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Crag & Route Beta

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Topic Date User

Let Me Cry - John's Pinnacle 8-Apr-2018 At 5:24:43 PM ben wiessner

Message

I'm a tad confused and I'm hoping someone out there can clarify things for me.

I recently did a climb that starts off a big flake with fractured rock, a few metres right of Shoadee on John's Pinnacle (Arapiles). There was no chalk on it, and there was a bit of loose rock that soon cleaned up. After a challenging start I reached a little ledge, and from there it headed up a little left, following the nice corner that is in the middle of Shalimar. It felt to be around grade 20, and I reckon it's pretty darn good! Certainly more deserving of a mention that Shalimar, IMO.

I was keen to find out what it was, and looking at TheCrag, the only route in that area is Let Me Cry, however that is given the grade "25X". The route I did wasn't a 25X (considering I struggled a bit on the neighbouring Shanghai at grade 18 I think we can be confident I'm not suddenly awesome), but it did match the description of Let Me Cry. In fact, if I wasn't on Let Me Cry, I'm darned to see where you could squeeze a 25X route in, you'd have to be extremely diligent in not using any of the holds or ample gear placements in the vicinity.

I placed one rather crucial smallish cam (yellow C3), so maybe that wouldn't have been possible when John Muir did it in 1985 that may have given it the "X" rating. Although I understand he may have soloed it so I don't know if that adds further complication.

So has anyone done this route "Let Me Cry", and what did you think of the grade? Unless I hear otherwise, I'm inclined to change the grade from "25X" to "20".