Climbing
Lover's Leap is a popular climbing destination with over one hundred and fifty established routes. It is best known for its traditional multi-pitch routes, often using granite dikes for holds; but the area also includes some boulder problems.
Bruce Cooke established the first recorded climbing route here, a chimney in the middle of the wall, around 1950. A handful of routes were put put in the following decade by local climbers (some with the Sierra Club) from the Sacramento Valley and the Bay Area. Routes established in this early period included future classics Corrugation Corner, and Bear's Reach, a route made famous half a century later by a viral video in which Dan Osman speed climbed it.
The 'Leap gained its current climbing popularity during the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which the first ascents of most notable new lines were done. Traveler Buttress, featured in Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, was put up in 1966. Well-known climber Royal Robbins moved to the area from Yosemite during the 1970s, and opened the first climbing school at Lover's Leap.
Some popular routes at Lover's Leap today are:
| Route Name | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Knapsack Crack | 5.5 |
| Deception | 5.6 |
| Harvey's Wallbangers, Center | 5.6 |
| Pop Bottle | 5.7 |
| Surrealistic Pillar | 5.7 |
| East Wall | 5.7 |
| Corrugation Corner | 5.7 |
| Haystack | 5.8 |
| East Crack | 5.8 |
| The Line | 5.9 |
| Scimitar | 5.9R |
| Eagle's Buttress, Right | 5.10a |
Read more about this topic: Lover's Leap (Tahoe, CA)
Famous quotes containing the word climbing:
“Housework is a breeze. Cooking is a pleasant diversion. Putting up a retaining wall is a lark. But teaching is like climbing a mountain.”
—Fawn M. Brodie (1915–1981)
“These are the warnings
that you must forget
if you’re climbing out of yourself.
If you’re going to smash into the sky.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”
—Nelson Mandela (b. 1918)