Burden of Dreams start

Post by **Danny** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 11:24 pm

The description for Burden of Dreams says to do the easy scramble up to the second pitch. I instead climbed the finger crack just to the right and traversed over a bit thinking this was part of the route. Does this finger crack have a name? It is pretty good. Probably mid 5.10.

Post by JB » Mon Jun 14, 2004 1:30 pm

According to the older guide books, that finger crack (Hackworth calls it a 5.8) is the start of the route, with a left traverse over to beneath the roof. I thought the traverse was the scariest part... but really liked that pitch quite a bit.

Post by **Larry Day** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:15 pm

The finger crack is the first pitch, or at least that's the one we did on the FA. As funny as it sounds I'm not sure I realized this was an unclimbed line when Hackworth and I did it. I was in the area for my annual post Denali r&r when Martin decided to sic me on this one. I figured he was just trying to sandbag me on his latest test piece, especially considering how stiff the 5.8 first pitch was. Anyway, he said the next pitch was 11 or so. Things went pretty well for about 3/4 of the way out, then I got all discombobulated when my rugby shirt sleeves rolled up on my forearms until I couldn't reach up in the crack. I remember thinking at the time that I wish I had taped the damn things at the wrist. The free attempt thus ground to an inglorious halt, and with a point of aid I was up. Sometimes I wish I had given it more than just the one shot. I would surely would have been proud of the FFA on this one. It might have been Danny that asked me about Burden of Dreams on this bbs a few years back. I had to look it up in the guide to see what he was referring to, and found out that Martin and I had been credited with the FA.

Post by **SCIN** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 8:50 pm

Burden is one of the baddest routes in the East.

Post by **Danny** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:10 pm

Thanks Larry! What kind of gear were you using back then? Discombobulated is a good description for what that thing does to you.

Post by **ynot** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:11 pm

Sounds like a cool route name too.

Post by **Jeff** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:34 pm

ynot wrote:Sounds like a cool route name too.

"Discombobulated" is a cool 11a at the New.
Sorry, back to the original topic.

Post by **Larry Day** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:42 pm

Gear wasn't a problem in '87. I'm not sure exactly what we had with us but I owned one each of size 3.5 and 4 friends, as well as hexes to size 11. Getting to the gear I had with me was quite a problem however. I had the rack slung over the shoulder, hanging down on the right side, and got it pinned between me and the rock. I was all screwed up with just a few feet to go and no way to move. I really should have gone back and worked the thing. I know it sounds kind of quaint, but I really didn't do much of that. Because I had bought into the ethic of the flash ascent as the best of all possible styles, anything less felt so much less satisfying that I was not very motivated to give routes multiple tries. Needless to say this approach was hugely satisfying on many levels, but it made it awfully tough to climb much harder than 5.11.