3 Sick Ones from the Tennessee Wall

One of the signature characteristics of any blog is its author's sporadic absences, each accompanied with its own set of excuses and an insincere apology. I'll skip this step in hopes of keeping the Steep Potato "original".

Upon returning from Europe, I was eager to return to my dear southern stone, but puzzled by how I could savor those iron bands and dig my digits into our home terrain's best crimps. I was struggling with an A4 strain on my left ring finger, which ended up plaguing me for more than 3 months.

My solution initially was volume, but I quickly realized two glaring obstacles: no one else was stoked to climb 5.10 with me all day, and frankly I don't have the same stoke for volume as I do for trying really fucking hard (so I couldn't blame anyone else for the first problem).

The better solution was to continue what I do best - hard projecting - but direct it towards routes which would get along with my finger. In other words, I needed to find some hard crack climbs. As a sport climber, perhaps I should rephrase this simply as "crack climbs".

I began by revisiting a route I'd tried two winters ago with my friend Danny Poceta. The route is Tamper Proof, a 13a that follows an overhanging crack and finishes with an 8ft horizontal roof crack. It begins by climbing 30 feet of easy choss, and then transforms into some of the highest quality stone in the country. When the rock gets good, you place your first piece (a perfect .75 horizontal pod), and climb a brief 5.10 section in a corner before pulling onto a slab. Here, you place some gear high where the crack begins to steepen, and recover before the business starts.

Where the rock goes from worst to best, and I place my first piece.

Things about to kick off. Look at that stone!!!!

Three fingerlocks later, you've arrived at a flared hand jam, from which you clip the first of 2 bolts which protect the next 15 feet or so. Some incredible trickery gets you through this section, and finishes with a calf pumping no hands kneebar!

Clipping from the flared hand jam

Engaging in the "trickery" through the crux

Once you leave the kneebar, you have perhaps the hardest moves on the route. A short 3 move v4 or so gets you to a big horizontal break at the base of the roof. You begin placing gear again, and then quest off into some great hand jams until arriving at the lip. A left heel hook helps you establish on the face, and then some very chill 5.7 or so face climbing takes you to the tree anchor!

I sessioned this once with my friends Chris and Billy, who were smashing the nearby sport climbs that my finger unfortunately couldn't touch. The roof at the end was seeping terribly, and so I only went through the bottom section.

I returned pretty soon having made a new friend - Jon Cabrera - who was passing through town. I had a warm up go with some takes, made sure the roof wasn't seeping too badly, and then had my redpoint go. It went about as perfectly as I could have asked for! One slight hiccup at the final lip turn where I had difficulty matching a hand jam made me nervous, but the rest was flawless!

Going for the jug break after the hardest moves of the route. Gorgeous fall day.

Next I set my sights on a line that inspired me due to its reputation rather than its aesthetic. Riddle on the Roof had been a prized project for years, due to its incredibly cryptic crux. In 2010, Nathaniel Walker made the first ascent, calling it 13-. The route climbs a 5.10 slab to the base of a ~10ft roof split by a strange seam, and then finishes with 60ft of 5.9 or so slab/crack. Though it was obvious where the crux would be, it was anything BUT obvious how to climb it. The only glimmer of hope I had was there seemed to be an opportunity for a kneebar turning the lip.

It took me 3 separate attempts to figure out my beta for this crux, but it was so sick once I'd solved it! If you're looking to try it and want this chance to go in with a clear mind, don't read the next paragraph.

From the base of the roof, I reach out with my left hand and get the MOST painful fingerlock I've ever used. It's the jug of fingerlocks, and your index finger's first knuckle takes ALL of your weight. From it, you lock off to a barely there pinky down fingerlock with your right hand (I slot the tips of my back 3 fingers) near the lip. Then, I swing my feet out in front of me and paste my right foot on a TERRIBLE smear, and sink a kneebar. Once the kneebar is in, a few more funky moves get me to a thank-god jug, from which I establish onto the face. I would guess this is roughly a v6 or so boulder. It feels harder, but when you do it, it doesn't...

I came back prepared to try and send several times, but most days I showed up it was soaking wet. This led me to try another route I was curious about - Grand Contusion. More on that in a bit.

Eventually, I found this route on a dry enough day. The last right hand lock was wet, and the jug at the lip was a big slimy puddle. But the important parts - the smear and the block for the knee - were dry. After a warm up go with some takes through the roof to try and dry some things, I sent first go with a fair bit of desperation turning the lip! The 60 ft of moderate terrain were a sweet sweet way to finish off what had been a fairly frustrating project, and my hardest traditional climb to date.

Despite it's brief crux, I'd say this one felt harder than Tamper Proof and Greatest Show on Earth. I've heard people call this 12+, so maybe I just want to call it harder because of the nerve damage I think I sustained swinging on that fingerlock. Or maybe it's because I showed up so many times only to see water cascading off the lip of the roof. Regardless, this is one I am proud to have done.

Finally, there's the Grand Contusion. As I mentioned, I first tried it because ROTR was wet. The line follows bolts up a face and out a long ~15ft horizontal roof. The roof was obviously going to be the crux. I climbed up the face and pulled on my quickdraws to pass all the face crimps my finger couldn't touch. I arrived at the roof shortly and inspected everything. Good holds and a glaring lack of ANY feet sums it up. I couldn't even get to the anchor my first go. My second go I'd managed to get to the anchor but still hadn't done all of the moves. Finally, after 3 goes, I had done all of the moves.

Grand Contusion starts in the corner, traverses right in the roof, then climbs the
crack feature almost all the way left, until mantling above.

As it turns out, I learned that this route was put up by Rob Robinson as a traditional route. On his first ascent, he began in a corner left of the face and traversed under the roof to reach the crux, and depending on who you ask, may have used some preplaced gear in the roof. Subsequent to this ascent, a Chattanooga local bolted the entire line, adding the direct start on the face rather than the corner. Supposedly, this was intended to be a totally different route, since it starts differently and is meant to finish differently. Regardless of these muddled accounts, the line was undoubtedly redpointed with all gear placed on lead a few times since Rob's original ascent. It goes at 13b R (given that you aren't clipping the bolts...).

I knew going forward with the route I wanted to redpoint it as it was orignially envisioned - as a traditional climb, placing all gear on lead. I knew I had sacrificed some style points by first inspecting the route with the bolts. Oh well. It wasn't an onsight, and headpointing is so commonly accepted these days (toprope rehearsal), that my sussing on the bolts felt a bit like headpointing (clearly you couldn't toprope rehearse a 15 foot roof).

Over the course of several sessions, I found and improved my sequences. I sorted out gear beta, and eventually began giving it lead attempts. The breakdown for me, roughly, was a technical 10+ corner with small gear, leading to a great rest at the base of the roof crux where you alternate between a nice right hand fingerlock and a left hand jam.

The crux consists of a BIZARRE 13 move sequence following a crack/flake, which is probably hard v6. You begin the crux having nested 2 small c3's from your resting holds. 4 moves in you strenuously wiggle in another green c3, from which you have to run it out for the next 12ft or so until you've reached the lip. At the [very slopey] lip, you desperately place a .3 in a sloping horizontal you're right hand just came from. It's always a relief when you clip that one because you're nice and safe to the top from here.

A weird v3 mantle gets you established over the lip, and you can enjoy some quality 5.10 feature climbing for 20 more feet to the chains at the top of the wall!

When I finally sent this route, I thought it was going to be too wet. Chattanooga had had record rainfall the last 2 weeks, and most of Twall was soaked. As has been the case with any project here, I just needed the route to be dry enough. The latter half of the 10+ corner was sopping wet, and so were the handjam and fingerlock at the rest. Thankfully, the roof itself was dry. I was able to recover well at the rest despite wet holds, and I felt strong throughout the entire crux sequence. A considerable amount of rope drag slowed me on the easy 5.10 going to the chains, but that didn't deter from how psyched I was!

Some people have asked me why I'm climbing a sport climb on gear, and I don't think that's accurate. There are plenty of sport climbs I've done which would go safely on gear, and I don't really have the desire to do them in that style. Similarly, I think that if you climb the Grand Contusion on bolts, you're climbing a trad climb on bolts. That doesn't mean you didn't climb the route, but to me it begs the same question of why someone would climb a sport climb on gear.

FWIW, I have no experience putting up routes. Maybe that makes me unqualified to have such opinions.