Upper Echelon 5.10c 8p

[ryanguy]

Thanks for all the input.
pitch 3 - 5.10c : yes, perhaps harder than 10c and probably easier if you can climb 5.11 or even 5.12. It is not a notoriously wet pitch and once you figure out the moves is not that difficult. If you don't find the key holds it will feel like 5.11.
pitch 4 - 5.8 : Is not usually wet this time of year but there were a few wet spells through the summer and even 2 days ago there were several routes dripping wet that are usually bone dry late in the summer. We only encountered water on this pitch until july in past years. Even then the wet section is short and easy with ledges that can be used to step over the wet streaks.
Runout and hard?? This was bolted on lead with no hooks. Hats off to Dave for that hair raising experience. He deserves all the credit for placing that last bolt and no criticism whatsoever. This pitch is definitely not a 5.9 if you can climb slab.
pitch 5 - 5.10a : As on the description found on this site and elsewhere you must avoid the ledge on the left above the jam crack as you run into protection issues. If you head directly up above the jam crack there are plenty of holds and placements even though it is steep. A bolt out left would have produced an outcry from the bolt police.
pitch 6 - 5.10c : not as cruxy as pitch 3 but steeper.
pitch 7 - 5.8 : perhaps 5.7 but same slab difficulty as pitch 4.
pitch 8 - 5.8 : "superfluous bolts"? It was not placed to mark the route and avoids a runout. The finger crack higher up in not unremarkable.
There are other 2 pitch finishes that would be harder that we plan to equip eventually.

[methuselah]

Pitch 3 is certainly well protected and friendly, and requires finesse rather than strength. It's the kind of climb that gets much easier as the best holds and efficient moves are learned. That being said, my partners and I all found it very tricky to onsight (i.e., we all fell) which made us think it was more like 11a. Shouldn't grades on a multi-pitch route reflect onsight difficulty rather than redpoint difficulty?

What about in general - should grades reflect onsight or redpoint difficulty?

Chris

[Dru]

From about halfway on the traverse over to the last pitches of Upper Echelon from Ultimate Everything there is a nice slab climb up to a left-facing overlap/undercling that goes at 5.8 and is possibly the original Echelon finish. I have gone that way three times now (once before Ult everything was fully cleaned and bolted) and it makes a good finish if your partner is cranky and tired and doesn't want to climb a 10a/b traverse.

[geary]

While trying to climb The Ultimate Everything earlier this summer, I linked the first 2 pitches of the Upper Echelon by mistake with a 60m rope, although it was a rope stretcher with heinous drag, not recommended. I fell at the crux on the 2nd pitch (bolt above the anchor), and I don't normally have problems with 10a, so I think this is more like 10b. Next time I'll go back and climb the whole thing, thanks.

[geary]

Finally got around to climbing the Upper Echelon last week via Rock On. We found the grades were all over the place also.

p1: 5.8
p2: 10b
p3: At least 11- in current condition, feet were quite mossy and had to aid crux
p4: 5.9 (was very dry)
p5: 10a/b
p6: 10c
p7: 5.8
p8: 5.6

We really liked p 5&6, but found some of the other pitches pretty average. Thanks very much for the work though, always nice to climb something new.

[Lurch]

I finally took a crack at this one Saturday. I've done Ultimate countless times and wanted to try something new in that area.

Pitch 1 5.8 seemed appropriate. Fun moves to get to the bolt.
Pitch 2 10b seems more like it.. only a couple moves after the bolt though and then it eases

UpperEchelonP2 by bigmike1974, on Flickr

[Lurch]

Pitch 3 10d for me for sure and i'm 6'7! Managed to clip the bolt but had to aid the moves after that. Going back for this one! Awesome pitch!
Photo credit: PY Boivin

UpperEchelonP3Mike by bigmike1974, on Flickr

[Lurch]

Pitch 4 seemed more like 5.9 especially with a little wetness. Seems this summer has been too wet and cold for the seepage to dry yet. It was a little runout between the piton and the bolt, a couple small tcu's will help.

UpperEchelonP4 by bigmike1974, on Flickr

[Lurch]

We skipped pitch five and six because it was my partners first time up the chief and the 10d pitch killed him, but i got a photo of the start of 5.

UpperEchelonP5 by bigmike1974, on Flickr

We were planning to check out the last two pitches anyways, but that decision was cemented when we ran into a slower party at the bottom of the 5.9 dyke pitch.
We simply walked by them about 70+m to the base of the 7th pitch.

[Lurch]

7th pitch was pretty mellow. Fun but easy..

UpperEchelonP7 by bigmike1974, on Flickr

[Lurch]

8th pitch was good. Takes good nuts at the end if you dig some of the pine needles out of the crack!

UpperEchelonP8 by bigmike1974, on Flickr

Overall, fun climb. A little more on the adventure side then some of the more popular routes, but that seems to be my preference these days.

If you've climbed Ultimate and your looking for a bit more of a challenge try this one for sure!

Mike

ps. can i really only post one picture per message? what a pain in the butt..