Trip Report
Central Pillar of Kick Ass Hand Jams (Frenzy)
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Monday March 18, 2013 1:40pm
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As part of training up for this year's climbing goals, Mike and I jammed up the Central Pillar of Frenzy, then bouldered "A Balance of Opposites" a V6/7? on the riverside boulder, and finished up the day by demolishing ourselves repeatedly on "Short Circuit". What a great day!
Check out the vid of The Central Pillar
[ Click to View YouTube Video]
karodrinker
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About the Author
Kalen Glenn is a father, climber, skateboarder and surfer from San Jose, CA. |
Comments
ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Mar 18, 2013 - 01:49pm PT
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Hey Karo, that was great, so many nice jams! (and I didn't see much chalk in use:-)
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Mar 18, 2013 - 01:55pm PT
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sublime
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willm
Social climber
Oakland
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Mar 18, 2013 - 02:00pm PT
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God I love that climb. I repeated that climb last year about this time and saw a rock the size of a beach ball come hurtling down the route just to the right of us. Thankfully it didn't hit anyone upon impact, but it was the first thing I thought of when I saw your friend without a helmet.
Thanks for the video!
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matty
Trad climber
Sad the forum is gone =(
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Mar 18, 2013 - 02:42pm PT
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cool TR, need to do that route!
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Mar 19, 2013 - 12:56pm PT
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Thanks for the excellent video of one of my favorite routes on my favorite rock in Yosemite. The start -- on the snow -- brought back memories from 42 years ago. In late April of 1971, Art Brook and I started up the Chouinard-Pratt, whose first couple of pitches are now part the Central Pillar route. It was the first Grade V we'd ever attempted.
Unfortunately, it took all of our rather minimal snow and ice skills just to get up the snow and across the moat (all of about two feet wide) to the rock, and to psyche ourselves up to make a serious effort. We dawdled for so long that we ended up bivouacked only about 500 feet up. When it snowed that night, we beat a frosty retreat, grateful that we weren't higher.
Thanks again for the post.
John
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 18, 2013 - 10:23pm PT
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One of my new favorite routes as well! Hopefully I have the chance to do it many more times.
Too cold to need much chalk.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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Mar 18, 2013 - 10:26pm PT
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Thanks for posting the video! Love this climb! When did you do it? There was a HUIGE rock fall on middle cathedral on Saturday.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Mar 18, 2013 - 10:32pm PT
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Great video, thanks.....I was surprised to see some sun light on the route, all I could think of was cold shadows!
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 18, 2013 - 10:47pm PT
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Vitaliy, did it sunday, blissfully unaware of the danger...
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aran
Trad climber
berkeley, ca
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Mar 19, 2013 - 12:54am PT
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Badass, great soundtrack. Proper send.
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Gal
Trad climber
going big air to fakie
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Mar 19, 2013 - 01:03am PT
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That climb is fantastic, great job! Any particular pitch you liked best?
edited... oops didn't watch video, but will now...
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limpingcrab
Gym climber
Minkler, CA
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Mar 19, 2013 - 01:54am PT
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Yikes, I need to get on that one!
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Mar 19, 2013 - 02:15am PT
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One of my most favorite climbs I was fortunate enough to get on in Yosemite!! Nice to see that it's still intact after the rockfall! Such amazing pitches! My favorite was pitch 3 with the awesome 5.7 roof start that looks much harder till you get there!! The hand jams were so perfect for my 6'7 mitts on that pitch!! I ran up of laughing with glee!!
Thanks for the video!! The snow cone start looked exciting too!! Never had that to deal with in the fall.. What did you think of the first pitch! I found it quite interesting at 5.9 to say the least!
Here is a bonus pic of relic following p3
Handjams for miles!!!
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 19, 2013 - 02:31am PT
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Mike, I thought pitch 1 was pretty tricky. Scratched the camera lens and worked up a sweat! But with all the face holds on the right side, 5.9 seemed about right. Glad you got on that climb while you were here, heal up and come on back down and we can romp up it, pitch 3 was the sickest, that wide section was perfect fists.
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Mar 19, 2013 - 03:31am PT
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I've never climbed the first 50 feet because of the snow field, but the second half of p1 is 5.9
How about the "5.7" roof. HA
tfpu
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Mar 19, 2013 - 03:57am PT
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I thought the roof would be harder than 5.7 also, but I found lots of face holds everywhere!! And the wide section was locker fists for me!!! Hahaha so fun!!!! I was screaming at relic!! "I LOVE THIS SH!T"!!!!
As for the first pitch, getting off the ground is very interesting in the summer! I was groggy when we did it and it got my attention real quick!
The moves at the top were what I found the trickiest.. Maybe just my 6'7 frame but I found them quite difficult my first time on toprope and a lot easier the second time on lead when I knew the sequence. (We did the first pitch twice because of my stupid rope idea... See going back to Cali thread)
I would say true Yosemite 5.9 but I have been shouted down on the topic before.. ;)
Karo- I am mending as we speak and will be happy to take you up on that offer once I am I a condition to.
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Andy Fielding
Trad climber
UK
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Mar 19, 2013 - 04:22am PT
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Thanks for the video. It's on my list of routes to do. Hopefully I'll get a chance when I'm back in May.
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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Mar 19, 2013 - 10:13am PT
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Great video. I really like the "follow the eyes" approach. Do those head-mounted video cameras have the capacity to zoom in?
Very cool.
The rock texture and color are still enticing.
I always thought the snow-cone was the crux.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Mar 19, 2013 - 09:28am PT
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Music hurt my ears..
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Tork
climber
Yosemite
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Mar 19, 2013 - 09:52am PT
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Linking pitches 2 and 3 is one of my favorite pitches ever. Great climb.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 19, 2013 - 12:46pm PT
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My partner Mike linked 2 and 3, only had one piece that would fit in the fist section above the roof. Following that long pitch was so cool, just jamjamjamjamjam.
Roger, the gopro cam i used does not zoom in, maybe you could stick a dslr on your helmet!
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland, CA
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Mar 19, 2013 - 01:11pm PT
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Very nice!
Love the second pitch. Do 2 and 3 link with a 60m?
Good rock:
Good views:
Good hardware:
That rockfall on Sat scared the sh#t out of me from across the way.
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weezy
climber
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Mar 21, 2013 - 03:22am PT
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i always loved the second pitch best.
if you get up to the base and find a queue, head on over to pee pee pillar and do that while you wait. pretty fun 10a.
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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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Mar 19, 2013 - 02:43pm PT
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Loved the dosage of crack... I am way overdue, can't even remember the last stretch of bomber jams.
But I did clip some sport routes at Red Rocks 2 weekends ago, hard to complain about that fun stuff.
Edit: Munge called it sub-lime? I took it for granite that it was volcanic, not some calcium deposits.
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Tork
climber
Yosemite
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Mar 19, 2013 - 04:24pm PT
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le_bruce,
Yes, 2 & 3 link with a 60. You can also link 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 with a 60. I have done it in 3 pitches several times. But 2 and 3 are for me the nicest together.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Mar 19, 2013 - 09:41pm PT
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My fav part is the hand crack on the 2nd pitch
Cool route
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Mar 19, 2013 - 09:50pm PT
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Did you guys do the first five pitches?
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 19, 2013 - 10:22pm PT
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yep, up to five then rapped the route. no other people around.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Mar 20, 2013 - 10:04am PT
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Me want!
Route looks awesome. Great footage. We're definitely hitting that one next time we are in the Valley
My only Debbie Downer complaint.. definitely gets the Oscar for most annoying soundtrack. Had to turn the sound off after 2 minutes. Sounds like my cat recorded it. Meh.
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Don Paul
Social climber
Washington DC
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Mar 20, 2013 - 09:33am PT
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I could have sworn that about six months ago or so, one of the guys who put up this route was on here talking about it. Was really interesting to hear all the planning that went into it. If its the same route, after the crack pitches everyone does, there is some wandering face that was hard to do back in the days of climbing in leather boots etc. I just looked for the thread but cant find it. Also I havent done this route so may be making a mistake.
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Author's Reply
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Mar 20, 2013 - 11:14am PT
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lol justthemaid, I used a buddy of mines music for it. It was free and I liked it. It's hard to get royalty free tunes!
Don Paul, yea I understand the route goes to the top, but I think the upper pitches are closed for Peregrines? I remember Largo's story about using a shrub to get past a difficult section up high, then removing the shrub to bout other climbers.
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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Mar 20, 2013 - 11:41am PT
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right on, nice camera work.
Great send!
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Mar 20, 2013 - 02:42pm PT
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Killer. That was a Jamclinic for sure!
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Don Paul
Social climber
Washington DC
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Mar 20, 2013 - 02:49pm PT
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Thanks Roger. 6 months ago, or 5 years ago, hard to keep track of time sometimes!
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Mar 20, 2013 - 04:26pm PT
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That was the very first route that I did in the valley when I was a youngster. I never repeated it, but it remains a classic in my memory.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Mar 21, 2013 - 03:01am PT
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We rated all of the pitches except the first at 5.10. Amongst the group was Will Tyree who drawled, "That would make it the hardest free climb in the Valley. Maybe the whole world."
Strong evidence that most of this climb could be considered harder than 5.9.... ;) fact is, If your limit is 5.9, you're gonna get spanked on this one!!! ;)
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saltandgranite
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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Mar 21, 2013 - 06:30am PT
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Psyched Mike! Love that guy. Nice to see him taking a break from flashing valley v8s for a change.
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Jan 25, 2015 - 05:35pm PT
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The 'schrund was the crux of the route. That 3rd pitch sure was fun
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Jan 25, 2015 - 10:21pm PT
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I wanna do that route.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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Jan 25, 2015 - 10:56pm PT
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loved the gopro
and the music fit brilliantly
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 26, 2015 - 09:04am PT
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I missed this the first time.
Thanks for the climbing content. I liked the video but no so much the music. But, like not clipping bolts on a retro-bolted trad climb, I just turned the sound off.
Contrast the start with this one just from the drought thread
(photo credit CF from
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=2328516&tn=988 )
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Central Pillar is considered one of the best climbs on Middle Cathedral. Photo: Chris McNamara
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