Valkyrie DirectRoute Grade Votings
Total votes cast 43
Adjacent Routes
28m. A long and elegant pitch up the steep jamming cracks in the arete. Climb the crack and the bulges to a rest at the base of the flake on the regular climb. Finish leftwards up this. USER COMMENTS
Great fun.
A traditional gritstone fight and more 5b than 5a, esp for the short.
A flake broke off just below the overhang about 7-10 years ago, and it's now much harder than straightforward HVS 5a. I couldnt do it when I was climbing comfortably at that standard. Either very strenuous and awkward if you get jammed in the overhanging crack with no good finishing holds or jams, or wild technical wide bridging of about 5c standard ... or did I miss something? Who's done it recently?
I did it in summer 2002 and it seemed correctly graded, but I like jamming. Don't think too hard at the overhang, 'just' jam through, fists being the key, and quite strenuous. Another thing - I would recommend making sure to enjoy the original Valkyrie before doing this one. The overhang takes you straight into the middle of the Valkryie crux, revealing all the key footholds, and makes it feel about V Diff.
the crux is safe(vs)not much harder than valkyrie(5a)
The new BMC guide shows this route finishing up a wide crack just above the Valkyrie (normale) crux which I found desperate and surely not HVS ( I am ashamed to say I pulled on a piece of gear)
I did it about 15 years ago and went straight up the bulging crack. I thought about 5b as that was my top grade and it was a bit of a fight. Gear ok if I recall correctly
Quality route! Neither of the hard sections are more than 5b if you can jam. There are harder HVS's at the roaches but this is still no soft touch!
Which bit are people referring to as the crux? I found the moves through the roof up to the flake tricky but okay (was only seconding). I found the moves up the crack just after the bit of traverse it shares with Valkyrie desperate as the crack was too wide for me to fist jam - although when I fell off I noticed a face hold that I'd previous been oblivious to as I'd been to busy trying to hang onto a pebble, and once I stood on that it was way easier.
I thought the crux was that final wide crack after the traverse from the flake (it's where I fell off anyway), though the moves through the roof also felt about 5b to me. |