dagibbs | climbing thoughts on Austin and limestone vs granite

When I was down in Austin I climbed at a couple local places -- The Barton Creek greenbelt, and Reimer's Ranch. Both were similar in type of climbing. Texas, at least the area around Austin, is pretty flat and the rock is limestone -- which erodes (dissolves) easily. So, the climbing is generally in gullies/gulches/canyons carved by water. Also, limestone is sedimentary, so there are clear horizontal layers to it -- combined with the erosion, this has noticeable affects. For one, you tend to get long cliffs of close to the same height, giving lots of choice for climbs. You get a lot of large-scaled ins and outs in the wall, you get curving layers from the smoothing of the water. And, you get a fair bit of smooth stone. Limestone is also softer than granite, so the climbing smooths it out even more. So, a lot of the holds, especially anything that is rounded, are a lot smoother than here. With granite, you get rough rock, it is very grippy/frictiony. You put a hand over a sloping hold, and you get good friction from your entire palm over the hold. You put your foot on a slight bulge in the rock, or even just flat on the wall, and you get good friction and grip. But, also, in contrast to the smoother, the limestone also seems to end up sharper -- the granite is OLD rock, most of the really sharp edges have been worn down by time, and when it breaks it doesn't tend to break into really sharp edges. Whereas the water-carved nature of the limestone can leave a bunch of sharp edges. And, I think the humidity level changes the feel of the rock -- makes it more slippery, too. The water carves out horizontal layers, giving shelves; carves out pockets and other indentations, giving various holds. On the granite, more often you get holds where the rock has cracked/split -- so I think there is a lot more crack climbing here on the granite.

Maybe because of the last, or maybe not, but up here I'd say well over half the routes are still trad* -- they haven't been bolted for sport climbing. Whereas down around Austin, at least at the more popular areas, everything under the sun (up the wall?) has been bolted for sport routes. Almost nobody bothers to bring trad gear to the rock. I mentioned planning to learn trad climbing, and people down there felt "why bother". But in the Gatineaus, your climbing is severely restricted if you don't climb trad, or happen to be lucky enough to have friends that do so, and can set top-ropes for you.

Also, the rock down there was mostly very dirty. Even on popular climbs on popular faces, there was usually dirt on the rock, on the ledges, everywhere. The rock I've climbed in the Gatineau has generally been far cleaner.

But, the walk-ins down there were generally a lot shorter and easier. Often they involved descending into a ravine, rather than climbing up to the rock. And, you generally wouldn't have to descend much more than the cliff height itself -- I don't think any climb in/out was ever more than 100 ft of vertical (30m), whereas the climb up to some of the cliffs out at Luskville is often a good bit more than that.

It was nice to have the experience of climbing on different rock.

* trad - traditional, setting your own protection. Generally easiest to set in cracks.