Book of Friends is a full on old school burl-fest type of a route. Lots of physical crack climbing on an incredible formation. Very cool!
P1) Climb corner that moves up and curls left at the top with the crux at the end. Belay in an alcove off wide cams. (5.10a)
P2) Climb up and out an overhanging corner on hands to where you do wide hands and fists out the left side to a belay in a tight constriction. (5.10c)
Pitch 3) Climb up the "Baxter 5.8" chimney above. This will feel harder than most other 5.8's since it's more like 5.9. Pull over a chockstone and then continue up. Straight up is supposed to be like 5.10, out left is unprotected 5.8 chimney. I had to go down here because the snow was getting the rock all wet.
Location
Book of Friends is approached from a pulloff near the old fish hatchery about 1/3rd to 1/2 way up the canyon. I'll have to check my notes for mileage. You can see the Book of Friends formation up on the north side of the canyon.
Appraoch by walking on the road towards where the hatchery was, then crossing the creek to the right. Get into a big gully, then up, up, up, with a bit of nosing around to get to the right formation. First pitch is a right-facing book with a nice-looking crack in it.
Protection
Solid rack of nuts/tri-cams and cams from 1/2" up to #4.5 Camalot.
By Will Cobb From: Flagstaff, AZ Mar 29, 2006 rating: 5.10 PG13
This is a great route, however it is very physically demanding. When I climbed it we took a double set of cams with one 4.5 camalot and one 5 camalot. This was very sufficient.
When I climbed the route we made our second belay on top of the chockstone that Greg describes. (Where he ended his adventure due to wet rock.) From here you are faced with two options - 1. The right hand variation is 5.10 and looks like thin hands. 2. The second variation is a 5.7+ to 5.8- chimney. Most of this pitch can be protected with #4 to #5 camalots being walked up the crack in the back of the chimney.
Other beta would be to wear long pants and to tape up. I don't think that I had any skin left on my hands after climbing this route...
rap the route using 2 ropes. there is a two bolt anchor w/ webbing (probably needs replacing)and a quick link on top; and another anchor w/ chains above the cruxy 2nd pitch.
By Will Cobb From: Flagstaff, AZ May 25, 2006 rating: 5.10 PG13
Mark,
When Jon and I climbed this thing several years go it was not possible to rap the route. Has something changed?
Jon and I topped out in the dark and had to tie our ropes together and do one long single line rap back to the deck. Burcham told me that there are rap anchors, but we never saw them... Do you have new Beta?!? I want to go down this summer and repeat the route.
Great summer route with an early start-perfect temps in the shade.
There are bolts/chains at the top of pitch 2 and bolts/webbing at the top of the route, however the Burcham rap route follows 2 sets of bolt anchors down to the climbers right from the top. Bring 2 ropes for the raps.
A classic route with good, well protected climbing on the crux.
Am I sure I got the right route?! Are you kidding? How could anyone confuse Book of Friends with anything else in the area? Just because you're the administrator doesn't mean you are the only person with knowledge about AZ routes. Yes there are anchors now, I don't know who put the 2 sets on the route itself, but I've been told John Burcham et al. installed the backside rap route within the last few years. Go up there and check for yourself if you don't believe me.
By Will Cobb From: Flagstaff, AZ Jul 30, 2008 rating: 5.10 PG13
Just climbed this route again with Dean today and it is still awesome. Two sets of cams to #4 Camalot plus a 4.5 and a 5 was great.
A bit of descent beta -
Rapping the route seemed pretty straight forward, but we took the Burcham raps down. These bolts as mentioned above are on the climber's right and sort of behind the route. A full 190' rap into a corridor brings you to two bolts with biners set in a chimney back behind you. As you near the end of your ropes start looking back and the anchor will be easily visible. Then rap down and out of the corridor. Walk about 30 seconds back to your packs.
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