Reading Raymond Chandler 5.12a
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| Type: | Trad, TR, 1 pitch, 80 feet |
| Consensus: | 5.12a [details] |
| FA: | Skinner/Piana, early '80s |
| Submitted By: | Anonymous Coward on Jun 19, 2005 |
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Description On the far left side of the shady side of the Holdout, past Currey's Diagonal, and above the leaning boulder/chimney/cave, is a steep seam. This is RRC.
Begin either on top of the huge boulder, or traverse in from the left by climbing the first 10 feet of a flared finger crack and step across to the huge boulder. Climb the obvious seam to the top. The climbing is sustained and difficult with a distict stopper crux in the lower section. A great rest comes in the middle, followed by another crux section of sharp micro crimping at the top.
I would imagine that 99% of the traffic this route sees is as a toprope for folks who climb Oslund's and rap right over it. The gear looks decent, but is very small and would be extremely difficult to place from heinously strenuous stances. Not sandbagged as a Vedauwoo 12a, but seems undergraded as a seam/tips crack. I would think this would deserve a PG/R rating as a lead. A testament to the ability and boldness of Skinner and Piana to those who continue to slag their achievements and vision to this day.
Protection RPs, medium stoppers, and maybe a few tiny cams. Two bolt anchor.
| Comments on Reading Raymond Chandler |
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By Anonymous Coward
Aug 29, 2005
| Bob is correct, I'd take it a step farther and say that Static Cling is actually HARDER than RRC. Maybe I'm wrong though.
Blue Aliens and small nuts and RRC is not PG at all.
Near the beginning of the route, there are some very tiny pin scars in the crack. Were there pins in this in the early days? They seem wholly unnecessary. |
By Bob Rotert
Aug 10, 2007
| Your missing something... \;0) footwork is key!!! I've not done Far Reaches but I did this back in the early 80s and this isn't 12 c/d. The interesting thing is the first time I did it was with Mark Sonnenfeld the guy who put up "The Far Reaches". When we did it there was one pin in Raymond Chandler that protected the crux move & you were glad it was there.... Hopefully it still is. |
By Tom Kelley
Feb 9, 2013
rating: 5.12a
| I've never led Reading Raymond without hanging, but I can say this: the gear on Reading Raymond is ok, so it wasn't mandatory that it be lead without hanging. The problem is that the climbing is hard right from the start and you are looking at a nasty ledge fall. Placing enough gear to keep you from hitting the ledge requires an enormous effort (fishing tiny wires from 5.11 stances), much more so than required for the actual climbing.
I've only lead Static Cling once and did not hang ... for good reason. None of the gear on SC is very good, and there is none above the ancient fixed pin below the crux. Given the amount of very delicate unprotected climbing after the crux and well above the pin, I could never understand why the Cling doesn't get a PG or X rating in the Voo guides, but RRC is always listed as PG.
I noticed in an old article Todd Skinner and Paul Piana did in Rock and Ice, that they did not give a gear warning on Raymond Chandler, but Static Cling was given an "X" rating. I more or less agree.
That said, I think Raymond Chandler is techcnially harder. Leading Static Cling induced a lot more permanent brain damage. They are categorically different types of climbing and shouldn't be compared side-by-side. |
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