I’ll be in tomorrow night to take a look at 12, hopefully feeling stronger (read: less hungover) than Sunday. And I’m curious what the new holds on the b and c look like.

Thanks, Pete, for help with the (early) finishing touches on Rope 11’s two harder routes.

I’d like to add that I didn’t get the FA… or any ascent for that matter, although I think it’ll go.

Pete made a nice first ascent of a route-in-progress when we thought it was a 5.12a. I followed that up and felt it needed tweaking and the rating would have to come down. Pete agreed. The route was supposed to mimick the ever-popular ‘Dancing madly Backwards’ at Devil’s Lake, but (shorter and) harder.

The rope is full (7 routes and an 8th in the works)!

Final comment: You might take on this “rope” as a set of bouldering problems and boulder the lower portions of each routes as best you can to the arete “bulge”. They would rank a V1-/V1+/V2-/V2+/V3-V3+/V4-. We worked hard to make each route unique and to rachet-up the difficulty as precisely as we could.

Hey! Traffic on this rope is much lighter than anticipated. I know there are capable FP climbers who can knock off these routes. C’mon!

The 12a is set. The arete plus one hold.

I’m going to see if there’s a 12b variation. Basically it would still be arete-only to the bouldering line and then I’d tape an alternate hold well off to thre right that foces a huge move to really nasty junk hold! Be really athletic if it goes!

Was “Dancing Madly Backwards” the route with the small roof undercling to the crux (or maybe that was just my personal crux)? I’ll have to get on this with (extreme optimism and) visions of sandstone in my grip.

Right, Dave; the shallow roof in the DL Old Sandstone Area you traversed several times from left to right. The FP route is shorter and harder, but you get the idea. Truth be told, the route was designed solely to show off Gerry’s long flowing hair. The similarities to Dancing Madly Backwards are merely coincidental.

The 12b is up and waiting for a First Ascent. Climb the arete to the bulge, flair up right to a so-so hold, if you can lock on to it then find feet (just junk, no holds) and pull over the bulge (not that much harder than the 12a).

time this right with your belayer who needs to be fast so the rope above you doesn’t wind around your neck (not a fan of the rope around the neck!).