An amazing, if unlikely line up the SSW side of the End Pinnacle, around the corner from Days of Future Passed. Great, mostly well-protected and airy climbing with a little bit of everything. The start is under a house-sized boulder which leans against the End Pinnacle. Beware of possible windy conditions and a shady and possibly very chilly first belay under a large boulder.
P1: Start on the slab under the boulder to a small ledge and out to the left to a sickle shape feature and up steep face climbing on alligator skin to a two-bolt belay (rap anchors). Very well bolted. 5.10a, 150'.
P2: Climb the face up and right to a single bolt. You will see a two-bolt belay above and left of this (for Poetry in Motion), but this is NOT where you are heading. Continue right to the buttress and climb the line of bolts. The traverse right to the arete is run-out and the single bolt is piss-poor but the climbing is easy. Once on the arete, the route is well-bolted. Belay off two rap anchors in a kind of alcove. 5.8R, 150'.
P3: Just above the belay, follow the bolted seam up and to the right. A 3/4" cam is necessary here. Exposed! 5.10a, 130'.
P4: Up the steep slab past two bolts to a large ledge with a 2-bolt anchor on the left side.
P5: Move the belay to the right side (for Days of Future Passed) and then traverse right around the corner and up a steep slab, following bolts to the top. 5.8+, 100'.
Descent: 3 rappels. Complicated. Move east and slightly south below the summit area to a small pine tree with rap slings. Rap 150' (2 ropes) to a set of bolts. Another 2-rope rappel into a dark chimney. Scramble north along the chimney to a hole by a chockstone, squeeze through the hole onto a ledge. Rap off a slings around a wedged chockstone to the ground on the NE side of the pinnacle.
Location
The start is under a house-sized boulder which leans against the End Pinnacle. For approach from the west side of the Stronghold, see my comments for the approach to Rockfellow formation.
Protection
2 ropes, 15-20 quickdraws, wires, TCUs, small to med cams, slings
One linkup that has been suggested (and looked like a lot of fun) is, instead of busting out right on pitch three, keep following the bolts for Welcome to the Machine (straight up the groove from the alcove), then rejoin Endgame after the fourth pitch of that route. Also, people who had done both the original Days of Future Passed finish and also the Endgame finish to that route unanimously recommended the latter. The 5.8R climbing on Days was, according to them, not worth the additional risk and not as much fun as the last Endgame pitch.
The reason to do the original finish to is exactly because it is the original finish. If you've climbed the rest of the route the 5.8 R bit on the last pitch should not be that much of a challenge!!
P4 is ~5.8 and has 5 bolts, not two, plus an optional 6th near the lip of the ledge that could serve as a directional before you traverse to the anchor on the right side of the ledge. And then there's yet another bolt on the ledge farther left, and, um, yeah, well, lots of bolts all over this dome.
By Geir Hundal From: Tucson, AZ Oct 16, 2008 rating: 5.10b
A topo for this climb can be downloaded by clicking this link:
Note that this topo is for the west face of end pinnacle. After the third pitch, Endgame continues on the southwest face. For this reason, the rest of the topo (pitches 4 & 5) can be found on this topo:
Two variations to this route that were chopped years ago have been rebolted. The bolts are beefy Fixe hangers so if you want to stay on the original route don't use them.
Variation 1 5.11+: About 5 or 6 bolts up from the start of the climb along the hand traverse, a line of Fixe bolt hangers go straight up a very blank section of face to the first belay of Welcome to the Machine.
Variation 2 5.10+: On the third pitch as the climbing begins to ease up is a shallow dihedral that heads up the steep headwall. Climb this until possible to finish on Welcome to the Machine. The 20 feet of 5.7 is a tad less exciting if you bring a couple of hand sized cams to plug in at the top of Welcome... or if you want a mental challenge move right at the last bolt and finish on Great Gig In The Sky which is about 5.7 to the ledge also.
By Geir Hundal From: Tucson, AZ Nov 30, 2008 rating: 5.10b
I checked out the variations the other day, and they are a lot of fun. The upper variation makes for a stellar way to do pitches 3&4 of Endgame.
I did this route with Miles "bigwall" Kunkel. "Bigwall" because this is the longest route he's ever done. He made a mockery of it, not only skipping the gear on pitch 3, but skipping most of the bolts on both pitches 1 and 3.
Me: Why did you skip all those bolts ?
Miles: Didn't see 'em. (said with a sly half-smile)
!
By Geir Hundal From: Tucson, AZ Jan 20, 2009 rating: 5.10b
EDIT: found out recently the above comment wasn't supposed to be offensive. oops ... i feel sheepish. :(
Congrats Miles on a solid ascent of a great climb! It sounds like a very talented climber got on a well protected 10. :)
By JimmyK From: Flagstaff, AZ Nov 13, 2009 rating: 5.10b PG13
P1: Stay left. P2: Runout 5.8 climbing P3: Awesome. Stay Low P4: Climbed in November. Was in the shade until P4. P5: More difficult than 5.8+ when in the sun.
Killer route. Really fun. Make sure to bring enough draws. The first pitch had 15 to 18 of em i think. We used 2 pieces of pro all day, our rack was excessive- you could easily just bring quick draws and runners.
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