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Hardest Routes in the Cascades


snowleopard_x

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mcdonald-mather on baker on a warm day in july

ditto those routes that climb up under the icefall from lower to upper curtis on shuksan.

 

"hey WTF doing new routes is cool! let's climb that face right under the huge scary serac!!!" what were those guys thinkin back in the 50's and 60's?

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it's certainly technically hard but just a couple moves out the roof with gear right there whereas the 12b on the east face of XXXXXX ( I will be killed if i say any more cause the complete free ascent has not yet been done) is on formerly A3 pitch with junk gear....or so I heard... and would probably get a higher E grade Geek_em8.gif it's all academic. lib crack free is for sure hard but has a short approach as well, basically alpine cragging - you could compare to hard routes at Index as opposed to other alpine routes because the logistics of remoteness are not there. boxing_smiley.gif

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Whore of Babylon, currently the hardest route in the cascades.

 

Spine Jelly vies, yet undone.

 

And Whore of Babylon is an awesome looking line!

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There are a lot of hard unrepeated mountain routes in the cascades.

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Interesting thread

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you guys are mistaking 2 things. technical difficulties and objective danger. in order to climb a technically hard route you need some big guns, while climbing dangerous routes all you need is big "jaja" and/or small brain. while willis wall (and such genere of climbs) are dangerous by no means are hard technically. take them from under seracs and any solid WI4/M4 climber would walk up these things.

as far as rock- there are no real hard routes by modern standards. actually the only one that could be cosidered would be lib crack free. dru, the crack was freed, so was the bolt ladder. brook tied loops with static line and clipped draws into the bolts and the loops, in case the bolts ripped. mattp, while 12a might be hard to you and i, it is not hard (even in the mountains) by modern climbing standards. if you go to the alps or the dolomites routes of that difficulty are climbed on daily basis. let's face it- maybe besides wa pass area and a couple of other faces cascades are just a bushy heap piles compared to the alps, patagonia or even canadian rockies or alaska

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I'm not sure a 1 pitch route counts as the hardest route in the Cascades. Likewise I don't know if I would agree with GK's choice of Liberty crack. I know the roof is a super hard free climb, but it's only 1 pitch.

 

Didn't someone just finish a hard free route on Baring last summer? Also NNB free could be a canidate.

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What about the hardest route of each genre of climibng? crag ice , crag rock, alpine snow and ice, aline rock... Then maybe a final category of hardest to get to hardest, alpine route?

 

Are there any cracks in Washington harder than City Park?

Are there any sport pitches in the state harder than the Whore of Babylon?

 

In terms of rock climbing, I know there are harder routes out there both in alpine and crag. Its just a matter of either doing them, or finding a person with enough talent and drive to do them.

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I agree with Dru; LC is nothing more than cragging. I talked to Adam (one of the two who freed it); he said though the second pitch was the crux, the roof was not the crux (he said it felt like 12+), but above it climbing on super thin features (where the rest of us mortals yard on fixed gear).

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I'm not sure a 1 pitch route counts as the hardest route in the Cascades. Likewise I don't know if I would agree with GK's choice of Liberty crack. I know the roof is a super hard free climb, but it's only 1 pitch.

 

Didn't someone just finish a hard free route on Baring last summer? Also NNB free could be a canidate.

 

Ummm...there are like 4 people tops right now in Wa state that complete whore of babylon (and its logical extension that prolly goes at 14c or d) regardless of where that route is located...whether you had to bushwhack 14 miles in or walk 4 yards from your car bumper, there is NO ONE that frequents this board that could do that route or its extension...

 

say what you want about sportclimbing, none of you (myself included) will see those chains in this lifetime...

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say what you want about sportclimbing, none of you (myself included) will see those chains in this lifetime...

 

I bet I could if only I was able to figure out a little technique and foot work... rolleyes.gifyelrotflmao.gif

 

Really, LC is not the hardest route in the Cascades. When considering the progression of grades, 13a really isn't that hard. The 5.13 standard was reached many years ago. There are a fair amount of people out there who are climbing at that grade.

 

The bigger question is why are there not more hard 5.12 to 5.13 traditional routes in the mountains? Surely with all the shit talking on this board, someone should be able to go out and establish several traditional routes in the Cascades at a high standard.

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