Long and sustained, brace yourself for a continuum of sneaky moves as the thinness crescendos just shy of the finish. There's a good bit more here than first impressions might suggest. Commence ten feet right of "La Maudite" and finesse the opening groove, then fire onto the long headwall. Crimp like there's no tomorrow as the crux seems to go on and on and on! Shares anchors with "La Maudite".
I did this today, but cut off before the headwall. (This isn't in the new Gillett book; I had no idea how difficult it was.) Instead, I finished up on the crack at the top of La Maudite. I clipped the top 2-3 bolts of this climb, but next time would probably clip the bolts on La Maudite, rather than strain to clip the bolts on this climb. My friends and I thought this variation would probably be a 5.8 or 5.9.
By Rick Thompson From: Mount Nebbiolo, CO Aug 3, 2009
Dan, cutting off before the headwall certainly avoids the sustained and long crux on this one, which segues into my curiosity about the suggestions this route checks in at 5.10-something...even more curious if anyone posting those comments has actually led the route sans falls...Rich Aschert - well known Shelf Road first ascentionist and prolific all-around climber - did the second ascent, on sight, about a month after it was put up, and agreed with the mid-5.11 grade. A number of other climbers have also done the route and agreed with that grade. Of course, at the end of the day it's all subjective, nothing more, nothing less....
I couldn't get this one even on toprope, and while I'm not in good condition right now I'd say this has to be at least an easy 11. Bailing left below the crux will yeild a difficulty of around 8 - 10a (depending on your exit) in my book. The route was fun but the crux seemed out of character with the rest of the climb and it seemed better to go left anyways.
RSS Feed
