Ascents of Jerome the Gangster

Sick! Was blowing chunks at the top

Burly start on slopey tufa had me pumped pretty quickly so rested. Good flowy midsection with decent holds most of the way to a pumper top. Rested multiple times

OMG, what a climb!! I did it as the last climb of the day, and how I wish I would have tried it sooner! I did get on the first two bolts early on in the day, but downclimbed as I thought it was out of reach. After seeing Matt onsight it, and Igor try it, I decided to give it a go. Took it to the last bolt before falling! Pumpy, bouldery first section involving compressing on a slopey tufa, followed by kneebar after kneebar, ending with a very hard sequence with bad holds where bolts are hard to clip. Found a left hand way of topping out. I wish I could go back and send this!

technical/ pumpy tufa climbing

technical/ pumpy tufa climbing

With a bit of technique you can basically rest up the first 3/4 of the route. Last five pumpy meters are unfortunately a bit contrived. I do understand what they want you to do but the line kinda pulls you to the left (and I did the Ivo-variant). Not sure if the other line would be much harder (as you only miss two moves going right); This way it's soft for 7c. Would be classic if not for the contrived finish.

really need to learn to kneebar

Not 7c+ in my opinion. The way I climbed it on my onsight it might not even be fully 7c, I ended up on the left side of the final tufa bulge. I could clip everything (with Qds in) but you are probably supposed to go right, which is probably a bit harder. Anyways super happy about the OS. Great tufa line, quite technical and physical at the same time.

Endurance mega tufas that was more like trad climbing. [2]

Fell 1m from the anchor on the onsight. So bummed.