Rate the Fake Cracks

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Although it is probably a stupid idea to try and rate fake cracks, I thought it might be interesting to see where different people rate some of the local practice cracks (ie UW rock, stone gardens, UW bridge, whatever else). I know various guides to UW have come and gone, but I have only seen the old school bouldering grades and not the crack grades. Anyhow, to standardize, rate things based on YDS of the basic difficulty of the moves. IF necessary, feel free to add restrictions such as with face holds, no face holds, no stemming, all 4 in crack, etc. Try and give some reference to which crack you are descrbing, based on direction, common name, etc.

[colt45]

Interesting idea...for Stone Gardens I would break them down like this (all w/o face folds):

 

Fist crack in TR area: 5.9

Off-finger/thin hands in TR area: 5.11b

Overhanging hand crack: 5.10+

Vertical hand crack: 5.8

Overhanging finger crack near entrance: haven't done it...5.12+??

[Alpinfox]

Stoney G's:

Fist crack in TR area: 5.10-

Off-finger/thin hands in TR area: 5.10+ (only the first two moves are hard)

Overhanging hand crack: 5.10+

Vertical hand crack: 5.8

Overhanging finger crack near entrance: I've heard 5.13? I don't know anyone who has done it. But I think it's more of a shallow, flaring, thin hand crack isn't it?

 

UW Rock:

Coach's Crack: 5.8

I don't know UW rock that well

 

UWMC Pedestrian Overpass Crack: 5.9+ (it's a little wide and slick)

 

UW IMA Gym:

The cracks on the tall wall are hard. I haven't climbed them enough to rate 'em, but one of them I tried was at least 5.11-.

 

BofA Crack (on Univ. Ave): 5.8+, but painful due to sharp bricks and nasty due to tar in the back of the crack

[Jens]

Maybe..???

Hand crack on North side of Marymoor Park Rock 5.9+ (if no face holds, features, or brick divots are touched with hands or feet)

Finger crack to hand crack in main gravel area @ Seattle Vertical World 5.10+ (if no face holds or featuresare touched with hands or feet)

I went to Redmond VW once since they opened the new room and noticed they had a new hand crack.

I'm not much of a fan of UW rock.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Glad to see some replies

 

at sg

i was thinking:

vertical hands in bouldering area 5.7 - 5.8

Slab hands to fists in bouldering 5.6-5.7 depending how far you jam

Overhanging hands 5.10 something (i probably tried this thing more times than any other route before i finally got it months later)

Vertical fingers / off fingers in lead roof back room (havent climbed pure crack)

 

Overhanging finger in front room (in my dreams)

 

fingers to thin hads in top rope 5.11- entry to 5.10- crack

 

UW

 

coachs - i thought harder than 5.8 cause the top out gets a little rattly for my hands

 

fingers on east slab - 5.8ish

 

those are the only two i think ive made without face holds

[catbirdseat]

Inside corner of Pinnacle at Marymoor Rock, 5.10a (fist jams and stemming). Right inside, 5.10b (fist jams and some face holds). It may be actually easier. Anyone?

[slothrop]

@ SG: what Alpinfox sez, except

vertical hands: 5.7

overhanging hands: 5.10

fingers/tips through roof (hands) in old bouldering area, rocks for feet: 5.10

fingers in back alcove, old bouldering area: 5.9+

thin hands in front room: ridiculous

 

@ UW rock

overhanging hands with back to arete, N side W tower: 5.10+

S side of W tower, flaring fist crack: 5.9+ layback, I can't jam that shit

S side of W tower, slanting shallow hands: 5.8

S side of big tower, fists to fingers: 5.9

N side of big tower, rightmost hand crack: 5.10 start to 5.8

E side of westernmost wall, shallow offwidth: 5.9+ layback... or you can Leavittate it like AlpineDave

 

500-foot hand cracks to the top of the Bank of California building: looks like 5.8 all the way

[ScottP]

Alaskan Way Viaduct handcracks seem about 5.8, but might be harder due to their sustained nature.

 

UW Rock fist crack on East tower, South side 5.9

[Alex]

Marrymoor

 

N side, right hand crack w/ no face holds 9+

N side, left hand fingery thing, pretty hard!

Inside of pinnacle, right side fist and off fist with *nothing* else, probably very hard 10 or 11a?

Fists out the large roof with no poseur heel-hooking, feels mid-11 with tape, or brutal without tape.

[eric8]

@ UW rock

overhanging hands with back to arete, N side W tower: 5.10+

S side of W tower, slanting shallow hands: 5.8

S side of big tower, fists to fingers: 5.9

N side of big tower, rightmost hand crack: 5.10 start

/quote]

Ralph your a sandbagger! I would had half a grade or a grade to all of those.

 

The thin hands crack that goes straight up the featured wall at the uw ima is 10d/11a. The one that branches off to its left is a lot harder, have yet to actually seen anyone do it clean but have seen many try. The hand/fist crack that ends in the roof to the left is 5.9. The 2 bouldering cracks are around 10a.

[catbirdseat]

Marrymoor

 

N side, right hand crack w/ no face holds 9+

N side, left hand fingery thing, pretty hard!

Inside of pinnacle, right side fist and off fist with *nothing* else, probably very hard 10 or 11a?

Okay I'll go with that. Inside pinnacle right side- upper 10's jams only, but 5.10a/b with face holds.

 

A friend and I tried the middle of the North side without horizontal seams for feet. Feels like 5.10a. Without horizontals for feet or hands, >5.10b/c?

[flashclimber]

Since everyone agrees on Stone Garden Cracks..how about the fist roof crack at Marymoor. I've pulled it a few times...I was thinking 11b...11c if u have small hands.

[TBay]

Rate the Fake Cracks on the Henry M Jackson Federal Building (aka the indian creek simulator).

 

[TBay]

hmmm, image won't post.

men in black walking down the hall towards my office..?..

mmmmmm crack

[Maestro]

Any South-Sounders out there who want to venture an opinion about Spire Rock and Warehouse?

[pope]

The Hopkins/Wolfe U.W. rock guide contains a comprehensive and highly accurate guide to the various cracks and the challenge levels offered thereby. The grades were contributed by one of Washington's most accomplished crack climbers.

[pope]

Any South-Sounders out there who want to venture an opinion about Spire Rock and Warehouse?

 

The finger crack on the West Pillar is certainly 5.11+ in Spire Rock "full conditions" (broken glass on ledges, golden shower raining from summit).

[TrogdortheBurninator]

@ SG: what Alpinfox sez, except

fingers in back alcove, old bouldering area: 5.9+

 

Is that using the crack for feet? It feels way harder to me. With rocks or stems??? maybe I could see 5.9, unless this is old school 5.9+ which puts it slightly harder than 11a right?

[texplorer]

This post wins the Texplorer Snaffle Award for

Lamest Post of the Year

[darstog]

I think it's not a bad thread at all, Textplorer. There are quite a few of us who learned to climb cracks at places like the UW wall and this is a decent medium to convey some of our experiences to climbers newer to cracks. That being said...

 

Coach's Crack-5.9 all for feet. 10a texture only

Crack to the right of coach's-10

Climbing the diagonal crack on the wall to left of coach's crack via layback/texture only 5.11a

Spinechopper (Crack on the N facing overhanging wall)-10a all for feet-11 texture only

Crack on the right side of overhang, using rock immediately above crack to access the top-5.9 all for feet. 10b/c texture/crack only

More later maybe if I think of them.

 

UW IMA (all assuming texture/cracks only for feet):

Big Wall

Right hand side crack 5.9+

Hand Crack that leads from this to the left and to the top 11c/d

Super-small seam left hand side 11+/12?

Corner of boulder cave 5.10c

 

Best boulder problem at the UW rock? Gorilla Traverse, texture only. Don't mess with texas.

[John Frieh]

Club Sport

 

long hands to fist crack just right of warm up route that overhands first 15' then goes vertical: 5.10c

 

wide crack on free standing pillar in center of gym w/ a dog leg right at 12': 10d/11a

 

fingers to thin hands crack in shallow corner just left of ABC slab wall: 5.hard... anybody know what this is rated?

 

Anybody else tried these?

[Gary_Yngve]

UW IMA (all assuming texture/cracks only for feet):

Big Wall

Right hand side crack 5.9+

Hand Crack that leads from this to the left and to the top 11c/d

 

I can cruise the right crack comfortably now, but I think there's enough monkeying going on with shallow jams that it's at least an Index 10a.

 

Have you done the left crack yourself? I always peel off a few feet below the final handjams when liebacking above the roof.

 

What do you think the wide stemming alcove is for someone 5'9"? I'd say 5.10-.

 

One of my projects is figuring out how to do the featured corner (not the one with the easy handcrack) with as few holds as possible. I think there are 2 or 3 places that I haven't figured out.

[RuMR]

Club Sport

 

long hands to fist crack just right of warm up route that overhands first 15' then goes vertical: 5.10c

 

wide crack on free standing pillar in center of gym w/ a dog leg right at 12': 10d/11a

 

fingers to thin hands crack in shallow corner just left of ABC slab wall: 5.hard... anybody know what this is rated?

 

Anybody else tried these?

 

all of those things are 10a, hoss, except for the hard one i felt was about 11b-ish...you must have some fat piggies...no plastic for feet of course!

[dbb]

what about that overhanging handcrack at the Portland rock gym? 5.10+? I don't remember it too well, but it was something like thin hands, to hands, to rattly fingers.

[iain]

since I can climb it, it must be 10+. The top ringlocks (at least that's the only way I can climb that) seem to be hard, but they're hard more because of pain than because of difficulty.