Saturday, January 17, 2009

Line on Solitaire Boulder

I climbed a really steep and spectacular line today on the north side of the Solitaire Boulder (it's the side you see as you approach from the Checkerboard area or from the Painted Cave boulder) and faces in the opposite direction to the classic Solitaire. I was wondering if anyone had done this before and maybe given it a name. It's an amazing-looking overhanging wall that's pretty high, but unfortunately the rock is really crusty. There was chalk on the first holds. I climbed it by a big drive-by dyno and then some crimps on iffy rock and biggish pulls to buckets over the lip up and right. It seems about v9/10? Could be easier but feels hard as committing to the upper moves is a bit frightening. It's actually pretty good fun despite the crumbly rock. Anyone have info? Please let me know!
Thanks,
Wills
UPDATE: Been suggested at v7 by some (see comments below).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thought you might want to knew Raphael did that line last winter

Wills Young said...

Thanks for the info! I guess it would have been early spring maybe, as that's when he came. Do you know if he gave it a name? Or do you have any more info?

Wills Young said...

Been suggested this is more like a v7 with the dyno being the crux. This seems reasonable if you know how to dyno or if you're tall and you take the direct exit. I spoke to Charlie Barrett who said he and some others did it going straight over using a very sketchy-looking hold, which I'm amazed didn't break. I would be careful doing it that way, but it looks like a great line anyway.