Trad Apprenticeship

[krampus]

Lee, I would love to plug some gear with you, I may not always know if my placements are steller, but I always know if its bad. If you ask me, that is more important.

[der uber]

You won't regret it, Lee. All gear is good as long as you don't fall on it. I'm not a pro myself but once you get into it it doen't take long to (as Krampus says) tell what's bad and what's 'ok'.

[clif]

this seems like a long way from an argument about glue-ins:

Just north of Pronghorn's unclimbed East face -- and if that thing doesn't make your knees buckle, you are certifiably insane -- is a 1000' tall ridge, site of this climb. Follow a spine above Donna Lake to the base (3rd class), then start up dark green rock on the triangular NE face. The route-finding is difficult, the ledges mossy, and the rock horrible -- good luck finding anything resembling a reliable hold. The idea is to gain the ridge after about two pitches -- but not too early, as the bottom of the ridge is steep & roofy. We wound up in a shallow LF dihedral that was manky, cold, and completely terrifying, and also 5.10ish. Three resident nuts in the corner indicated we were not the first idiots to go that way. The ridge itself is quite sunny, excellent pink granite, but almost too easy (5.5) considering the horror of the lower pitches. About 7 long ropelengths get you to the summit. Descent stinks: hop over frost-shattered talus for a mile either direction; easy (but hard to locate) gullys will bring you to Monkeyflower Dome's shoulder, or hump the loooong path around Dragon's Head. Most gullys along this ridge look like certain death as descent routes.

from the other site about climbing.

[cliftongifford]

I trust many of my gear placements just as much, if not more than I do bolts. I can't tell what the bolt actually looks like on the inside, but can almost always inspect my pro when trad climbing. At least you have an indication whether it's good or not.

mountainproject has most of the YDS protection ratings listed for the red as well as their difficulty grades. You'll probably want to start on routes rated G. Placing pro on a G rated route is much different than a route rated PG-13 or even R.

[pkananen]

I've done a few 5.12 trad routes since learning to climb sport, and it actually all feels soft now. Trad grades, if anything, are overinflated by taking into account the subjective "mental factor". You'd pick it up fast, and you can be proficient enough to be safe on day 1.

That's because the hard trad grades are 5.8 and 5.10, not 5.12. Duh. Kinda surprised you didn't know that.

[pigsteak]

granny grunt pants climb trad....

[cliftongifford]

granny grunt pants climb trad....

don't be so hard on yourself...
your spray says you're a trad master...

[pigsteak]

so now climbing 3-4 pitches of 5.7 is considered being a trad climber?..o boy, no wonder those gear pluggers feel like they have something special....

[TradMike]

Now this is a rock climb

5.4 X, 2400 feet, Grade IV

[dustonian]

What a pile!!