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cgranite
Jul 16, 2005, 9:27 PM
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You flip through a magazine or an online gallery and you see photos of routes like Trench Warfare or Belly Full of Bad Berries. But they always end up being in some distant state or country.
So, from Mt. Woodson to Lake Tahoe, What are the hardcore California offwidths?
I'm not going to throw out a number to start from, since these cracks get super subjective in the higher range, But I consider Twilight Zone to be the beginning of hardcore. I hope to see a large bank of offwidth routes from California climbing areas.
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bandycoot
Jul 16, 2005, 10:04 PM
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Paisano Overhang at Suicide looks pretty hardcore. Another route I would consider hardcore but is "only" 5.11+ is Mother Superior at Woodson. I'd love to be able to send that thing someday.
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bvb
Jul 16, 2005, 11:21 PM
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mother superior -- woodson (sandbag at 11+ -- it ain't no V3)
greg's offwidth -- woodson unratable, but definately way into the 5.12 bracket)
maria's offwidth -- woodson -- scary, scary, scary overhanging "5.10" boulder problem -- i freaked out on it once, locked in hard, abd had greg epperson run around to the top and throw me a rope
bad ass momma -- valley
jaws -- valley
owl roof -- valley
cream, basket case -- valley
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collegekid
Jul 16, 2005, 11:59 PM
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Don't forget Undertow at Woodson! (I still haven't found the thing)
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moabbeth
Jul 17, 2005, 1:22 AM
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Generator Crack - Yosemite.
Nuff said. That's the mother of all CA OW's. Master that thing and no other OW will ever give you problems
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bones
Jul 17, 2005, 3:50 AM
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In reply to: Generator Crack - Yosemite. Nuff said. That's the mother of all CA OW's. Master that thing and no other OW will ever give you problems
You can master Generator Crack all day and night, but I guarantee you that BVB's OW list will still give you problems. This is not to say that GC can't induce vomitting though :shock:
cgranite, Do you actually seek out all these lists of routes that you ask for?
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crackmd
Jul 17, 2005, 3:51 AM
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In reply to: Generator Crack - Yosemite. Nuff said. That's the mother of all CA OW's. Master that thing and no other OW will ever give you problems
Sorry moabbeth. That's just too broad a statement to be true. Although Generator is a mega-classic OW, it does not necessitate that one be proficient at the more hardcore OW techniques such as stacking or levittating. I typically have little problem on Generator using solely chicken-wing/grovel techniques wheras there are numerous OW routes in the Valley and California for that matter which will mow down climbers without more advanced techniques and good corestrength.
Jay Anderson did the FA in the mid 90's of an OW in the Western Sierra somewhere. It was featured in a Patagonia ad; I just can't remember the name. It was quite impressive and I think clocked in at hard 5.12.
The Hook at Donner Summit is a lesser known OW that requires inverted leglocks, a ton of corestrength and is a major sandbag at 11+.
This topic rocks!
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trapdoor
Jul 17, 2005, 4:48 AM
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Mother Superior aint no joke. I wish i could figure out how that thing gets stacked or levitated, then mabye i could move more than 2 feet on the start.
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boltdude
Jul 17, 2005, 4:58 AM
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In reply to: Jay Anderson did the FA in the mid 90's of an OW in the Western Sierra somewhere. It was featured in a Patagonia ad; I just can't remember the name. It was quite impressive and I think clocked in at hard 5.12. |
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moabbeth
Jul 17, 2005, 6:04 AM
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Dang, sorry guys about how I worded it. Off course there's others. Generator is just the one that is just...crap, it's just soooo hardcore, ergo my response to the post.
There's actually a good offwidth circuit in Joshua Tree that a partner and I do. Let's see who can guess where it goes.......
Warm up on Damper (not hardcore but is a good OW warmup)
head to Tumbling Rainbow (barely OW IMHO but fun still)
then on to really have fun on Championship Wrestling
now there's 5-7 more following that in the circuit depending on our mood(I'm sure there's more good other OW, it's just the circuit that aren't super remote or long hikes I'm talkin).....anyone who can name those gets homemade cookies from me !!! :wink:
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bvb
Jul 17, 2005, 6:24 AM
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the hobbit hole offwidth is good for kicks at 2am on a moonlit night.
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cgranite
Jul 17, 2005, 8:00 AM
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[quote="bones"]In reply to: cgranite, Do you actually seek out all these lists of routes that you ask for?
Mainly I'm curious because you don't ever really get to hear about offwidths unless there's that pitch in the middle of an awesome route, and even then it's like, "Let's not talk about that part of the route".
I personally think offwidths are cool,...they have a special mystique about them like technical slabs, which I also like. I'm not at all sadistic, I just find that it is a unique and artistic form of climbing. And that's what makes it fun, and isn't that what climbing’s about?
Currently I'm also really turned off to clipping bolts, but that's how it's always been with me,...Bouldering and cracks.
I've also recently faced the facts that my old finger injury may never be completly perfect, which is repelling me from thin cracks. Let's just say if I got on Equinox, I would no longer be able to show the bird with my left hand,...not that I ever would though.
Seriously though, I'm intrigued to see what kind of sick hard offwidths exist in California that never get mentioned for one reason or another. Do we have routes that compare to the two I listed earlier?
At the same time, I do hope to one day achieve ascents on them, but that takes time and experience.
It takes motivation to grow ability. It takes dreams or goals to gain motivation. I plan to use the super hardcore offwidths as motivation.
And ya, I plan on getting on some hard ones shortly because it's not only a humbling experience, but it's also motivating. While flailing you think to yourself, "Multiple people have sent this and some have probably made it look easy".
No, it's not going to make a person stronger to do that, but it's part of the process. What gets a person better is running laps on Generator and Ahab.
If it's Gods will I will someday climb hardcore offwidths, but for no they are mainly intriguing.
Other than that here are a few more to get the ball rolling again:
-The Monster Offwidths of the Salathe (Valley)
-12th pitch of Dihedral Wall (Valley)
-Last pitch of "Free Stone" (Valley)
-Steppin' Out (Valley)
-Excalibur has a couple (Valley)
what about Tahoe, J-tree, and Western Sierras?
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mesomorf
Jul 17, 2005, 2:08 PM
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On the east side, there's the famous Pratt's Crack. Not extremely difficult, but beautiful and historic. Note that, despite the dastardly convenience bolts, this is a two pitch route.
Brutus put up some thing across from the Incredible Hulk that's supposed to be hard.
Basket Case in the Valley is rarely seen, let alone climbed. Scratch that, you might be able to see it from Half Dome.
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crackmd
Jul 17, 2005, 4:43 PM
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I've found that some of my most hardcore OW experiences have occurred on routes not thought of as OW climbs. Kauklater comes to mind. Has anyone had a similar experience to me on this one? Floating through the 5.11 crux down low then dancing up the 30 feet of perfect hands only to be kicked to the curb by what the guidebook lists as "10c" OW. It is only a few moves, but it sure is burly and this long time crackclimber has not been able to send it clean.
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atpeaceinbozeman
Jul 17, 2005, 5:18 PM
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nice, this is a rad thread.
At the Lover's Leap main bouldering area there is a super fun overhanging OW problem. Don't know what it's called but I think it falls into the 'hardcore' realm....
anyone else try this thing?
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moabbeth
Jul 17, 2005, 7:48 PM
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Okay, as long as things are getting remote......
The Sartoris start to Ghostrider in the Whitney Portal is as classic an OW as can be. Starts hugely wide enough yet not so huge that you can chimney but must use all you huge wide OW technique to the max. Then it gradually narrows and you need to adjust your OW technique accordingly. And this goes on for a full 100 ft of climbing. Tests every level of OW skills. If there's any TRUE OW lovers out there, just going there to do that pitch alone would give you a world of jollies.
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thrutch
Jul 17, 2005, 9:31 PM
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that is a nice climb beth, but i would hardly call the portal remote.
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cgranite
Jul 18, 2005, 12:19 AM
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In reply to: Jay Anderson did the FA in the mid 90's of an OW in the Western Sierra somewhere. It was featured in a Patagonia ad; I just can't remember the name. It was quite impressive and I think clocked in at hard 5.12.
Anybody?-It already sounds cool to me
Moabbeth,
Please do give a list of that J-tree OW circuit starting with Damper.
Although "Damper" is far from hardcore, it is part of a circuit,...and besides the route is a convieniantly located warm-up for the mind that gets you thinking in OW terms.
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moabbeth
Jul 18, 2005, 12:30 AM
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In reply to: that is a nice climb beth, but i would hardly call the portal remote.
Edited to say while it's not "remote", it's rarely climbed. It's not remote for the zillions of people that go there to climb Whitney, Russell and the like. But I've spent more time climbing the Portal in the last year than just about anywhere else and not ONCE have I seen another rock climbing party on the stone there. NO Climbers. Just thru hikers or climbers on their way to go do Fishook, Mithral, Whitney's routes. Everyone comes there to park and head up Whitney/Russell. Hardly anyone goes up there for just plain rock climbing. Seriously. I bet the number of people who did Ghostrider or Sartoris in the last year can be counted on one hand. Which is fine with me.
Anyone whose done Sartoris step up and let's talk that first pitch. That's one crazy ass OW. It took a #4 about 60 feet up as first pro.
PS - did Premier Buttress there last month. Way fun and there's new anchor/beta for it. Anyone needs it, PM me.
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alexc
Jul 18, 2005, 12:47 AM
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[quote="atpeaceinbozeman"]nice, this is a rad thread.
At the Lover's Leap main bouldering area there is a super fun overhanging OW problem. Don't know what it's called but I think it falls into the 'hardcore' realm....
anyone else try this thing?
Is that the one that SuperTopo lists as "climb this and be worshipped"? If so, then yes, we tried it. Didn't get it. Could do the start and the end but the middle couple of moves are really difficult!
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cgranite
Jul 18, 2005, 3:32 AM
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Here's a site with a lot of info on the routes of the Yosemite OW Curcuit.
http://www.chizang.net/alex/climb-beta/crack.owcircuit.html
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micronut
Jul 18, 2005, 4:19 AM
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i remeber an article in one of the mags about 10 years ago. it was about steve schnedier freeing some of the offwidth pitches on el cap's excalibur. at least one pitch was rated a stout .12d, with a crazy-looking knee jam.
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pbjosh
Jul 18, 2005, 5:39 PM
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In reply to: Paisano Overhang at Suicide looks pretty hardcore. Another route I would consider hardcore but is "only" 5.11+ is Mother Superior at Woodson. I'd love to be able to send that thing someday.
I'm sure you can do Mother Superior - Ian mentioned you flased Insomnia, nice job. Mother Superior, while a different kind of climbing, isn't that much harder.
Despite what BVB says it's probably fair at 11d compared to offwidths in other places. Bottom couple of feet are hard and one or two crimpy moves at the top.
Greg's Crack is much gnarlier and Undertow done as an OW looks pretty intense.
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tim
Jul 18, 2005, 5:58 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: that is a nice climb beth, but i would hardly call the portal remote. Edited to say while it's not "remote", it's rarely climbed. It's not remote for the zillions of people that go there to climb Whitney, Russell and the like. But I've spent more time climbing the Portal in the last year than just about anywhere else and not ONCE have I seen another rock climbing party on the stone there.
Right, that must have been someone else's car we saw with "LUVMOAB" license plates on the way to do Bony Fingers... wasn't there two weeks later when we went back to do Ghost Rider. ;-) There are other people climbing at the portal... just not very many!
The only thing daunting about the Satoris start to Ghostrider is that there's no real mention of the need for a huge (7"+) piece if you want to protect the first 60-80 feet of that fucker before it narrows back to #4 camalot size. I liked the regular start to Ghostrider better, and there were enough wide cracks (the wide undercling to the roof on the 3rd pitch is awesome) to keep things interesting. If you do the Satoris start, you miss that pitch.
Being a big pussy, I'm focused on working through the 10 and 10+ OW's and squeezes at the Needles this season (the Spell, Pit and the Pendulum, S Crack, Pegasus, GW, etc). My rack seems to weigh twice as much as usual on the hike in, but that's still a plus in my mind, since at least one of my partners sent the Salathe and Keeler Needle before big cams existed :shock: Nonetheless, if anyone wants a "Lightweight's Offwidth Circuit" for the Needles, feel free to yelp... otherwise I will recuse myself from this thread cause it's simply way beyond my current ability.
Although I do plan to go after the Huge Offwidths of the Salathe this fall :-).
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