Eight to Eleven 

I just did this in one pitch and it was a blast.

This was the climb that Greg Chin took the legendary whipper on in 2006. I had just led it and left the draws up for other people to do. Greg had never onsited a 5.11 before and as I feel this route to be pretty soft for the grade I recommended it to him as a first onsite chance. I began to climb the 5.7 into the new roof finish just to the right as Greg started up. He had asked one of the guys who had come up with us to belay (of whom we knew from the Quarry).
He started to crank through the roof and reached the part where it moves left. As those of you who have done this route know the left moves can be a bit tricky if you are getting pumped already. It was at this point that Greg fell.
As he was only about 3 feet above the last bolt it should've been a very routine sport fall. But as I moved up my climb, I heard a painiced scream from Greg and turned around to see him sailing through the air. In a split second we looked at the belayer and the problem became obvious.
The individual whom Greg asked to belay him, while having belayed many times top ropes (including several times earlier that same day) had aparently never lead belayed. This fact was not been disclosed by him upon Gregs invitation. He was also belaying with a BD ATC, which in the hands of an experienced belayer is a perfectly good device, however the belayer made a critical error. At the moment of the fall he failed to break correctly with his break hand. Instead he kept both hands level with one another above the belay device. This caused minimal friction on the lead line that went shoting very quickly through his hands.
To his credit, he did attempt with all his might to slow Gregs fall by griping the rope as tightly as possible. He screamed as smoke actually came from his hands that were being ruthlessly burned in the attempt to arrest Gregs fall(which did in fact slow Greg down from death speeds). Eric Allen who was belaying me just to the right of this very quickly jumped over and grabben the rope and brought it down into a proper break position. This action happened just as Greg landed in a bush at the base of the climb, but a split second before he actualy hit thereby he actually landed in a manner that he was able to basically walk away (though scared out of his wits).
The belayer had to be rushed to the hospital, with severe rope burns that completly burned down to the bone in his palms. The belayer does deserve credit for doing whatever it took to slow Greg down despite the intense pain.
Greg has still not fully returned to climbing as much or as hard as he used to (admits the insident is still in his mind) and the belayer has never done more than bouldering since.
Moral? Know who you are climbing with, and if you are unaware of techniques or unsure of your abilities to do certain tasks, don't be to proud to admit it. There were quite a few very qualified lead belayers on the scene at the moment and is it possible that the belayer in question didn't want to feel that he didn't fit in.
You never learn how to do something like this without having someone teach you at some point. Good communication can save your life. I though this story might make some of you reevaluate your system and be of some worth.

That's crazy Crisco. I'm glad your belayer could jump in to help him. And for the record I totally onsighted this as well. :)

Great line that can be run in one pitch. However, expect some rope drag at the top.

I think I actually heard that story from someone at Mountain Works. It makes me cringe.

ugh. i was thinking about attempting that route on wed. maybe i'll tell my girlfriend to wear gloves. always make it a point to distinguish lead and top rope belaying, especially if it's someone you met in a (gag) gym.

Finally got on this today which is appropriate because the picture here is me on the first part in my first days of leading. I did it as my first route of the day even though this is my onsight grade when warmed up. the first part serving as a good warm up and the position and exposure being some of the best iv'e found in the canyon solidify its classic status.

What a fun climb. You go up the easiest climb of your life to this huge, exposed roof. I did it as 1 pitch as well, but I believe I had to pull the rope out of the top anchors when I had lowered to the middle anchors.

My wife's first 11 onsight as well. Regardless of the grade it's a great climb. One of my favorite in the canyon.

After walking by this climb for many years and wanting to get on it I finally got to do it. I did it all on one pitch. Its really a mental 11 I think for its exposure and big moves, but all the holds are there and wanders in a fun way. Its way cool and 10 stars.

has anyone else climbed to the rusty 3rd set of chains?

How is this an 11b? 5.6 slab to a no hands rest to hero jugs up a slightly overhanging face. There were no long moves that I could find, and one hold worse than three pads. Sorry this would be a 10c/d at the rrg if that.

"Jballz - How is this an 11b? 5.6 slab to a no hands rest to hero jugs up a slightly overhanging face. There were no long moves that I could find, and one hold worse than three pads. Sorry this would be a 10c/d at the rrg if that"

Gunks Submitted By: camhead on Sep 21, 2012

Stop being so butt hurt. It was just a comparison between my home crag and AF.

Seems like the recent slew of downgrades at the Red would have quelled this type of egotistical "my crag is radder than yours" comments...
The good thing about AF is that it's not your home crag.