Home - Destinations - People - Partners - Forum - Photos - What's New
 ADVANCED
White Cliffs of Dover
Show routes:
Select route...
Ace of Spades 
Conqueror Worm 
Dover Sole 
Good Housekeeping 
Jack of Hearts 
Make or Break Flake 
Nolina Crack 
Popular Mechanics 
Quest for Fire 
Red Snapper 
Red Tide 
Scientific Americans 
Sen Blen 
Shibumi 
Solar Flare 
Soviet Union 

Ace of Spades 

5.9

   

FA: Mike Lechlinski, John Long & Craig Fry, 11/77
Type: Trad
Consensus: 5.9 [details]
Length: 1 pitch, 80 feet
Views: 735 page views

Submitted By: Josh Beck on Mar 7, 2003


Add Photo  Add Comment 

You and this route  |  Other Opinions (17)
Your todo list:
Your stars:
Your rating: -none- [change]
Your ticklist: [add new tick]
 Printer Friendly View

Description 

Start up Popular Mechanics (5.9), the very clean, right facing, off-vertical dihedral that is the centerpiece of the White Cliffs of Dover, and about 1/3 of the way up diverge left into the middle of the 3 parallel cracks that head up the left wall of the dihedral. Excellent steep hand jamming makes this a great route and worth doing even if you've done Popular Mechanics already.


Protection 

Standard selection from thin to 3", bolted anchor/rap station (3/8")



Comments on Ace of Spades Add Comment
Show which comments
By C Miller
Administrator
Sep 3, 2004
rating: 5.9

This excellent route with clean rock, good position and memorable moves is a treat for those who like quality crack climbing, and is one of the recommended routes at the White Cliffs Of Dover area. Four stars out of five.

By C Miller
Administrator
Sep 3, 2004
rating: 5.9

The bolts at the anchor are 3/8"

By Richard Beller
Dec 30, 2004
rating: 5.9

I remember this as one of the best 5.9 routes in the park, and just as good as Touch N Go or Pope's Crack. Do it!

By Woody Stark
May 20, 2005
rating: 5.8

A fine route, well protected, but no more than 5.8.

By Joe Dawson
Jan 18, 2006
rating: 5.9 PG13

This climb is plently of fun, even if you already did Popular Mechanics. The climb is 5.9, the guy who said it is no more than 5.8 must have had a low gravity day.

Beta:
The anchor is about 10 vertical feet above the Popular Mechanics anchor and it is a little to the left of the end of the crack. You cannot see it from the base of the climb, but it is there. Rap is about 90 feet.

By Ryan Kelly
From: the gym
Oct 6, 2008

I'm surprised at the low ratings, especially compared to Popular Mechanics. I think this is the better of the two, as you get to do the meat of P.M., and then veer off the dihedral into a splitter crack for some varied climbing on great rock. Fantastic route, I'm tempted to give it 4 stars, if it was a 5-star system I certainly would.

5.8? Meh, could be. Not the toughest .9 in the park, but it's fairly sustained and has a few moves. It's close enough, not worth worrying about. I have absolutely no idea how you would assign a PG-13 rating to this climb.