Looks like a fun, easy climb. My only question is, why would anyone bolt a route with a superb crack from bottom to top? Top anchor bolts, I can understand. Call me old school, but it's difficult for me to rationalize bolts on a route that could be easily trad protected, with excellent stances to place gear. IMO, the only saving grace for doing that is so that climbers just starting out to lead have a quality, safe route to do, and maybe that's the reason. Please don't misunderstand, I've climbed a lot of bolted routes that followed obvious crack lines. Some of the harder ones, say 5.10 or 11, it's difficult to place trad gear from marginal stances, so I can understand that. Anyway, at 80, still climbing, this one will be on my list the next time I'm in the Red. I don't have a real problem with making a climb safer, I'm just asking...
@@progressivefrog3681 thanks for commenting! It's super inspiring that you're climbing at age 80. This route is at the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. It's not on the red. This route is noted in the guidebook as "the easiest sport route at the New." Your take on questioning the reason behind bolting a line like this is a good one. Lately, my friends and I have been turning sport routes into mixed routes by placing trad gear too. It makes for great practice. Your ideology of climbing to your next good rest and the. Placing gear is spot on. I haven't tried any hard trad climbs yet but I will eventually. Actually, I got my ego bruised on a 5.8+ at the red called Bitchmobile last year. From then on, I've always questioned any routes with +'s.
@@progressivefrog3681 thanks for commenting! It's super inspiring that you're climbing at age 80. This route is at the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. It's not on the red. This route is noted in the guidebook as "the easiest sport route at the New." Your take on questioning the reason behind bolting a line like this is a good one. Lately, my friends and I have been turning sport routes into mixed routes by placing trad gear too. It makes for great practice. Your ideology of climbing to your next good rest and the. Placing gear is spot on. I haven't tried any hard trad climbs yet but I will eventually. Actually, I got my ego bruised on a 5.8+ at the red called Bitchmobile last year. From then on, I've always questioned any routes with +'s.
@@Nickpetikas Apologies-I did mean the New, as I've climbed there, too. Anyway, yeah, gotta think about those + climbs. Out in California, there are a whole bunch of 9+ climbs, left over from when 10 was supposed to be the max & no one really wanted to say they'd maxed out the climbing difficulty. Some have been re-rated as hard as 11b. But some are still in the book as 9+ lol. And speaking of 8+, there's a John Long route in Joshua Tree he rated 8+, Continuum. Hardest 8 I've ever done, about 80 feet of continuous diagonal crack, hand & toe jams with foot smears for the right foot, on poor if any friction. A buddy that had done a nearby 10a came over & did it after I did. When he got done, his comment was, "Well, that was a grade harder than I just did." Anyway, thanks for your posting the vid, and your comment. 👍
Thanks for sharing
Looks like a fun, easy climb. My only question is, why would anyone bolt a route with a superb crack from bottom to top? Top anchor bolts, I can understand. Call me old school, but it's difficult for me to rationalize bolts on a route that could be easily trad protected, with excellent stances to place gear. IMO, the only saving grace for doing that is so that climbers just starting out to lead have a quality, safe route to do, and maybe that's the reason.
Please don't misunderstand, I've climbed a lot of bolted routes that followed obvious crack lines. Some of the harder ones, say 5.10 or 11, it's difficult to place trad gear from marginal stances, so I can understand that.
Anyway, at 80, still climbing, this one will be on my list the next time I'm in the Red. I don't have a real problem with making a climb safer, I'm just asking...
@@progressivefrog3681 thanks for commenting! It's super inspiring that you're climbing at age 80. This route is at the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. It's not on the red. This route is noted in the guidebook as "the easiest sport route at the New." Your take on questioning the reason behind bolting a line like this is a good one. Lately, my friends and I have been turning sport routes into mixed routes by placing trad gear too. It makes for great practice. Your ideology of climbing to your next good rest and the. Placing gear is spot on. I haven't tried any hard trad climbs yet but I will eventually. Actually, I got my ego bruised on a 5.8+ at the red called Bitchmobile last year. From then on, I've always questioned any routes with +'s.
@@progressivefrog3681 thanks for commenting! It's super inspiring that you're climbing at age 80. This route is at the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. It's not on the red. This route is noted in the guidebook as "the easiest sport route at the New." Your take on questioning the reason behind bolting a line like this is a good one. Lately, my friends and I have been turning sport routes into mixed routes by placing trad gear too. It makes for great practice. Your ideology of climbing to your next good rest and the. Placing gear is spot on. I haven't tried any hard trad climbs yet but I will eventually. Actually, I got my ego bruised on a 5.8+ at the red called Bitchmobile last year. From then on, I've always questioned any routes with +'s.
@@Nickpetikas Apologies-I did mean the New, as I've climbed there, too.
Anyway, yeah, gotta think about those + climbs. Out in California, there are a whole bunch of 9+ climbs, left over from when 10 was supposed to be the max & no one really wanted to say they'd maxed out the climbing difficulty. Some have been re-rated as hard as 11b. But some are still in the book as 9+ lol.
And speaking of 8+, there's a John Long route in Joshua Tree he rated 8+, Continuum. Hardest 8 I've ever done, about 80 feet of continuous diagonal crack, hand & toe jams with foot smears for the right foot, on poor if any friction. A buddy that had done a nearby 10a came over & did it after I did. When he got done, his comment was, "Well, that was a grade harder than I just did."
Anyway, thanks for your posting the vid, and your comment. 👍