville

Jun 20, 2005 - 11:27am PT

I'm pretty sure the left route is an old one that started on the the right side of the main wall and traversed around and then up. It looks like your left route joins it at half way. I even have the original Climbinbg or Rock and Ice that details it somewhere(back in the day when any new routes were listed by area in the mags). It was rated 11.c.and raved about by the FA's Unfortunately there has never been a topo that accurately shows all the routes on Dear John old or new, and I think this misleads as to what has been done. I was hoping that the Supertopo guide would correct that , but it didn't.

addiroid

Big Wall climber

Long Beach, CA

Jun 20, 2005 - 11:33am PT

"Nice to see new routes going up that are not all 12+ or something."

Ok. Give it 25 years and these will be uprated to 12+ and the Steck-Salathe will be rated 5.13.

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Jun 20, 2005 - 11:35am PT

re. "It looks like your left route joins it at half way."

You're talking about a third pitch of "Drug Crazed". It's possible that it does join it and share some terrain but that junction would definitely be much higher than half way up this new line. I actually think that we're farther right than the line you're refering to almost if not all the way to the top. I'm not sure. Chris talked to a few people trying to sort it out. He'd know better than I. It's made complicated by the fact that if there is any shared terrain near the top, its a stretch of "Drug Crazed" that is never climbed. Dirt and heavy lichen all the way to the top.

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Author's Reply

Jun 20, 2005 - 09:25pm PT

All the research i did with Petch, paul crawford, mark nicholas etc yeilded the following info:

drug crazed left of arete
some of the arete had been toproped at sometime

i did the routes again today... and i think they are harder than i first thought. so it might take some time for the ratings to get sorted

climber

Jun 21, 2005 - 01:40am PT

I was trying to find the old article tonight, but to no avail. It was from an old basecamp or something and was a short narrative report on the FA of the arete route. I have looked at where it was supposed to go more than once and often wondered why they thought it was the best route on the crag (at the time) as it seemed dirty and unprotected? Perhaps they were infact refering to the continuation of Drug Crazed after the ledge? This may make more sense as it is brilliant and 11+. Though I think from the ground to the anchor in one (as it ought to be led)is 5.12 for sure.
A

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Author's Reply

Aug 22, 2005 - 12:32pm PT

Here is a photo of petch on the second ascent of Airtime with the direct start.

Chris McNamara

SuperTopo staff member

Author's Reply

Aug 22, 2005 - 12:33pm PT

Here is a photo of petch near the top

caughtinside

Social climber

Oakland, CA

Jul 11, 2006 - 05:02pm PT

THought I'd dredge this one up to have a look at this summer.

Couple of questions: Any more thoughts on the grades? Harder than .10a and .10b?

Also, David's copy of the topo looks like a red X. Can we get that posted?

Finally, what was the powerdrill being used on left of Sinbad Herbert? Was it actually right, on the Eunuch?

And has anybody ever done For Real Crack? Is it worth doing or does it suck? Doesn't matter, I'm doing it anyway.

Johns_dog

Trad climber

Sacto, CA

Jul 11, 2006 - 05:32pm PT

Check out the crux bolt on Air Waves. It is not at all flush with the rock. You can see all of the blue compression sleeve.

Safe?

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Jul 11, 2006 - 06:11pm PT

Sorry, changed servers recently and I lost a bunch of miscellaneous stuff. Here's the topo that I had posted above.

http://www.safanda.com/misc/airwaves-airtime.pdf

Johns_dog, are you sure it was the crux bolt? When Chris and I first climbed this there was a longer run out section of easy dike hiking in the middle of the route. Chris later decided to add a bolt to this section. When I climbed it last I noticed that this bolt was not flush. Perhaps there are now two bolts that could use help.

I remember Chris struggling with the drill that he had borrowed. Took forever to drill until he realized it was set in "reverse". :)

Petch

Gym climber

knapsack crack

Jul 12, 2006 - 12:45am PT

Mr. Inside,
The power drilling was to the right of sinbad/herbert. It's called crown royal. It's rated 10+, has 8 or 9 bolts with one knob tie off, and it's about '170 long. It goes to the same anchors as sinbad.

For Real crack is worth doing. The last pitch that links up with surrealistic isn't the best, but it's short.

have fun

caughtinside

Social climber

Oakland, CA

Jul 12, 2006 - 03:56pm PT

Thanks Petch. I thought that bolted line to the right of Sinbad (about 30-40 feet) was the Eunuch. Maybe I just had bad beta. Starts up to a couple bolts, pulls roof, then keeps going to SH anchors? I'll have to check it out.

See you in the bar!

Dave

caughtinside

Social climber

Oakland, CA

Jul 17, 2006 - 12:42pm PT

Well, I was going to post in the Routes descriptions, but For Real Crack isn't in there.

It was worth doing. A little funky, but also a little adventurous. You never really have to stuff yourself inside the wide crack. Good times.

I also did Sinbad-Herbert and Crown Royal. Those are both quality climbs. They are still a little green, but I see SH getting regular traffic, and it is noticeably cleaner than CR. So a few more ascents and both should be pretty good.

Also suprisingly fun was the direct start to the Farce. Start below the boulder, not above, in the crack and it's probably .10a. Finish on Noviciate's Nightmare, which is a really fun .9 roof problem. Glad I did that one too.

Slater

Trad climber

Central Coast

Sep 30, 2009 - 10:47pm PT

So where is Roger's Fright in relation to these new routes?

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Oct 5, 2009 - 02:39am PT

hey there ol' chris... wow, i never know of all this stuff you did... say, wonderful indeed.... :)

hardly 'stuff' actually (was referring to "about the author)----interesting and very solid accomplishments (no matter what you folks may have thought as you kept them worried, you are really DID turn out special)... :)

well, just had to make note of this... i just stopped in to the neat route reports--though i just learned that this is an old report, it's still worth learning about, for someone like me...

god bless...
thanks for all you for everyone...

edit: wow, great pics, too... :)