AlpineMonkey Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Trip: Dragontail Peak - Boving Route Date: 7/11/2009 Trip Report: Ryan Painter and I climbed the Boving Route on D-tail. We found difficult and often runout climbing. The Route: Quote
cbcbd Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Nice work guys! We looked for you two from the top but figured you had already blasted through. The rock over there looks clean and pristine. Quote
lunger Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 good work and pics of that excellent rock--that route forces you into some sorta zone, eh? Quote
olyclimber Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 cool. when i first looked at the picture i didn't see the rope...i thought "what the hell is he doing???" lol Quote
Sol Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 cool! fwiw, jens was telling me that dragonscar would make a better finish for that route. Quote
AlpineMonkey Posted July 13, 2009 Author Posted July 13, 2009 In the "What the hell is he doing" picture, that is the crux roof. Ryan had to pull on pieces to get through it on lead and I had to pull on a piece to get through it on top rope, it was still hard. They say the route is 10c, but I can get up any 5.11 when on top rope. I'm not sure what the deal is. Its' a lot harder then 5.10 climbing. It was even harder then the roof on CBR. Has anyone else climbed the route? What did you think? Quote
Pete_H Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 It was kind of dirty but I thought it was 5.10. Good pro there. Nice job on a neglected classic! Quote
Pete_H Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 I'm already old! Hard 5.10 in the mountains can definitly feel like 5.12. Quote
Pete_H Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 Must have made it easy to buy beer when you were in high school though. Quote
W Posted July 14, 2009 Posted July 14, 2009 Cool photos. I climbed it in 1998 with Puryear. We couldn't find anyone who had done it so we were a bit apprehensive for lack of first hand beta especially regarding the Beckey guide recommending knife blades for belays. Then on the approach, at 4 AM in the dark just below Colchuck lake we were catching up to a pair of climbers. Just before meeting them Joe joked "it's probably Matt Christensen (Boving's FA partner) going to retrobolt the Boving route...". Turns out, it was Matt (who we had not met) and his 15 yr old son enroute to Prusik Peak! So there in the dark at the lake we got our beta. I recall the end of the first pitch, and start of the second pitch, being a bit spooky if not fully runout, particularly because the first belay took a lot of work to make safe- the kb placements were filled with broken off blades, so I built a nest of small cams and brass nuts. The crux roof on p3 I recall having good enough pro but being a bouldery face crux over the roof on dirty holds. P4 would have been really fun but the crack was packed with dirt and I had to aid a bit so I could garden it out with a nut tool. Then the end dihedral was really sweet. Aside from some dirt, the rock quality was high, particularly for Dragontail. I'd like to research Dragonscar, because for sur I remember everything after the fifth pitch being low fifth schwag that knocked at least one star off the overall quality rating, in my opinion anyway. Nice work! Quote
zoroastr Posted July 14, 2009 Posted July 14, 2009 ..some of my socks are older than all o' ya.. Quote
Matt Christensen Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 Hello, You can't imagine how many times I've goggled my climb to see if anyone has been doing it and this is the first instance where I have seen an ascent. Your photos really took me back. Paul and I made the FA in 77. I went back and did probably the 4th ascent in 81 or so. Thanks for Sharing! Matt Quote
AlpineMonkey Posted July 15, 2009 Author Posted July 15, 2009 Matt, this is Craig Gyselinck. I tried to call you to tell you we did the route, but I couldn't find your number. You should give me a call so I can have it again and we should do some climbing. Hope all is well with you. PS. You climbing this route in the 70's makes me think you shouldn't be teaching kids. Crazy... Quote
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