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[TR] L-town - Classic Crack- Leavenworth 10/14/2009


matt_warfield

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Trip: L-town - Classic Crack- Leavenworth

 

Date: 10/14/2009

 

Trip Report:

This is called the Good and the Bad and the Ugly. And none of it is related to me or my partner or Clint Eastwood.

 

We arrived at Classic Crack at 8mile to do some climbing.

 

The ugly was a bunch of Mounties hanging off the wall with slings and big bros and all kinds of shit, taking a huge amount of time to complete the Crack or any other climb. I was 20 feet away.

 

The bad was some dude leading the Crack, put one piece in the pod and then starting laybacking. Put in a piece which sucked and then fell which pulled that piece and he ended up upside down scraping the ground with his hand while being saved by the first piece. He then declared his intention to continue climbing... elsewhere. Lucky to be alive. I was 5 feet away but wish I had been farther.

 

The good was that after all of that two local dudes showed up drinking beer, one with rock shoes and one with approach shoes and started doing free solo laps on the Crack. One said that there is no way he could fall off of that route. I was 3 feet away.

 

BTW, I did climb a number of routes on the crag in the midst of the excitement.

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I have scar tissue on the back of my hands still from trying to jam that crack into submission as a noob 8 years ago.

 

:tup:

 

My scars are a bit fresher. Last year I would run roped solo laps on that thing until the bleeding got bad, then I'd apply a layer of tape and repeat.

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Well, the key is to jam and not layback the damn thing. And Dru is somewhat correct in that proper jams (you know, fondle the rock for just the right fit and decide thumb up or down) may exclude the use of tape but who cares in the end. Jamming is hard on hands and feet.

 

My first time on Classic was not classic, but I eventually learned jamming well enough to do it clean but will never free solo the thing.

 

The Split Pillar at Squamish is a bit different. Layback the whole thing and most will be destroyed. Layback about 30 feet and then jam. Each climb is different but if a person spent a month just documenting the efforts on Classic, you could publish I'll bet.

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and laybacking is the technique of no technique.... except for certain tips/corner cracks ;)

 

Of course there's technique reqd, but if you're strong you can get by with poor technique until you hit the harder grades. Same goes for everything but true slab climbing.

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and laybacking is the technique of no technique.... except for certain tips/corner cracks ;)

 

Of course there's technique reqd, but if you're strong you can get by with poor technique until you hit the harder grades. Same goes for everything but true slab climbing.

 

sorta what i was hinting at with tips cracks and stuff... take 'Flight of the Challenger' in Squamish for example. After the overhang you get into the challow groove with a #0 Metolius sized crack in it and layback. Did I mention its vertical? That DOES take technique...

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The Split Pillar at Squamish is a bit different. Layback the whole thing and most will be destroyed. Layback about 30 feet and then jam.

Dude.. layback like 15 ft and there is a good foot edge out left... stem off that and start jamming. Its tight hands but there are nice contrictions. :rolleyes:

 

I think we have the same idea and I was just guessing on the height. But laybacking on the sword pitch above the pillar and Perry's wide crack above that seems nearly mandatory.

 

It's all good but as marc pointed out you need to know when to do which.

 

And as Dru pointed out, good crack climbers don't destroy their hands but I will maintain that many still use tape.

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The Split Pillar at Squamish is a bit different. Layback the whole thing and most will be destroyed. Layback about 30 feet and then jam.

Dude.. layback like 15 ft and there is a good foot edge out left... stem off that and start jamming. Its tight hands but there are nice contrictions. :rolleyes:

 

I think we have the same idea and I was just guessing on the height. But laybacking on the sword pitch above the pillar and Perry's wide crack above that seems nearly mandatory.

 

Not to mention the Sail Flake! Once I'd climbed that route and made it back down to the ground, my buddy said to me over a beer, "Dude... there's a lot of laybacking on that route."

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Guys the sail flake and Perrys Layback are both flakes!!!! You are not going to grind your ass along the rock doing double fist stacks behind the flake while you clip bolts behind your back... that would be retarded. Same goes for Apron Strings the 2 pitch 10- that you can use to start the wall.

The Sword crosses into the realm of technical laybacking, reaching for locks in the thin crack, the last part where it widens is terrible off-fingers and is way easier to layback, and its short so it doesnt really tire you out anyways....

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