Long trad goal routes - difficulty ranking

[seano]

So the other night I was pondering what might be an all-time climbing goal for me. I am more inspired by long routes than single pitches and decided that Moonlight Buttress just might be out there on the edge of possibility. I started to put together a list of intermediate goal routes and tried to rank them in order of difficulty. (I'm trying to take into account length, stiffness of grades in the area, likely awkwardness of climbing, etc. Not just concerned with rating of hardest pitch.) Just thought I'd throw it up here to see if anyone had any insight into the relative difficulty of these routes, or had any suggestions to add to the list. Just trying to ponder the future and get psyched!

I suppose a little background on where I'm at now might be relevant. I've been climbing about six years or so. Started off trad climbing and climbing long routes right away, but mostly stuck to easier stuff. Recently, due to a change of location, I've started sport climbing more (and started to loosely follow the rctm plan). I'm climbing 5.11+ sport at the moment and hopefully closing in on 5.12. Honestly, after starting out climbing with a bunch of folks for whom 5.10a was a "hard" pitch, I never thought I'd climb this hard, and the idea of free climbing some of the routes on this list is a little crazy. But what's the internet for if not active daydreaming?

Here's what I came up with so far, in my best guess from easiest to hardest. I'm planning on getting on Positive Vibes this summer. The rest is out there in the ether somewhere. 

Positive Vibrations - Incredible Hulk
Direct Beckey - Elephants Perch
Rostrum North Face - Yosemite
Cloud Tower - Red Rock
Rainbow Wall - Red Rock
Tradewinds - Incredible Hulk
El Cap West Face - Yosemite
Half Dome Regular Route - Yosemite
Moonlight Buttress - Zion

[MarkAnderson]

I've only done a few of those, so I can't comment much on the ranking, however I will say that you should also consider the type of climbing encountered on those routes. If your ultimate goal is Moonlight, then it would be helpful to select "stepping stone" routes that are in the same genre. On the other hand, if you are inspired to climb the routes on your list for other reasons, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

Where it counts, Moonlight is fingerlocking up splitter cracks, and liebacking thin finger cracks. Sandstone is smooth, steep, and offers few footholds, but the deep, parallel cracks allow for text-book locks, jams and gear placements. Granite (especially in Yosemite) tends to be slabby, with abundant smearing opportunities, but with shallow and flared cracks that are harder to jam and protect. Climbing granite chimney or fist cracks on a slab won't help prepare you as well as fingerlocking sandstone splitters (other than to generally teach you how to suffer, rig, plan, etc).

So for example, I would throw in something like Monkeyfinger, which is in Zion and climbs the same Navajo Sandstone, in place of, say, Half Dome, which is granite, mostly chimney-hand size crack climbing and much longer than Moonlight.

[seano]

Thanks for the response, Mark. I would be psyched to climb all those routes in and of themselves, but the suggestion for better training routes makes sense. I'll put my finger on my to do list for 2017 or something!

[seano]

Er, that is, I'll put monkeyfinger on my to do list.

[jcm]

Here is a detailed analysis by someone who has done many of those routes: www.dreaminvertical.com/2013/02/magnificent-multi-pitches/ He even makes the comparison semi-quantitative, which should satisfy the RCTM numbers geek. Good beta/suggestions too.

[seano]

Thanks for the awesome link JCM. That's a great site with a lot of useful info.