Yesterday I finally had a chance to climb "Jacob's Ladder" at Bataan, after it was seeping since May. It was rumored to be a good route and rated 13a this spring (first asc. J.D. Le Blanc rated the route 13c!). My friend Paul and I where able to climb it 2nd go and confirmed the grade. Now here comes the catch! We both noticed 2 obvious drilled key pockets around the second and third bolt, which have not been mentioned by J.D. or any of the handful of climbers who did the climb this spring. In "Sportclimbs in the Canadian Rockies", routes with chipped or drilled holds don't recieve a star rating, Jakob's gets 2 stars though. What's that all about? I'm not so much obset about the pockets, more so about the "route builder", who did not have the guts to report it.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
drilled pockets at Bataan!
Yesterday I finally had a chance to climb "Jacob's Ladder" at Bataan, after it was seeping since May. It was rumored to be a good route and rated 13a this spring (first asc. J.D. Le Blanc rated the route 13c!). My friend Paul and I where able to climb it 2nd go and confirmed the grade. Now here comes the catch! We both noticed 2 obvious drilled key pockets around the second and third bolt, which have not been mentioned by J.D. or any of the handful of climbers who did the climb this spring. In "Sportclimbs in the Canadian Rockies", routes with chipped or drilled holds don't recieve a star rating, Jakob's gets 2 stars though. What's that all about? I'm not so much obset about the pockets, more so about the "route builder", who did not have the guts to report it.
OK, now that the weather sucks at -35c and it's only a year or so late on this stuff -
ReplyDeleteYep, i graded it b/c - sent in 1993 - so it's a bit off - but the pure fact it gets done today is sweet, as i had the first handfull of ascents on the rig and no takers back then.
Drilled - GERY - you should know - it has 1 pocket and an edge built. Gut's to report it? WTF? it sat unrepeated for YEARS my friend. I do not need to have the community today comment on things that happened 15 years ago. BTW it was put up 3 years before any steep gym bouldering so it seemed pretty darn hard - i'm ok with the grade at 13a - ok at 12c as well.
HEY i could have graded it E8 Alpine VI.
So it's a bit off - just like me.
BTW most of the climbers from the time knew of the holds - JD
Am i pissed - not really - just disappointed - wondering why climbers often forget their own crap and use others' crap to point out.
I graded 24 frames 13b and Nirvana 13a - all based off of Shep's, Churning in the Wake, Burning in AF. I left Vishnu alone - i could not do the sequence back in the early 90's - today yeah, but i did leave that one.
I glued on the edge on the hood 1992/1992 - it actually made a better sequence, but with it gone, more alternatives - much better. Hype drilled - Sweet Thing chipped - blah blah ... Leblank