Great Buttress AreteRoute Grade Votings
Total votes cast 66
Adjacent Routes
12m. A fine climb up the long arete. A tape can be placed over a flake early on for protection, and above this the route gives sustained and interesting climbing. USER COMMENTS
Watch out for the rocking block on top of the route - probably not going anywhere, but pretty unnerving!
Can't see why this was ever given E2 - soft touch E1 IMO, but maybe a long reach helps. Great route though, plenty of gear, sustained
Me either, standard but excellent E1 arete fare I reckon, so much gear I thought it must be christmas!
I agree with Chris, this is soft touch E1. The original E2 grade must be for a pre-zero friend era
That's one of the stupidest comments added! Pre zero friends! Seeing as they've only been available for about a year then yes the grade is about right. E2 is still not that bad a grade, it's a bit reachy and run out at the top without 'modern' gear.
Sorry John, I meant pre small friends (0.5 and 0), when the last bit of gear would have been the sling over the spike
i agree with soft touch E1, the moves are excellent though and the gear is superb!
2 or 3 5b moves, quite reachy. Probably your average E1 5b really. Very nice route!
We top-roped this yesterday and I was so glad I wimped out rather than falling off higher up. I put in what I thought was a bomber chockstone belay. While lowering off a sudden jerk on the rope released the belay, I presume the rocking block rocked and released the belay. Fortunately I was only a few feet from the deck and only received a sore bum. Very unnerving and many thoughts of what might have been! Moral: be careful with your belays at the top and remember that 2 points of protection are better than one.
Definitely don't need zero friends for this, or even friends below size 1. It certainly felt pretty safe, and not too hard for an E1.
It is possible with some care and attention to place adequate wire protection. The grade E1 but not high in the grade. |