Memphis Blues - 11a
FA: Stephen McCabe, John Stoddard, Mary Ellen Lawrence, 10/1978
Pro: Thin to 4", long slingsOh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Bob Dylan, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues AgainThis climb is really outstanding.
Stephen McCabe said he has never heard a peep of feedback about this climb since they finished it in 1978 so I think it is long overdue for some exposure and praise.
Sue and I did a recon a while back this year and did pitches 1 through 3. The first pitch put up a hell of a fight with Sue and she had quite the bloody shoulder to prove it. We tend to always start too late on everything so we only got to P3 and had to bail since it was getting dark. From that recon we learned several things, like we were pleased to find that someone had rebolted P3 but I thought I saw old bolts on the rest of P4 and would want to come back prepared for some rebolting work.
We also agreed that we really really wanted to continue up the rest of the beautiful dike we were bailing from. It is gorgeous.
On this recent trip we came with rebolting gear but found that either I was mistaken about seeing the old bolts or someone had rebolted the rest of the route since we were last there. We were really happy to learn this but had to haul up a bundle of heavy rebolting crap for the rest of the route. Oh well, no big deal.
By the way, if you are the one who rebolted the route and are reading this, thank you for your hard work and excellent camo job on the hardware.
Here are some shots and simple descriptions since I don't want to give away too much information.
Here is a shot of Sue smoothly sending her second and much less bloody ascent of P1:
P1 does require some 3-4" gear and the more the merrier. We considered lowering off some bigger pieces since we assumed that the rest of the climb was mostly face but we found that at least one 3" and one 4" would have been fine for above, but really only for P2.
Here is Sue following P2:
There is crack the entire way but you can't see it in the photo. You link thin flakes to reach an arching wide crack that leads to the "Mobile Ledge". P2 is pretty hard for "5.8"
Here is P3:
P4 from the first bolt:
This is the last half of P5:
Looking back from the second crux of P6 (not a good shot, except for the pretty girl):
P7:
We started to do P7 and decided to not commit to the runout section and instead bail from here to our bags and headlamps that we left on the ground. You can get to the P2 anchor from here with two 70m ropes, but I am not positive about with two 60's. Very likely though.
This climb does have several, long and runout do-not-fall sections on reasonable ground, each about 40', and that goes for leader and follower so there ya go. It is otherwise safe at all cruxes since there is smooth slab below every one and nothing to hit. And with the new bolts, what do you have to worry about?
We really enjoyed how the trajectory of each pitch allows the leader and belayer to see and hear each other for the full shared experience and some great potential photos too.
This climb is beautiful in every way and we were in total awe and respect for the FAists after we did it. They should be very proud of what they left and perhaps this thing can get some more love after all these years.
We would highly recommended checking it out.
