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Moderate cracks in the Blues

Drake

4-Jan-2013
4:05:53 PM

I'm putting together a tick list of crack climbs in the Blues with the goal of flashing or redpointing the Eternity this year. What do you think of my list (below)? I'm sure that I'm missing lots of quality routes... any suggestions? I'm new to the area (moved to western Sydney a few months ago from the US), so I haven't visited all of the Bluey crags yet.

Name Grade Location Notes
Gently Mine 14 Mount Boyce
Tombstone Wall 15 Mount Piddington
The Carthaginian 15 Mount Piddington Corner
The Pharaoh 15 Mount Piddington Offwidth
Fuddy Duddy 15 Narrowneck wide crack and chimney
Goldstar 16 Mount Boyce first pitch, second pitch is 19
Gates of Janus 16 Mount Boyce
The Spartan 16 Mount Piddington Roof traverse with large crack
Toll 16 Narrowneck
Reminiscences 17 Cosmic Country first pitch
Interstate 31 17 Cosmic Country hand crack
Touco (the ugly) 17 Cosmic Country wide crack
Carmello Crack 17 Cosmic Country
Flake Crack 17 Mount Piddington
The Skull Faced Omnibus 18 Cosmic Country hand crack
c--ky's Shout 18 Cosmic Country crack/chimney
Psychopath 18 Mount Piddington Handcrack
Amen Corner 18 Mount Piddington Offwidth section
Bairds Effort 19 Cosmic Country
Touchstone 19 Cosmic Country
The Eternity 18/19 Mount Piddington Handcrack that narrows
The Janicepts 21 Mount Piddington hard...

Superstu

4-Jan-2013
4:11:21 PM

Are you using the term 'crack climb' for trad climbing or are you specifically after routes requiring jamming of a similar nature to the eternity?

E. Wells

4-Jan-2013
6:00:20 PM

Refusal at Mt York has at least three or four nice jams down low. I think there may be one on Obituary also. I reckon just jump straight on eternity early in the morning after Spartan.Dont build up to it, it may never happen. Just jump on it. You will froth harder on spartan.

grego

4-Jan-2013
6:33:05 PM

That's a really good list, although not much jamming required on quite a few of them.

Also, I wouldn't assume that Eternity is harder than many of the climbs you have listed which have lower grades. I found Spartan harder than Eternity - I'm tall which makes the roof traverse challenging.

I also found Interstate 31, Amen Corner and Psychopath all harder than Eternity. Actually I found Psychopath way harder, but if you are a good jammer you might find it easier.

JamesMc

4-Jan-2013
7:38:37 PM

Tombstone Wall a crack?
JamesMc

Drake

4-Jan-2013
8:49:25 PM

I'm particularly looking for good cracks of all kinds- fingers, hands, offwidths, and chimneys- I'm assuming these will be trad routes. I'm a bit enchanted by the Eternity after having a look at the route, but I have a strange desire to "save" it for a month or two.

Thanks for the suggestions at Mt. York- I'll add them to my list. And I suppose the "wall" but of Tombstone Wall should have suggested to me that it's not really a crack.

Cheers,
-drake

widewetandslippery

4-Jan-2013
8:52:51 PM

solomon and genisis? The fist crack to its left at piddio.

A clockwork orange at shipley

Amen corner is awesome

widewetandslippery

4-Jan-2013
8:54:50 PM

Prolouge at piddo. 11? It will make your day

bw

4-Jan-2013
9:07:03 PM

P1 of the phantom is a corner crack. 13 - a must do.

PThomson

4-Jan-2013
9:18:57 PM

Here are a few other moderate "cracks" to add to it, on top of what others have suggested:

The Phoenix (20) at Medlow Bath/Megalong Valley

Firefly (18) at Medlow Bath/Megalong Valley

First Year Uni (19) at Mt York

The H'owl (19) at Mt York

Judas (19) at Piddo.

Ballrace (17) at Piddo.

TZ (18) at Cosmic.

Firebug (17) at Mt Boyce.

Gemini (19) at Piddo.

Haystack Madness (20) at Bardens (hehe).

Kaladan (20) at Ikara.

Telstar (19) at Ikara.

Actually... The list is pretty endless, now that I think about it.

climbau

5-Jan-2013
9:07:45 AM

On 4/01/2013 Drake wrote:
>I'm a bit enchanted by the Eternity after having a look at the route, but I have a strange >desire to "save" it for a month or two.

Hi Drake,
Don't let the enchantment lead to leaving Eternity for an eternity. Just get on it! It is a nice line and a nice climb. If you haven't jammed before your list is a good one ((plus others suggestions) and don't forget Joseph and Bonatti Crack, both at Piddo)) but there is no need to complete the list before doing Eternity. As others have said, many of those on your list will have you working harder than your goal. Good for preparation, but if you are constantly getting spanked by the the preparation routes you will never get on the goal.

patto

5-Jan-2013
9:57:27 AM

I agree with many comments regarding The Eternity. I found it particularly easy for the grade. (But that can be said for many of the modern blue mountains climbs too IMO)

The Eternity has good gear and many good face stances. You just need to be smart in moving confidently between these stances. Some basic crack climbing technique is necessary, I but I did it with ease so it can't be too hard!

That said my second on The Eternity was a European sport climber with little crack experience. Despite seconding and leading much harder grades, she really struggled her way up on second and rested on the rope many times.

Mike Bee

7-Jan-2013
12:04:46 PM

I will also suggest Joesph as a good option for your list. It's quite easy, 14, but you can get some good jams in if you choose too.

And as others have said, Eternity is a little soft at the grade, so don't put it up on a pedestal, just jump on it! It's a bit slabby, so you don't get to get too badly pumped, and the gear is all bomber!

Drake

7-May-2013
4:31:44 PM

Update- 4 months later.

Last weekend I finally got on the Eternity, and I surprised myself by flashing it. It is a great, fun, route and it absolutely lived up to the hype. However, as a bunch of others suggested, it was a bit soft for the grade relative to some of the other climbs on the tick list.

I really enjoyed my little project of learning to crack climb. For me, two things were really important to feel comfortable and enjoy climbing cracks.

(1) Mileage. To improve climbing cracks, I had to climb a lot of cracks. After a bunch of laps on easy cracks, handjams began to feel bomber, manky fingerjams stopped being so manky, and painful foot jams stopped being so bothersome. It just took time and practice to adjust to cracks. Amazing, I know.
(2) Tape. Climbing cracks for mileage turned out to be a great way to bloody my knuckles and scare my coworkers on Monday ("Did you get in a fight?"), but it got to be difficult to climb multiple days in a row. I gave taping a try (this approach: http://vimeo.com/59941718), and I'm converted. I will probably lose some curmudgeon style points, but I don't particularly care, as I was able to climb more and have more fun with tape.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the thoughts and advice.

Mike Bee

7-May-2013
4:38:44 PM

Thanks for the update :)

gov junky

13-May-2013
12:40:05 PM

On 4/01/2013 grego wrote:
>
>Also, I wouldn't assume that Eternity is harder than many of the climbs
>you have listed which have lower grades. I found Spartan harder than Eternity
>
>I also found, Amen Corner and Psychopath harder than
>Eternity. Actually I found Psychopath way harder, but if you are a good
>jammer you might find it easier.
>
I agree. I did Eternity back in the 'dark ages' before I could handjamb and in the same week that I had failed on Psychopath.
>

technogeekery

13-May-2013
1:47:20 PM

Congrats on getting your target, Drake :-)

I'm similarly in awe of the line of Eternity - and am keen to lead it as well. Any particular standouts in your "road to Eternity" list of climbs?

E. Wells

13-May-2013
1:48:20 PM

Get to Frog! you wont need tape!

maxdacat

13-May-2013
3:56:13 PM

On 7/05/2013 Drake wrote:
>
>I will probably lose some curmudgeon style points

consider it done :p

There are 19 messages in this topic.