FFA La Peur

[Matt Peck]

La Peur 5.10 c R 60'/N/T
FA: Karel Allard, C. Jones 1994.9.18
FFA Matthew Peck, Chris Norfolk 2007.9.16

#265 in the Berube guide.
"Immediately where the (Upper Tier) trail meets the cliff, climb the obvious right facing dihedral to an overhang and finish at tree on top." This stout climb takes limited gear that protects long but safe falls. Long slings to extend your anchor, as the tree is set far back. Bring your #3!

Whew! After a couple of weeks of effort, she's finally in the bag. The name will certainly stay, as it fits the route. Quite an awesome line, if you can keep the fear in check.
Thanks to Fred, Holly and Cory for their initial assistance, and Chris & Jenn for the bomber belays.
Enjoy folks, she's nice and clean now!
Matthew Peck

[Adam]

yah... R-rated trad. i think i'll pass.

[Fred]

Nice work Mat. I would have loved to get it on video. Sweet route.

[martha]

Yup, Good Job. Can I borrow your nads for my trip?

[Holly Reid]

Good work Matt! Such a fun route!

[Adam]

yah... R-rated trad. i think i'll pass.

sorry, a little negative there good work matt ... way to not die

[cory]

Was a gear placement not there afterall? I thought you were leaning towards PG instead of R.

Well done.

[Matt Peck]

The gear is ok 4 pieces or so through the route. You could put in more down low to protect the first 2/3rds consistantly, but I usually get up on the route a bit before I place my first piece to avoid any drag farther up. The gear is quite good, I fell on the only sus piece and it held fine. The R rating comes from the runout after leaving the dihedral to go up under the roof, pull it and top out. The piece is bomber (big ol cam that you could back up with another one) but if you were to fall in the last third of the route it would be quite a lob. I think it would be fairly clean, you might swing into the dihedral a bit but it's fairly smooth and angled away. Long fall but good. Prolly a 20 to maybe 25 footer if you blew the topout. Like I said for the new description, it's strenuous, with burly moves, but the holds under the roof are huge, and the smears with your feet are decent. You just have to keep the fear in check. Thanks all.
Holly, you'll have to come give it another run now that She's all clean! Yeah, and Im sorry Half Ass couldn't have gotten the video Fred, but time was passing and I was getting nervous about leaving it so long. Thanks for the encouragement!

[Matt Peck]

Fred, I've got an idea for a new line near Peer Pressure that could be pretty intense, It'd offer a good view when you send PP for footage.

[*Chris*]

Yep... the man was fearless. Nice work Peck! ...and for the record... I'd hazard a guess a little farther than a 25' fall once all was said and done.

[Adam]

[$0.02]IMHO a bolt to make it a safe lead might be a good idea. what's the point in R rated trad except to put your life at risk. yes, it might be a clean fall, but if your gear pulls, and it can *always* pull, then you're done for. seems like a no brainer to me. i've carried too many people out of cochrane lane...[/$0.02]

[Shawn B]

[$0.02]IMHO a bolt to make it a safe lead might be a good idea. what's the point in R rated trad except to put your life at risk. yes, it might be a clean fall, but if your gear pulls, and it can *always* pull, then you're done for. seems like a no brainer to me. i've carried too many people out of cochrane lane...[/$0.02]

Not taking anything away from Matt's lead, but I gotta say IMNSHO I agree. Matt you've put the work into cleaning the route all for nothing unless you equip the route with satisfactory gear. Very few will ever lead that route as it currently is and those that will lead it will not onsight it, but work it into submission on TR until they can do it in their sleep. It will go unclimbed and get overgrown again. If the route is of the quality you speak, it would be sad to see it unclimbed. As the person with the FFA, would you rather see people climbing it and saying what a great route it is or saying "I'd never lead that thing". Remember too...it is at the Upper Tier.

[Fred]

The climb is a solid traditional route no question. It's a perfect dihedral with solid placements throughout. There is a slight runout at the top no worse than other climbs in Welsford. If a bolt should be added to La Peur then the same can be said for Human Direct, Catholic Girls and others.

[Shawn B]

Where is the crux? If you blow the crux do you take a 25 foot ride? The crux on Human Direct the gear is at or just below your feet. Yes you could take a long fall on it during the last 20 feet of the climb but the climbing gets progressively easier the further out from your gear you go. Catholic Girls the gear is at your feet as well during the crux. The only place you would take a 25 footer on that is off the ground on the bottom 5.4 part. There is a huge difference between 5.10+ R and a 5.10+ with a runout 5.5 R section. When you do Book of Solemnity on Cathedral, in order to protect your second from a likely severe injury causing swing at the crux, you must not place any gear after the crux on the second pitch. It is another 60 feet to the top after the crux but it is 5.5 climbing. That is acceptable risk if you are leading at that level. The crux of the climb should be "reasonably" protected. I don't know of one other route in Welsford where the crux is 10-15 feet out from your last gear. The way Matt describes it, it is hard climbing with long fall potential...not easy climbing after a well protected crux. If that is not the case, then it may be fine sans bolt. If it is the case, it won't get climbed.

[Fred]

The top out is not the crux. With the right gear, you are well protected throughout the climb. The route is traditional with a runout top.

[chossmonkey]

Man, I wish we were still going out there this Fall so I could try it and put in my $.02. The route sounds cool.

[STeveA]

When Chris and Karel climbed the route, was it an aid route?

[Fred]

Prior to projecting this climb, I confirmed with Karel that this route had not seen a ground-up ascent. They climbed it on TR.

[Matt Peck]

Yeah, pretty fn hard to find even little cracks for pins. Might get in a bashie or two but short of hooking and drytooling it'd be a hard one to aid.
I'd be reluctant to place a bolt. The climb is difficult and intimidating, but not dangerously so if you place the proper gear. I didn't want to get too detailed here and ruin the experience, but I'll weigh in.
Placing the last big cam and having enough gas to get past it is the crux I would say. Pulling the roof is hard as well, because the climb suddenly changes character and the holds become thinner and not as obvious. That said, I lead this part clean the first time I tried it, and have done so every time since. Where I always fell or took before was at the top of the dihedral while placing the large cam. Your gear here is just below your feet if you don't get the cam clipped, and it held me falling on it.
I haven't taken the time to learn how quotes work in this forum, but as to the gentleman who was concerned about your gear pulling, I would reply that this is indeed *always* a concern; as in this can happen anywhere, not just on LP. This is part of the risk we undertake as trad climbers. I tested the placement and you could theoretically place three or even four cams of various sizes in that placement for back up. Also, there is a thin seam just above it that will take a wad of microcams. The "bomberness" of the last piece is pretty damn good if you ask me, and if you want to frig around in the crux and pump out placing a trad anchor worth of gear that's great, but I chose to go off the one bomber cam and made out fine. My seconds and myself repeatedly gave this piece a loading in a bunch of directions and it was always wicked bomber, and difficult to clean from time to time as a result.
Im not an advocate for creating dangerous climbs, that said I think that there is an element of risk you have to accept when stepping up to LP to lead it. The amended discription I provided above reflects this. I would love to see this route become more popular and travelled, but Shawn is right to say that this probably won't be the case without the bolt. Bolts have a finite lifespan however, and that's not a mark I wish to leave lightly.
There are quite a few other hard "thumbs up", well protected routes on the Upper tier. These climbs are getting quite dirty as well. The reasons for this are twofold: 1) the remoteness of this wall, and 2) the tragic lack of strong leaders/people willing to climb hard in our community today.
I propose that people give the route a try. Toprope it if you'd prefer and get back to me with what you think. This is my first FFA, and I'd like the imput of other climbers regarding the feasibility of the route, but AFTER it's been tried. I'd like the climb to stay trad, but that may change after debate. In the meantime, the climb is there, all clean and ready to go.

[john]

Good work matt. I think from what I looked at the gear is adequate. Its great that someone took the effort to clean and do it. It is an obvious, if seepy, trad line.

Not every route needs to be accessible to every climber and mental control should apply to some routes. The grade is accessible. Some mental test pieces are good. You did not indicate it was x and a fall is clean from what I have seen. If gear rips you could get hurt or die, just like tons of routes.

Why would we want every route accessible to everyone, then none of us would have anything to work for?

cheers from away

jb

[Ken P]

Good stuff! I have alot of respect for climbs/climbers that push mental boundaries. I still get freaked falling on bolts. Can't imagine taking a 25ft whipper on cam.

[STeveA]

In some areas the route would just be a highball. Maybe some of you boulders can up the ante. Take a dozen bouldering pads and send the route.

[*Chris*]

In some areas the route would just be a highball. Maybe some of you boulders can up the ante. Take a dozen bouldering pads and send the route.

In those areas, I'd be curious to sample the population of boulderers and compare their rates of death and severe disfiguration to a normal population.

(is boulderers the correct spelling for a group of people who boulder... it just looks wrong)?

... Matt, I think it's a good move to wait and see for a while before running out with a drill. I agree that there is nothing wrong with Welsford having routes that will serve as intense challenges for those who look for them. It adds to the area's resume, so to speak. Those not willing to accept the risk always have the option to TR it. It is an enjoyable climb as such.

I recall a decent layback immediately under the roof... is there any possibility of gear behind it? Since I was trying to gun through as quickly as possible at that point I don't recall if it was solid or simply a thin flake.

[STeveA]

"I have no idea what you're saying to me right now", my girlfriend looks at me like I'm speaking Norwegian with a mouthful of marbles. I have been trying to explain exactly what it is I do every weekend when I disappear into the woods with a spongy mat and a toothbrush.

As she walks away and shakes her head in a cocktail of disgust, despair and open mockery I realize that the root of the problem is simple...... my girlfriend doesn't speak Boulder. As a result I have attempted to define some of the basic words in every boulderers vocabulary and hope that any of you who are in need of a English/Bouldering dictionary can make use of it for yourselves and those non climbers around you. I would leave you only with the disclaimer that my definitions are not exactly 'official', and as far as dictionaries go this one's about as legitimate as a sighting of Elvis playing chess with the Loch Ness Monster.

Problem:
Boulderers climb problems not routes, implying that the boulderers task requires more thinking, consideration and solving than simple route climbing. This might even be true if you exclude chalk, tick marks and climb V14. There are more interesting alternatives offered in a thesaurus, such as 'Conundrum', 'Dilemma' and even 'Can Of Worms' which I now use exclusively.

Judging from the quote, the term boulderers seems to be correct, even if it looks wrong.

[Fred]

Chris:

the big cam you removed before traversing and pulling the roof is the last bomber piece (full proof) and only available piece before pulling the lip. Once you pull the lip you could probably place another piece before topping out but it's 5.5 ish climbing.

[*Chris*]

So, to recap:

One can sit on a boulder,
or a boulderer can go bouldering.
A group of boulderers can boulder on a boulder,
or a boulderer can boulder on a group of boulders.
All this can happen just outside of the city of Boulder.

... and they say english is confusing?

[mathieu]

Nice job Matt, last time I climbed with you, we were pushing our limits on 5.6 in the gunks.

My 2cents, keep it clean. I will definatly get more traffic with a bolt but NB should have a few 'mental' routes. There is tons of debate here on bolting trad routes to make them safer/more accessible but I believe that if it can be done 'semi' safe then it keeps the challenge intact for future generations.

Good work and keep it up. See you this winter.

[motanb]

Some other good suggestions for a "mental" route i believe are: Strat Factor Direct 10+. Even though it has a bolt protected crux I have heard ppl say that its "scary" or should have another bolt above the last one. Really, it's a harmless lead yet rarely see's an ascent. Matt, i think you should try this one.
Also, Ulysse Richard put up, what i think is one of minky walls better climbs, Bird of Fire. Here we have another great route that protects well for the most part yet see's very few ascents. It has good pro, although it does take some craftiness in places to place; any runouts would only occur on bomber gear with a clean fall.

So there you are. Thom's picks for "heady" leads.

[Matt Peck]

Chris, that last flake is big enough, but the angles behind it prohibit cam placement.
Thanks for the imput Thom, I've eyed up Strata factor a bunch of times and am thinking of giving it a go, however I have another project that's been haunting my dreams of late in that area (not pee pressure. Yeah you heard me).
I tr'd BOF in the spring and liked it a lot. I may check it out again.
Fred: fool proof? You frenchies are funny.
Another awesome route that by contrast protects very well that people should get on is A Never Ending Story in the L shape. Such an awesome climb.
Matthieu: When are you in this neck of the woods? Bring your ice tools and we'll go tear down some of the 5's in Grand Manan and Grand Falls.
Metaphorically of course.

[Fred]

fool proof? You frenchies are funny.

hehe

Bone Machine is another heart pumper. I finally redpointed this year now I don't have to get on it for some time.