Direttissima 325m, 5.8+ (9 pitches)

August 29 climbed Direttissima with Jason Wilcox.  The climb has some new bolted anchors which will increase safety since some of the old piton stations are a bit suspect.  Rest of the route is in "old school" fashion. We only found one other bolt on route that was not an anchor, and it was beside a manky corner that had lots of loose rock.  Lots of old rusty pitons on route as well, most of which we clipped and they seemed solid.

The climbing was full value and then some for 5.8.  The grade of 5.8 should be taken in light of the date of first ascent (1957).  Bow Valley Rock said that "by Yam standards it is easy for its grade" I would disagree, but I haven’t climbed much on Yam. 

Jason and I were both slow and worked hard on our leads; goes without saying Jason lead most of the pitches and all the tough ones, 5.7 or higher.

Looking down the first pitch (5.8+, 50m), upper corner very sustained (old school 5.8) and has polished sections.  

Jason fought a lot of rope drag on pitch 5, much easier on top rope and the slick feet were less of an issue for me to stem up the awkward corner.  

Looking down top of pitch 5 from station.

Looking back at Jason at station 6 when I am leading pitch 7, packed away camera after this shot since the climbing got tougher.

Why doesn't JW have his hands on the rope?

JW grunted his way around the big chockstone, just off the belay staiton, for the start of pitch 9. Stemming was the best option, but the left wall is very slick, again easier for me on TR.  You have to take off your pack for the squeeze through behind the next chockstone, and don't forget to belay the second with a bit of slack in this section, as they will need to reach back down to get their pack.

For gear, we took 12 draws/runners, which I think we used all of them on a few pitches, and we used 0.5-3 cams and med to large nuts.  Any nuts BD size 6 and under we found no use for. You could double up on 0.5, 0.75 and #2 cams, as they seemed to get used a lot.

We had a super hot day to start so the bits of shade were awesome.  Great to follow the tough pitches and top out on the summit.