I led all five of the "controversial" new routes on The Upper Flumes today. Gavin and I did three of the routes and then I did the others with three of the members of the first ascent parties.
I'm posting my thoughts here, although I haven't yet added them to the new routes sticky (sorry, that'll have to wait until I get back to the office). I've got a draft topo too that I will finalize and (eventually) post up. Also, I'm being thorough with my comments since so much has been said about them.
The routes are named and rated (left to right; my ratings and stars, which only differ from what the first ascentionists gave them by one grade on one route):
- Where the Sun Don't Shine 5.6;
- Masters of Mischief 5.7 *;
- Self Selecting Substrate 5.6 * (great name by the way, although I'm not sure what it means);
- Where the Sun Shines 5.7 *; and, above these,
- Bolt Bandit 5.7.
The first two routes start from the ground and share one anchor 90 feet up. Bolt Bandit goes from that anchor up to a tree and a walk off. The other two routes also start from the ground and share an anchor 80 feet up. So, two pairs of routes and one that leads off the top.
Comments:
1. Rock Quality: The words "rock quality" refer to the strength, hardness and general integrity of the rock itself (and not to whether there is dirt or moss on top of the rock). The left two routes have excellent rock. If "1" is the worst rock at Pinns and "10" is the best, these two routes are on 7 or 8 quality rock. I knocked off almost no rock when I climbed them. If I recall correctly, one poster to this thread commented along the line that he knocked more rock off these two routes (apparently the only two he climbed) then he had on all the other routes he'd ever done at Pinns. I don't see how this would be possible on these two and I simply do not believe him; there isn't enough looseness on either of these routes for this comment to be anything other than a gross exaggeration. Plentiful, nice, really solid lodestones make both of these routes good candidates for "stars" (or an additional star) in the future, if they get climbed and thereby are cleaned up.
The upper route starts with equally good rock. It pulls a nice roof, still on good rock, but then the rock quality deteriorates as the formation curves over to horizontal.
The two right routes have good rock, maybe "5" or "6" on our 1 to 10 scale. Better than average, but not as good rock quality as the two left routes.
Overall, the rock quality on these routes is (to use an example of an older Flumes formation route that Dennis discussed in his posts) vastly better than the rock on the second pitch of Feeding Frenzy.
2. Dirt, Moss, Lichen ("Choss"): The two left routes are filthy. The low angle bottom parts of both are especially bad this way; the left route in particular goes into a waterstreak that is really mossy. In this regard these two routes are similar to how the popular sport routes to their left (Flumes Northeast Face) were in their early days (these newer routes are worse/dirtier than those were though). However, as with other routes at Pinnacles that are like this, the great majority of the actual holds a climber uses are clean (and, see above, solid). Will these routes clean up like the sport routes to the left did? Time will tell.
The upper route and the two right routes are cleaner - it seems like there is a tradeoff with the two right routes being a little cleaner, but having somewhat lesser quality rock.
3. Squeeze Jobs: A flatly inaccurate and unfair accusation. The two left routes start on easy ground together. Then they are between 15 and 20 feet apart for their whole lengths until the left route makes a straight right traverse to the anchor.
There is then about 50 feet between these two routes and the set of routes to the right.
The two right routes start a few feet apart, quickly separate, and then gradually rejoin near the top (on easy ground). For most of their lengths they are about 15 feet apart too.
4. Overclose Bolting: Not in my opinion. Most of the bolts on these routes are 8 to 15 feet apart. At least one 20 foot runout seemed a little spicy to me (also, all the routes start with run-out, easy slab). In two places bolts are five and (around) six feet above the bolt below. In one of these two cases, Masters of Mischief, the first ascent party added the closely spaced bolt after the first lead because they were worried about a bad fall/landing at a crux move. I have no problem with this decision at all; there is a trend nowadays toward creating generally safer routes, and, unless one believes that less capable climbers don't deserve better protected routes, I think these routes fit modern norms for bolt spacing.
It's interesting too that, as an experiment suggested by one of the first ascentionists (to get the feel of the first lead), Gavin skipped this "after-added" bolt when he led Masters of Mischief, and he was OK with that. I clipped it when I led it and was happy to have it.
5. Overall Impressions: Not great routes, but worthwhile additions to this part of The Flumes. I'll eventually post a topo here and on Mountain Project; after that I'll bet that parties on The Flumes Northeast Face will slowly start trafficking these (and enjoying them too).
