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Easy routes for beginning trad lead


Toast

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IMHO: Climb with LOTS of diffrent people who lead well. I can vouch for ERIK,GREGW,TEX and some others as being great teachers ( but then I have hooters [Wink] ) I am still totaly chickn shit and have only led trad and sport a few times. SK is on the SLOW TRACK. Don't rush your self. listen to you instincts.

 

put miles on the rock leading and following.

 

BTW placing gear on top rope has done more to psyce me out than to psyc me up. Pracice on the ground and just do it.

 

CAMS ARE WAY COOLER... STOP EATING, AND GET SOME [big Grin]

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Sorry to get the thread back on track, but here's a couple of specific selections for easy trad routes in 11worth:

 

Left Crack 5.6, Right Crack 5.2, Gibson's Crack 5.5- all on Mounties Dome or a short walk from there. The are also many low 5th cracks on the lower part of the dome. Suffers from overcrowding, but a good place to start.

 

Clamshell cave has a 5.5 crack that protects well with nuts and hexes, a 5.7 mixed route that's fun and a really fun 5.7 hand-crack on the big block at the base of the crag.

 

X-Y cracks- lead the 5.5 but bring at least a couple each of 2-3" pieces. The 5.7 might be a little sketchy since you don't have cams.

 

Roto-Wall has a 5.2, a 5.6 and a 5.7 slab that are fun. Right and above that is BS- 5.6? and Connie's Crack- 5.2. As well as Underachiever (it's 5.8+, but is mixed and the 5.8+ section is bolt-protected slab).

 

The Tree Route on 8-mile buttress- 5.5- 5.6? 2 fun pitches. A bit of a misnomer since the tree burned down in the fire last year. Rumor is is that there are 2 more pitches above, but I haven't climbed them myself.

 

Ditto R&D on Icicle Buttress. The Cave Route on the same goes at 5.4.

 

Ditto on Midway and Sabre but watch the start on Sabre.

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You already got many good suggestions, but I'll throw a few more out there...

 

The Big Tree Route (5.7) at Three o clock rock in Darrington. Some neat cracks, low angle liebacking and jamming, a somewhat intimidating friction traverse to start the 2nd pitch, etc. Lotsa fun. 4-5 pitches.

 

Zig-Zag (5.7) at Mt. Erie. 3 pitches if I remember correctly.

 

The Arch and Spaghetti Sauce on Icicle Buttress (both 5.8) Also Sams ‘n Cams (5.6 on Sam Hill in L-worth)

 

Martian Diagonal (5.5) and Vertigo (tough 5.8) at Peshastin

 

Party in Your Pants (5.8) Frenchman's Coulee

 

Western Front (5.3) Twin Cracks (5.6) X-Factor (5.7) The Cutting Edge (5.7) all at Royal Columns, Tieton River Canyon

 

SE Corner (5.7) several pitches and some scrambling at Beacon Rock

 

[ 10-11-2002, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: Uncle Tricky ]

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  • 3 weeks later...

quote:

Originally posted by fredrogers:

Ditto on Midway and Sabre but watch the start on Sabre.

The "guidebook" start on Sabre is to start to the right, climb up and left, and take a committing stem to enter the route proper. And you really cannot place pro until after that committing stem. The first time I did Sabre, I climbed up to that committing move, looked down, chickened out, and downclimbed. Had it not been the first climb of the day, I might have taken the step.

 

But anyway, instead, I took the straight line up the route. It's a little bouldery start with some other funkiness. Harder moves, but it's easily protectable. So I recommend this start instead.

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quote:

Originally posted by Toast:

How about this as a query: Name a few good in-city cracks to practice on
[big Drink]

Most "cracks" you find in the city, formed concrete seams or gaps between two separate concrete structures, are straight and parallel sided and do not really replicate real cracks. You will find some big-stone rock walls with more irregular "cracks," but these don't really replicate real cracks, either. You really gotta go to Index, or further afield, to find real cracks to practice putting gear into. For climbing practice, there are a few cracks at the UW rock, Stone Gardens has one (doesn't it?) and there are plenty of buildering problems scattered about town.

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Leavenworth:

Gibson's Crack

[smile] Saber (multi pitch)

 

Mt. Erie:

The Nose

[Razz] Allen Henshaw Pre-Memorial Route

 

Index:

GNS

 

Vantage(Frenshman Coulee):

[Cool] Stokin' the Chicken ( Lots of 2-4" Cams or hexes, long sling for chockstone is nice)

 

[big Grin] Squamish, Murrin Park, Sugarloaf(great for beginning trad!):

Magnet

Flat Battery

 

Have fun, be redundent, don't forget to protect from a zipper [Eek!] .

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Okay, lots of people have recommended placing gear off the ground as a start. I wandered over to Little Si and found a good crack to practice an equalized anchor, but that's a bit of drive for just farting around. I have a crack in the concrete retaining wall in back of my house and I've seen a few other spots around town. These are all fine but limited to just a few good placements each.

 

How about this as a query: Name a few good in-city cracks to practice on [big Drink]

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quote:

Originally posted by mattp:

quote:

Originally posted by Toast:

How about this as a query: Name a few good in-city cracks to practice on
[big Drink]

Most "cracks" you find in the city, formed concrete seams or gaps between two separate concrete structures, are straight and parallel sided and do not really replicate real cracks. You will find some big-stone rock walls with more irregular "cracks," but these don't really replicate real cracks, either. You really gotta go to Index, or further afield, to find real cracks to practice putting gear into. For climbing practice, there are a few cracks at the UW rock, Stone Gardens has one (doesn't it?) and there are plenty of buildering problems scattered about town.

Thanks Matt. I guess one thing that sucks about Seattle is that it's just a rubble pile of glaciel till (sigh) [Roll Eyes]
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The beach North of Golden Gardens is a good place. Walk North on the beach at low tide. There are lots of rock works for the railroad. Many cracks in between. Better stuff further North. If the tide comes in you might have to get wet or trespass [Eek!] on the railroad and possibly die.

 

There's a flood-control/bird sanctuary/art-garden thingy at 105th ST NE and 39th Ave NE. There's a group of three Vantage-type pillar stones put together close enough to form cracks between. It's only about 3 feet high or so, so you won't be able to bounce test or anything but if you live nearby, it might be worth a trip to fiddle gear into the irregular cracks then yank on them to see how well they do or don't hold.

 

As Mattp said the UW rock has totally parallel cracks so not very interesting, but there are some boulders on the East side of The Rock that are set close enough together to have cracks between, probably the least interesting of these three but you can do some bouldering there too [big Grin] .

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Course my fever is cut a bit short to buy the rest of my rack. Damn that stuff is expensive. I am leaning towards the tricam's as they are light and not to pricey. However, can be a chore to clean I have noticed. Climbing over on castle rock I noted 2 booty pieces and both tricams and are there as a permanent fixture.

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quote:

Originally posted by leejams:

Course my fever is cut a bit short to buy the rest of my rack. Damn that stuff is expensive. I am leaning towards the tricam's as they are light and not to pricey. However, can be a chore to clean I have noticed. Climbing over on castle rock I noted 2 booty pieces and both tricams and are there as a permanent fixture.

Seems to happen if you take a good winger on them.

 

Checkout REI-outlet.com for some pretty good deals on gear. They have Clog and Smiley nuts, limited BD hexes and Clog cams (not my favorite, but priced right) for pretty cheap. Same goes for biners and slings.

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