True Grit: A broken hold and new grades

Hey folks! A crucial hold broke on True Grit during the month of October 2017. The hold that broke is the right-hand side-pull after the lower flakes. All is well, but it does change the game a bit.

The line, which will still be called “True Grit” is now graded (V6) and is a step up in difficulty as compared to what it was before. Now you need to use a higher, much smaller ripple as opposed to the -now gone- large side-pull.

The biggest difference is that now, “True Grit Left” is a much better and more intuitive sequence than before, and I think it is now the best line on the boulder. With the side-pull gone, “True Grit Left” is now (V5) and the movement is wonderful.

It’s always a bummer when a crucial hold breaks on a classic, but in this instance, we are fortunate that what resulted is just as great to climb on. I would like to add that while I do not know the nature of the hold breakage here, I did notice multiple holds that had broken recently in the area. I did not visit the Contact station over the month span when these breaks occurred, but I saw at least 5 broken holds on area classics at the Contact Station. That month was a rainy one.

While these broken holds did not affect the general difficulty of the lines, we must recognize that it was extremely lucky that other crucial holds didn’t likewise break off. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN GRAYSON WHILE IT IS WET! Holds become friable and weak when GHSP gets a lot of rain. I don’t think this was nefarious in any nature. I feel that these holds were likely broken due to folks attempting to climb on wet rock. Lets try to avoid that!