Quest for Mud (Special Edition)

[JC w KC redux]

Nothing can stop the Claw!

[clink]

Liar!

[JC w KC redux]

Doodlin' Dody on the menu para mañana.

Turned out to be a no-go today but I will get to it soon. 

[JC w KC redux]

Shifting this over since climberdude has been seriously questing for mud as of late 

I did "Palisades Pinnacle - Northeast Face", "Palisades Pinnacle - East Face", "Monument", "Brittle Palace", "Tombstone - Regular Route", "Tombstone - Doc Holliday Direct" (scary), "Crumbing Castle - Regular Route" (scary), "Crumbling Castle - Original Route" (on top rope), and two variations of "Cave Pinnacle".  I did not trust doing the Original Route of Crumbling Castle on lead because I could not find a good rope solo anchor at the base and the protection in the chimney is probably horrible, i.e., would not hold a fall.  I looked at "Low Peaks", but will have to do that another day.

Nice dude.

I agree that any pro on that Original Route would not hold a fall and the fall would be really ugly. The rock didn't look good either. Both the Roper and Richards guide mention a piton being used in that section for aid. The chimney looks too wide to do much but stem and that looks really scary with no pro and the fall potential down the stepped chimney bottom - it just keeps going and going...

Surprised you did Doc Holiday - that is essentially a solo. The rock looks pretty good from the bottom but none of the upper stuff past the bolt looks slingable. I seem to remember some holes in the face when I rapped from the 5.2 - maybe a tricam or two? I'll have to revisit that one. I also think that 5.2 should get an R.

Speaking of R - what did you think of Palisade? I thought the 5.5 felt closer to 5.6 and with the ground dropping away as you climb and the bulge at the top, it seemed like that should get an R too.

I did Cave Pinnacle one day with Brad. Goes up a slot kinda chimney thingy and it's pretty damn scary to touch the actual summit. I didn't stand on the actual summit because I didn't want to downclimb the huck move that would get you there.
Lots of PO back there.

I have looked at The Low Peaks a couple times. Kat's remark was - I don't want to belay you on that and I don't want to be here when you do it. Hmmmmm... 

[JC w KC redux]

Kat and I got shut down by some massive PO on the approach yesterday and the day turned into an exploratory one.
Not the first time that has happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

On Saturday we climbed Lobster Claw and I replaced the old anchor and lead bolt.
Here is an overview of the route.
Slab moves to gear in a horizontal.
Pull a tricky bulge to a shoulder and run it out up easy slab to a second horizontal and the only protection bolt.
A fall from the easy slab will likely result in cratering.
Clip the bolt and figure out how to get to the summit.
Finding the LOLR at the lower and upper cruxes is tricky. I liked that.

Here's Kat tying in after I finished working on the route. I left the bolt clipped and one cam in the lower horizontal for directionals. I'm not big on giving away the secrets of route-solving (unless someone requests it) - suffice it to say that the climbing does not follow the way the rope is situated.





Here is part of the gear I placed in the first horizontal. I had one more bigger piece to the right.





I placed a tricam in the second horizontal to back up the old bolt. That won't be necessary anymore. I didn't have anything big enough to stick in this nice hole along the runout (insert joke here).   I'm not sure what might fit here (maybe a big tricam?) - being conservative, I'd say take gear to 2 inches for the route. I'm also not sure I'd want to block that hole since it made a pretty sweet hand and foot hold  





Here is the replacement anchor.





Working on the anchor

[Brad Young]

Nice work and nice report.

That gear looks pretty decent. With that gear and a new bolt, does it deserve an "R" rating?

...not the first time that has happened and I'm sure it won't be the last.

I don't want to use the wrong words here, so let me try these:

I know of a place you could climb where poison oak would never, ever be a factor....

[JC w KC redux]

Nice work and nice report.

That gear looks pretty decent. With that gear and a new bolt, does it deserve an "R" rating?

Thanks.
It definitely doesn't deserve an R for the first crux with all the gear possibilities.
I thought that move felt about 5.6 if you figure out the LOLR (Kat agreed).
The really runout section felt easy to me and if you use all the biggest holds it might only be 5.4?
Again - you have to find the LOLR which may not be obvious to some, so it's kind of a tough call.
If some pro could go in that big hole and if it would hold a fall - that would negate the crater factor.
It would be nice if some other people led it and gave us feedback.
Kat had no interest in leading it. Maybe with something good in that big pocket she would.
She also had trouble near the top - may have been a reach issue or the nature of the moves and rock quality.
I'd be curious to see how others approach and execute the cruxes. You could definitely make it harder if you're not as sneaky as I am. 

I don't want to use the wrong words here, so let me try these:

I know of a place you could climb where poison oak would never, ever be a factor....

Point taken but it's not 90 minutes away and let's face it...I'm just a pinhead 

P.S. - you said PO and Factor in the same sentence 

[climberdude]

"Surprised you did Doc Holiday - that is essentially a solo. The rock looks pretty good from the bottom but none of the upper stuff past the bolt looks slingable. I seem to remember some holes in the face when I rapped from the 5.2 - maybe a tricam or two? I'll have to revisit that one. I also think that 5.2 should get an R."

Doc Holliday does have places and knobs for cams and slings, but do not expect anything but the bolt to hold a fall - just don't fall and you should be ok.  Tombstone Regular has large knobs that can be slung or you can use an old-style 4.5 (modern BD 5) cam.

"Speaking of R - what did you think of Palisade? I thought the 5.5 felt closer to 5.6 and with the ground dropping away as you climb and the bulge at the top, it seemed like that should get an R too."

I thought that Palisade Pinnacle East Face was slightly harder than 5.5, but did not deserve a R.  I got in a good cam between cobbles at the base of the headwall just before the bulge.  In keeping with the original anchor location being further away from the notch, I did not place the anchor close to the lip, which would have allowed someone to clip it to closely protect the boulder move.  Thus, the move is still an unprotected boulder move through the notch.

[Brad Young]

In keeping with the original anchor location being further away from the notch, I did not place the anchor close to the lip, which would have allowed someone to clip it to closely protect the boulder move.  Thus, the move is still an unprotected boulder move through the notch.

Nicely done!!

[Brad Young]

Point taken but it's not 90 minutes away and...

Now you're just being mean to those of us who are geographically disadvantaged  

[JC w KC redux]

Doc Holliday does have places and knobs for cams and slings, but do not expect anything but the bolt to hold a fall - just don't fall and you should be ok.  Tombstone Regular has large knobs that can be slung or you can use an old-style 4.5 (modern BD 5) cam.

I thought that Palisade Pinnacle East Face was slightly harder than 5.5, but did not deserve a R.  I got in a good cam between cobbles at the base of the headwall just before the bulge.  In keeping with the original anchor location being further away from the notch, I did not place the anchor close to the lip, which would have allowed someone to clip it to closely protect the boulder move.  Thus, the move is still an unprotected boulder move through the notch.

Always good to get another opinion. I could tell Doc Holiday was a no fall route. I did the 5.2 some years ago and thought it was R based on the way the ground drops away drastically (obscured by brush) as you traverse around to the right. I do recall breathing a sigh of relief after clipping the bolt and slinging a big knob past the bolt on the way to the summit.
I didn't take a rack since there was no mention of gear.
 
My notes say I slung a knob under the headwall on Palisade but thought climbing to there with no pro warranted an R. I had been climbing about 18 months when I did that one.

Nice work on keeping the anchor away from the route.  

[clink]

 That summit pic is cool, so are the gear placements.

[Tuff Chik]

Clink picked up JC early this morning and they were going to meet Brad - I'm pretty sure they wanted to see what sort of trouble they could get in to while celebrating Clink's B-day!

Happy Birthday Clink - hope you guys had a fun day!

 

[mungeclimber]

Happy Bday!!!

[climberdude]

Happy birthday Clink.  My birthday was last Friday and I spent it at Pinnacles.  I cannot think of a better place to spend a birthday at.

[mynameismud]

happy birthday!

[F4?]

Happy birthday Clink!!!
 

[clink]

 Thanks everyone!

 I was wondering what I was getting into today. Great day new routing with JC and Brad, and it was phenomenal quality, north facing rock! When I left JC was drilling at about 100 feet up and with what looked from where we were, another 20-30 feet to go. I left at 4:30 and looking back at the vantage point of the reservoir, JC looked to have another 100 feet to go. They will probably finish tomorrow with KC (she is joining them tonight at the campground.) Can't wait to get the report.

 
 

[climberdude]

JC,

There are two ways to get to the top of Cave Pinnacle, one that is fourth class and one that I would characterize as very easy fifth class.  It sounds like you and Brad did the very easy fifth class way that is on the right.  I carefully read the route description in Roper's 1966 guidebook as well as Brad's 2007 guidebook, both of which seem to describe the route on the left that leads all the way to the top as fourth class climbing.  There is a variation route on the right that goes up from a ledge below the cave up a ramp with a dihedral/crack on the left.  The ramp ends below the summit and then you do a scary and very exposed huck move on mossy rock to the top.  I also did this variation route, but felt it was harder than fourth class.  Roper's description of the Cave Pinnacle route describes the bottom as being very loose.  I felt that the left route had a very loose bottom section but the right route did not have any loose sections on it.

[clink]

Next May Climberdude.