Rainbow Wall 

The term 'beta' does refer to Betamax (obsolete Sony videotape format that competed briefly with VHS) but the use of the term for climbing purposes definitely predates the Rock and Ice usage. Jack Mileski and others in the Gunks started using the term, I believe. R and I just picked up on the existing usage.

What a kick. I have been trying to find the earliest reference in the context of climbing. I wonder if anyone can push the date eack even more...

Just for posterity, it is interesting to highlight the fact that this was the first 5.13 in Colorado, and was surrounded by some debate. The debate involved a cry baby named CG and his cronies laboring on this wall, fruitlessly, for a long time when they'd like you to believe Bob Horan walked in and stole CG's route. Bob received bitter, egotistical crap for his acheivement, not accolade. Buy him a beer sometime, he'll tell you the whole story. Then find CG and see if he'll even talk to you, let alone about the Rainbow Wall. (His wall, boo hoo) For posterity, no, I don't climb 5.13.

My new family from Boulder, Jan and Nick, took me for a good tour on more nice routes in Eldorado Canyon. After quite full day, we went last to the Rainbow Wall. This climb was very interesting to me. The climb is quite easy to start leading to finger traverse to the left. A short hard move to finish goes up from the traverse and then the route mostly is over. Many fixed pieces are on the route. The route is technical but the difficult section is short so I did not think that to make a flash was so interesting. But Jan and Nick said to me that not many climbers make the flash. I think this is surprise since in Boulder one can train so much on the climbing walls. At Bergen, my home city, we have many young climbers that can make the flash at 5.13. Perhaps not so many climbers in US try for the flash as at my home. I liked this route quite well.

Also for posterity. In most people's book the first ascent counts, even on aid. Kyle Copeland led this as an horrendous A3+ in a snowstorm, belayed by me. We had a bet; he said it would never go free, I said it would. I won a dollar!

Hi Richard or anyone who's redpointed this route:

At the end of the traverse, where the edge/rail goes from horizontal to vertical seems desperate. What is the beta per the old beta-max footage of Bob Horan at this section of the climb? There are no feet here -- must be some sort of heel hook mantel combination?

Hi AC,

The rather unsightly _super long extendo draw_ hanging from the anchor is NOT mine. It was there when we started working the route. The draws on the route are mine (and Ted Lanzano's); we can remove these between sessions if this really bothers people.

--Dan Levison

Any gear left on routes, like draws or biners, is much more noticeable than bolts or pins. It can be an eyesore for the climbing and non-climbing public. Some may view it as 'inspiring' and others will view it as 'trash'. In such a visible place like Rainbow Wall, it might be better to take the more conservative approach and remove any gear when it is not in use in order to prevent any backlash against fixed gear and climbing privileges.

casey

Good point Casey. I'll take the draws off the route.

Thanks,

DL

Kind of old issue, but I just read the 2001 posts regarding the term "beta."

It's just as likely (probably more likely) that the term "beta" came from "beta test" in which is a test, trial run, or tryout for a product or process before it is rolled out for final introduction. It's a debugging phase. If someone is "giving you the beta" they are reporting the results of their tryout of the route so that you can improve on what they've learned, or at least not make the same mistakes. Considering how many climbers seem to come from the technical disciplines, it wouldn't surprise me that this is the ultimate source of this expression.

I took down the lower half of the extra long sling at the anchors. It was getting in the way of clipping the anchors. If it is yours, please send me an email and Ill be happy to return it (tlanzano@hotmail.com).

Thanks, Ted

Beta test?...The people who originally used the term had no idea about a beta test, the term definitely refers to the pre VHS video format; ask anyone who was climbing 20-25 years ago.

VHS or Beta ? It's not a route name from Rifle, it's the afore-mentioned post regarding the arguements about the preferred video tape "standard" at the time. The very first climbing videos were issued on Betamax not VHS. Given the love for contractions, Betamax was shortened to Beta. Having previously viewed the video's and memorized the sequence from the video the term "Getting the Beta" sprang into the vernacular.

I think the grade on this Eldo classic is solid 13b. Besides being a damn hard route to begin with, some holds have broken off and the foot holds on the 2nd crux (after the rail) have gotten very polished. To me it felt a lot harder than Captain Crunch (13a/b) and more comparable in difficulty to the Web (13b).

Agreed Ted; definitely 8a.

The runout to the anchors is a bit spicy nowadays knowing that there's an enema waiting to happen should you fall. That tree was tiny in those old pictures of Horan.

Hank wasn't lying, this pitch is "bitchin"!!!

If anyone is interested in working Rainbow Wall, please let me know. I finally sent The Web last summer and would love to give this one a try. I got on it once and was totally shut down but would be excited to get back.

Felt like 8a to me. Definitely harder than Captain Crunch, IMO.