Devil’s Lake Trad Ticklist

Posted March 4, 2008 at 6:58 am · Comments { 19 } ·

The glory of Devils Lake in the Fall With Spring rapidly approaching and me having a cast on for the foreseeable future, I figured what better time than now to go over a ticklist of 50 or so routes that I wanted to lead at Devil’s Lake.  I put this list together last fall after a spectacular outing with Danny got my juices flowing for a big Spring season.  Hopefully this won’t turn out like the last list I created and never managed to try any of the routes listed. 

Many of the harder routes were selected solely on MountainProject.com descriptions and Eddie A. recommendations.  I tried to shy away from routes that had death cruxes.  Spice is nice, broken bones are not.  Any comments on additions or subtractions please comment below.  Especially needed at this point are quality 5.4 and 5.5 routes for my rehab endeavors.  An x marks a completed route.

 

5.4
Queen’s Throne – x

5.6
Foreplay – x
Full Stop – x
Berkeley – x
Brinton’s – x
Schizophrenia
Push mi, Pull yu – x
Cleo’s Needle
Coatimundi

5.7
Charybdis
Thing left of charybdis
Primak’s Surprise – x
Via Pia – x
Lost Face – x
Peter’s Project – x
Reprieve – Left of Full Stop
Everleigh Club Crack- x
Wiessner’s Face

5.8
Curving Crack – x
Chicago – x
Roger’s Roof – x
Birch Tree – x
Cul de Sac – x
Debauchery
Brinton’s Direct
Orgasm
Birthday Crack
Breakfast of Champions
American Beauty

5.9
Upper D
Eave of Destruction
Wobbly Dihedral
Route that Chris Led at OS

5.10
Sometimes – x
Congratulations – x
Big Deal (Straight up Full Stop)
Flakes Route
Dancing Madly Backwards
Cheetah
Sometimes Direct
Callipigeanous Indirect
Watermarks
Watermarks Direct
Alpha Centauri
Sometimes Right Side
Gargantua

5.11
Vivisection
Happy Hunting Grounds
Callipigeanous Direct
Thoroughfare
Son of a Great Chimney
Coup d’etat
Orgasm Direct
Laundry Chute??
Flatus

5.12
Steak Sauce
Donkey on my Mind
AAA
All the Way??

Posted In: From The Narc, Traditional Climbing

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  • vintage

    debouchery is “red tagged” for me

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    YES! I was hoping this would bring you out of the shadows.

    I will be available for belay slavery in the beginning of April…You have 6 months to work it out…

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  • Eric Holliday

    Recommended 5.4 Double Overhang *****; just to the left of Eave of Destruction which is way spicey. Quite a few on your list have significant ass pucker factor.
    Here are a couple other easy climbs:
    5.5 King’s Throne ***** tricky gear
    5.6 Pine Tree Step a Cross **** no hands crux
    5.7 Leaning Tower East Face *** down climb north face

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    Thanks I had forgotten about double O.

    In order to have any routes to list on the harder end I had to allow for a certain level of “ass puckering” but I still omitted several death routes (acid rock, pacific o, etc).

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  • kevlar

    Can you even trad lead PO wall??

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    There was a rumor last fall about someone leading it. It is more a lead in theory though because I don’t think you would want to fall at any point on the route. I have the gear beta if you want to give it a shot ;)

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  • eddie

    oh man, it’s gonna be a BIG, BOLD season for you brian! have fun and keep up with the updates!

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    Ha…unfortunately as in most cases I am mostly all talk. I have to take it easy for 6 MONTHS after my surgery so many of these routes will be out of the question for the whole of the spring season. Definitely a bummer as all the talk last fall had me pretty psyched for spring. I have no choice but to live vicariously through your boldness Eddie.

    And in the fall season we might be living…not in wisconsin. In which case I will hopefully be putting together a ticklist for eldo or something like that…

    …or maybe i should stop making lists as they only seem to lead to injury…

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  • http://dreaminvertical.blogspot.com/ Luke

    Let me know if you ever come out to Cali and want to do some trad. We have tons of tall pokey granite :-D The same goes for trad at Red Rocks. Vegas is close to Socal and cheap to fly to.

    If you do end up moving to boulder. You need to do the Yellow Spur in Eldo. AMAZING!!!!
    http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/boulder/eldorado_canyon_sp/105748657

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  • rjtrials

    I cant comment on the route at DL, but what I would do, is just try and send ALL the routes. 5.4 then 5.5 then 5.6 etc. Rehab is about MILEAGE! The crag cant have too many routes, eh? A couple weeks of climbing and you should be hitting 5.9 or .10.

    Gimme a shout if you wanna hit up T-Wall for some rehabing :)

    RJ

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    We’ll have to see how it goes. I don’t think I am supposed to do any climbing for 6 months but hopefully some easy mileage will not irritate things.

    Would love to hit up T-wall, hopefully it will be possible some day!

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  • http://dreaminvertical.blogspot.com/ Luke

    The T-Wall is Great!!! I went there a few years aback and was so happy to find some vertical cracks on the east coast! The easy stuff there is very fun and I hear the anchor situation is much better now that it was when I was there a few years ago.

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  • http://climbingnarc.com Climbing Narcissist

    Luke, how are the crowds in Eldo?

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  • Doug

    Maybe you cats can answer this question for me. I’ve met very few people who lead much at devils lake.

    I was wondering how you people figure out the gear situations on climbs. I come from new york, where my climbing life consisted mostly of climbing at the Gunks, a trad place head to toe.

    The guide books for the Gunks use a gear rating system, G, PG, R, X, to describe the availability of gear on the crux move. So you know that 5.8 X will kill you if you fall at the cux, R just break a leg, PG, probably not gonna hurt if you’re careful and G you can toss your rack at the cliff and be safe.

    Is the situation at DL pretty much figure it out for yourself on a climb by climb basis? Rap the line and take a good look before you try to lead it? I’ve been a habitual onsite trad leader– get to the bottom of a climb rated G or PG and in my comfort zone in terms of difficulty, and start up 1 to 3 pitches and figure it out on the way. I get the feeling that doing this at DL will get you hurt even if it is only one pitch.

    It’s kinda cool adventurous stuff if that’s the case.

    Love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

    Cheers,

    -doug

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    • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

      Interesting question. In my limited experience I use mostly visual inspection in combination with beta from others that have climbed the route. I would say that in general the prevailing technique is to just “figure it out yourself”.

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      • Doug

        Hey thanks,

        There’s certainly no lack of fun with that method.

        Good luck with your list … it’d be great for you to mark out the most enjoyable leads, so I can mooch off your experiences!

        Cheers,

        -doug

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        • http://climbingnarc.com Narc

          Considering my fingers don’t like bouldering I’m hoping to try several of these routes this spring.

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        • Chris

          I am no expert at DL climbing but from what I’ve seen and done, rap and/or TR to inspect and try placing the gear, then headpoint, esp for the harder lines. One of my current main roped partners typically onsights, but has told me it has been frightening more than once, even on routes well within his lead ability.

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  • mike o

    Just started climbing at the lake and it has been great. I have onsighted most of the climbs attempted there (all 5.8 and under at this point) and lead everything (or followed if my partner wanted to lead it). So far there have always been other climbers around that have told us if it will go on gear or not. There has been more than one unknown route that we climbed randomly because we saw booty gear… every time when we got to it though it was unusable or fixed. (finally saw what a double stem’d camalot looks like up close at some route near the old sandstone quarry. Also ran into some stuck cam at the top of the frigate last weekend). Once I get over the drive from the Chicago area, the lake is great!

    Also, Birthday Crack was awesome, but be prepared to run out or use micro’s for the first 20 ft.

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