A Grim Reaper and additional info question

[rolfr]

As much as i like Robin, i agree with Craig, chop any bolts near the route which give even a faint hope of reprieve from the head spinning commitment of the Reaper.

Another question ? It has been years since i did Dream on, but has the intersection of Firewalk added a new station and bolts to minimize the runout on the traversing pitch?

To quote Robin " some routes have to be left unchanged to inspire future generations"

indian Summers are always the perfect time for hard slab climbing, the temperature and quality of light are amazing. IMO and i have said it before, Teetering on the Brink of Madness is the finest slab climb in Squamish put up by one of the masters of the craft, Carl Austrom. It should be a right of passage for any aspiring slab climber.

[scrubber]

I second Rolf's endorsment of Teetering as one of, if not the best slab route here. (still has some old 1/4" bolts though) It's pretty unusual to get an exposed feeling slab route, buy you'll know what I mean if you check it out. Definately my favourite. Unfinished Symphony kind of half qualifies as a slab route. It has slab portions and shares the crux pitch with Teetering. Dream Symphony is good. And as said before, Dancing in the Light is your gateway drug to 5.11 Squamish slab. The crux pitch of passing lane is probably the most consistent pitch of slab on the Apron that I've ever done. Virtually every move is 9 or 10a, combining to make a awesome, and pretty well protected pitch.

Maybe more of a face route, but at the base of the Grand wall Java Jive is an awesome slabby 10+ and if you need more the second pitch is one of the better protected 11's around.

It's great to hear other folks enjoying the slab treasures here. I've always loved the mental game of routes like this. For someone (like me) who isn't particularily strong, removing the physical component of a route being hard and replacing it with the requirement of focus and a cool head has always been very appealing.

Hopefully I'll see you all out there someday,

Kris

[jstod]

What a PERFECT day for a route like Teetering. I hope not everyone's stuck at a desk today... Sigh....

[thebigchin]

Bah!! Not stuck at a desk, but stuck on beautiful Hornby Island. That's normally not so bad, but on a day like today with all that sticky slab waiting to be climbed, I'm jonesin' pretty bad!

[Dru]

FWIW I went up to Yak today hoping to climb some sticky slab and discovered that the top 200m of the summit has snow on it and the slabs are all running with meltwater

[scrubber]

Well at least one of us was able to take advantage of that great crisp fall day. I took a sport climbing co-worker of mine up Dancing in the Light after work. He claims to have actually enjoyed himself, though he would only agree to lead the 5.9 pitch at the top. (Fine with me because I follow slab like a complete bumbler, but leading gets me focused)

The friction was great, the late day light golden, and the walk down dark. What more could you ask for, really?

All we need now is a couple weeks of that weather so I can go out and do all of my favourite slab routes.

Kris

[squamish climber]

Came across an interesting reference to the Grim Reaper in Chic Scott's book Pushing the Limits: The Story of Canadian Mountaineering.

In the Section The Squamish Hard Core p245 about the new group of climbers at the end of the '60s.

Although this was still the era of big aid routes, it was a free climb on the Apron by Smaill and Bennet in 1970 that went a long way toward establishing their reputations. The route was the Grim Reaper, Smaill described how "Exploding crystal tips and pie crust flakes on l-o-n-g shakey lead outs characterize this royal jelly of slab freaks."

For years this test piece went unrepeated. Hugh Burton wrote, "Several parties have attempted it, but no one has yet being able to put together the phenomenally thin unprotected moves on the third pitch. There seems to be some question as to how Gordie actually accomplished this section. The crux, however, is supposedly on the fourth pitch!"

[Ed Seedhouse]

That description was from Gordy's old guidebook, the first one I ever bought back in the 1970's.

A quote I remember from some magazine back then is that the protection on GR was "three sweaters and a football helmet".

[bradley3297]

gotta love that lol.

[Anders Ourom]

The Reaper was first repeated by Eric Weinstein and Scott Flavelle in 1976. Eric had tried several times previously, taking some long pendulum falls on the third pitch. When they did it, he led the third pitch, Scott the fourth. I'm not sure (yet) who did the third ascent, but the appearance of sticky rubber in 1984 would have helped.

Neil and Gordie did it in Robbins shoes, a stiff tight blue wall shoe with a shallow vibram sole.

[Ed Seedhouse]

Neil and Gordie did it in Robbins shoes, a stiff tight blue wall shoe with a shallow vibram sole.

I once had a pair of these. I managed to take a longish fall off of Sparrow the only time I tried them in Squamish. For these guys to do GR and White Lightning in such boots beggars the imagination. I barely followed WL in Fires, compared to which Robbins boots might as well have been roller skates.

They were not that stiff - they had a half length steel shank in them. I seem to remember Daryl Hatten telling me that folks in Yosemite purposely broke the shanks before using them on slabs. Mine were fairly comfortable, so maybe I bought too big a size.

[J Mace]

Seems like a good weekend for teetering...anyone know if its a quick drier? I geuss maybe I am most worried about the last pitch, i seem to remember seepage up there?

thanks

[relic]

The Reaper was first repeated by Eric Weinstein and Scott Flavelle in 1976. Eric had tried several times previously, taking some long pendulum falls on the third pitch. When they did it, he led the third pitch, Scott the fourth. I'm not sure (yet) who did the third ascent, but the appearance of sticky rubber in 1984 would have helped.

Wondering if anyone has successfully repeated The Grim Reaper since then. I know a friend and I tried years ago, but were shut down by the exploding crystals and pie crust holds on the long left traversing pitch. With no protection in sight, that long pendulum fall on the third pitch has to be one of the scariest I've witnessed. The leader ends up falling/running backwards in an uncontrollable arcing path past the belayer, heading ominously toward the huge dropping arete edge of Teetering on the Brink. You have to turn on the Fred Flinstone brakes full bore to prevent yourself from dropping over the edge of that arete.

And for some sick reason, I can't wait to try it again... I just hope that this route, and other routes of this nature, withstand the compulsions of bolters and new route architects in the years to come.

[Anders Ourom]

I'm fairly sure that someone from Calgary climbed it sometime in the 1980s or early 1990s. (i.e. after sticky rubber.) Certainly he talked about it as though he'd climbed it, and he's a reliable sort. Beyond that, who knows?

[caustrom]

The third accent was done by Carl Austrom & Richard Suddaby in 1979 or 1980. I had tried it many times between 1974 to 1979 with many partners (Eric Weinstein, Dick Mitten, Scott Flavelle, John Howe, etc). Had a lot of fun with the huge pendulums.