(11) Loose Cannon 

I started bolting this with Dave Pegg in like 96 or 97. He thought the rock was horrendous and went back to the limestone of Palomas Peak (a hotspot at the time) which was closer to his base in abq. Jean dela and I came back the next week and fisnished bolting it. We both spent a few weeks trying to send that weird crux before finally getting it.

This is definitely my favorite route at the dungeon!

The crux of this route by its self would be a V7 boulder problem and that would be starting from the ground. The solutions:
1-pinch left, heal hook right, grab undercling and stand for all your worth, possibly hitting intermediates enroute.
2-crimp right, undercling left, cross to jug, not bad if the crimp is good enough for you.
3-crimp right, undercling left, match, undercling left again, move feet up and reach, only if your short.
4-sloper left, pinch right, sloping edge left, undercling right, for those that lack the core to press out of the healhook.
As you can see there are a bunch of different ways to do this and probably a few more, but they are all hard.

I probably tried this 20 times and never got it. The crux isn't *too* hard if you're dogging, but I was always just pumped enough not to be able to hold on when attempting the redpoint.

Excellent route.

Oh yeah, the crux is stinking powerful! Look at that guy's face in the picture! I think it's about as hard as the boulder problem at the start of dragonslayer, except that you've climbed 25 feet of not-easy terrain before getting into it, and then still have some challanging terrain after (like the reach up into undercling the seam at the top that I always felt like I was going to explode off but thankfully never did).

This was another comparison for me thinking dragonslayer easier than .13b, as in "Well, if loose cannon is .13a/b then dragonslayer is..."

This is my favorite climb at the dungeon and certainly one I was happy to finish.

Luke,
Question. When I lived in NM and was working catapult, or at least what Peter G. told me was catapult, I would go right after the crux (under a mini roof) and then finish with a dyno to the triangle off a small crimp and crappy foot...(instead of straight up and underclinging right to the triangle). Is this some sort of variation or what?
Cheers.

What I've been told is that what you were doing is a finishing variation. Catapult is the right hand start up to the shared crux with Loose Canon then instead of finishing at the triangle like most people do, you are supposed to traverse out the roof to the left past a few more bolts to a different anchor.

Spoke with Jean about which route does what, and this is what he told me.

Loose Cannon: Left hand start, then finish with the right variation (dyno finish) at the triangle.

Catapault: Again, left hand start, but go straight up after the crux, then undercling out right towards the triangle. Just before hitting the triangle, move up and left out over the roof finishing on a high anchor.

Loose Cannon variation: Right hand start and then finish by going straight up and underclinging out right to the triangle.

I was looking at the people who sent this route and what they graded it, so far I only found one person calling it a 5.13a. The consensus is 8a, not 7c+. Otherwise, it's a great climb with a hard crux. Probably only v7 but that is after 10 or more not so easy moves. Couldn't be easier than 8a.