Reality Check on Yak: run out lower pitches?

[Indy_jones]

So I've got my eye on Reality Check...have done Yak Check before, so what are the first 6 pitches of Reality Check like?

 

Rumor has it the 10+ pitch is run-out slab. True? Any worse than the run-outs on Dreamer?

 

Other pitches have pro?

 

TIA

[G-spotter]

There are 6 or 7 bolts on the crux pitch. You can take 40 footers. Is that run out for YOU or not?

 

Other pitches have pro. The topo lists the number of bolts per pitch. You should check it out.

[Indy_jones]

thanks Dru, 40ft is runout for me. What the grade of the crux, calibrated to squamish slabs?

 

And which topo are you talking about? Lyle's book doesn't list the bolts/pitch.

[G-spotter]

well i have heard it called anywhere from "not bad 10c" to 11b... Shaun climbed it in his approach shoes.

 

There are plenty of topos that are not Lyle's. The first ascent report in the CAJ has a pretty detailed pitch by pitch description that you might find useful.

[chucK]

I didn't climb the pitch in question, but did rap it. It looks pretty run out. It looks like totally smooth slab that you just have to trust your feet and go. Probably not too bad until the last 10 meters where the angle steepens. At that point you would be pretty far above your last bolt, and still have to get a way up the steepness before clipping again. On the bright side, there's nothing really to hit...unless you started tumbling. (Please make allowances for imperfect memory!)

 

There's nothing even close to that run out on Dreamer (especially at that difficulty).

[bstach]

thanks Dru, 40ft is runout for me. What the grade of the crux, calibrated to squamish slabs?

 

And which topo are you talking about? Lyle's book doesn't list the bolts/pitch.

 

Just do it, pussy!

[catbirdseat]

I didn't climb the pitch in question, but did rap it. It looks pretty run out. It looks like totally smooth slab that you just have to trust your feet and go. Probably too bad until that the last 10 meters where the angle steepens. At that point you would be pretty far above your last bolt, and still have to get a way up the steepness before clipping again. On the bright side, there's nothing really to hit...unless you started tumbling.

 

There's nothing even close to that run out on Dreamer (especially at that difficulty).

Where is Dreamer run out? I don't remember it being run out at all, and I've climbed it twice.

[G-spotter]

thump thump thump

[catbirdseat]

Dreamer WAS run out at one time, but it has been retrobolted. This was some time ago. It is no longer run out.

[chucK]

So when you did it, back in the day, how run out was it?

[catbirdseat]

I never did do it back in the day. I'm just going on what many people have told me. Mattp is one who could tell you and Dave Whitelaw too. I remember 30 foot runouts on 5.8 climbing.

 

There are a few routes around Darrington with that sort of runout. First pitch of Tidbits has 3 bolts for 50 meters of climbing, or 40 feet of runout. It's rated 5.6, but it's sandbagged. True rating is closer to 5.8.

 

The Rash has 70 of runout (5.4). A fall could be as large as 140 ft. I don't know exactly how long the first pitch is, but it's short. You'd stop about 10 feet short of decking.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

While not massively runout, there are attention grabbing bits of climbing on Dreamer in locations I would not want to fall. Certainly not R rated, but still a bit runout.

[Indy_jones]

I thought a few places where SS and Dreamer cross were a bit runout. Aren't there places for 25 footers or maybe I'm just a puss.

[Cairns]

So I've got my eye on Reality Check...have done Yak Check before, so what are the first 6 pitches of Reality Check like?

 

Rumor has it the 10+ pitch is run-out slab. True? Any worse than the run-outs on Dreamer?

 

Other pitches have pro?

 

TIA

 

The first few pitches of Reality Chek have next to no pro but don't need any. On the crux pitch my friend made it past the first bolt and then was attacked by mosquitos and fell about as far as you can fall on that pitch and was unhurt. I went up and felt okay until the top where there was a choice of harder looking climbing up and left directly to the belay, or easier climbing up and right but then there was a scary balancy step back left to get to the anchor. From above it looked like coming directly up would have been better. This was about 10 years ago.

 

Up high, Dreamer used to have an unprotected 5.8 move after some unprotected easy stuff. A fall would have smashed you up good. I backed off and into a corner down and left and set up a belay. My partner led through.

[pazzo]

I backed off

Andy backing off?? unheard of...

[Don_Serl]

indy,

 

reality check is appropriately named, but it's not dangerous, just thought-provoking. the initial cpl slab pitches have very few bolts, but don't really need them. i thot the first right-angling overlap was quite tricky and that it didn't take gear very well at the start - Lyle grades this as 5.6 - maybe he found something I didn't. small cams might help (i did RC about a dozen yrs ago, and i don't think my rack has ever been a model of "best in class").

 

the crux slab is considerably harder than anything else on the route - it starts at maybe 10a and increases in difficulty as height is gained. i'd call the top section 10c/d on the Apron (definitely not 5.11-), altho the issue is (typically of Yak) smoothness of the surface instead of tiny-ness of crystals like u get at Squamish. my recollection is that the hardest moves are not far above the final bolt (less than 5m?), and the surface is absolutely open and smooth and not very steep, so even if you pitched off a cpl times trying to figure it out, you'd just take a bit of a slide. and then get to curse and try again...

 

i also recall that the various corner systems took a bit more thinking to climb than the analogous sections on Yak Crack, so there is more of a 'reality check' factor there too. the pro was always adequate.

 

enjoy.

cheers,

don