Rutabaga 5.11a
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| Type: | Trad, 2 pitches |
| Consensus: | 5.11a [details] |
| FA: | Hiltner, Lewis, Kramer 1983 |
| Submitted By: | JSH on Sep 2, 2007 |
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Andy Hall on Rutabaga
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Description Rutabaga is a nicely varied pair of pitches. P1 climbs the obvious but somewhat awkward crack to a bolted anchor (10b). P2 continues up and right on very fun cracks to the left facing dihedral. Face holds, good locks and good protection take you up the dihedral past one crux to the top crux which requires some solid stemming, and while the protection right at the crux isn't as good as the rest of the route, there are bomber placements about five feet lower.
Location Right side of the Grand Wall base, just right of Arrowroot.
Protection Standard Squamish rack for P1 to a bolted anchor. For P2, a good selection of stoppers from small (but not micro) to large. You can place many stoppers so bring enough slings or draws. You'll also want a good selection of small cams and at least a 1 and 2 camalot. I'm told that a green alien is good at the top crux, but I didn't have one so I'm not sure. Thanks to extra anchors to climber's left, the rappel from the top can be done with a single 70m and probably a single 60 (but not certain).
Andy Hall on Rutabega
| Tony about to start the top crux of Rutabega.
| Tony in the middle of the top crux of Rutabega.
| pitch 1
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By JSH Administrator Sep 2, 2007
| NB, I have not climbed P2. I only added the route so I could add the pics I had. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will offer up info for P2! |
By Dave E. From: washington Nov 16, 2007
| pitch 2 is the money pitch if you ask me. starts out as twin cracks going up and right that will take you to the start of the long corner you can see from the ground. This is where it gets real good, climb the corner via thin liebacking and smearing to a cruxy 11a move at the very top of the corner moving left to gain the anchors. two ropes nesecary for rappel from the top of pitch two, not sure if a 70m would be long enough, to the top of pitch one. then a single rope rap to the ground. great climb! |
By Tony B From: Around Boulder, CO Jun 30, 2008 rating: 5.10+
| Good first pitch (10b, 34 meters, 2-stars), great second pitch (10d, 45 meters, 4-stars). I didn't think the crux was the very end, I though it was 1/2 way up the dihedral of the second pitch in some thin feet. There are 'new' rap anchors down from the top anchor and you can descend on a single 60M rope in 3 raps. Twins still require at least 2 raps, as you are ~80 meters up. |
By Andy Laakmann Site Landlord From: Bend, OR Aug 15, 2008 rating: 5.11a
| Fabulous route. Felt pretty soft to me, even by Squamish standards. A green C3 protected the final moves perfectly. P2 is a long pitch that can take as many finger sized cams/nuts you can throw at it. Save a #2 and #0.75 camalot for the final third. |
By orclimber From: Portland, OR Jan 31, 2009 rating: 5.10d
| The long P2 is one of my favorite at Squamish and rates higher in my book than the Sword pitch. |
By Andy Laakmann Site Landlord From: Bend, OR Jul 30, 2009 rating: 5.11a
| After onsighting the route last year, I approached the finishing crux with waaaaaaay to casual an attitude. I managed to grease off the last crux in the 95+++ temps and took a whipper. With 50m of rope out I fell a long way. Watch out for that ledge below, it is an ankle breaker waiting to happen. I ended up 5-10' below the ledge. I placed a red midsize BD stopper at the crux (with a green camalot below), and maybe could have gotten in a small TCU or something higher. RAD route though. One of my favorites. Through the main section of P2, feet just keep appearing right when you need them. I had a double set of cams from small TCUs to #2 camalot and one #3 camalot and it worked perfectly. |
By Luke Stefurak From: Mountain View, CA Jun 28, 2010
| There was an accident on this route last week 6/23/10 where someone took a nasty upside fall and hit the ledge Andy mentioned which is below the crux. The climber was not wearing a helmet and suffered a head injury. Be careful up there! |
By claramie From: Boulder, CO Aug 18, 2011
| Such an amazing route! I did it at 1 pitch and the drag isn't horrible but my partner had to simul up on the starting ledges for me to reach the anchor with a 70m rope... maybe my 70 is more like a 69 but make sure you have the whole thing and are ready to simul if needed. triples of green alien, yellow alien and doubles up to #2 (including 2 each grey and red alien) plus nuts. Really good link up so get on it! |
By Richard Dana Aug 28, 2012
| Incredible. The fact that this doesn't have four stars on here blows my mind. Just a testament to the quality of the routes at the Grand Wall base that this gets overlooked. |
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