Brain Dead 5.10+ PG13
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| Type: | Sport, 3 pitches, 300 feet, Grade II |
| Consensus: | 5.10+ [details] |
| FA: | Mike Head, Dave Dyess, 1986. |
| Season: | Shade 'till noon |
| Submitted By: | Ken Trout on Feb 9, 2009 |
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Some areas require a guide.
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Description If you've been loving those iron-rock in-cuts on the boulders, then this might be the pitch for you. Laurel Lacher, in Rock & Ice #36, called this pitch: "...one of the most tenuous 5.10+'s at Hueco."
To begin, climb either Divine Wind / All the Nasties up to the two bolts on "Urinal Ledge".
Brain Dead is the second pitch and starts off the right side of the belay. Follow a line of nine bolts up the center of a steep, perfect, slab of iron-rock.
After 50+ meters, the pitch ends on a big ledge with no easy anchor. We did it with a 50 meter rope and barely had enough rope to sit way back on the anchor-less belay ledge. I remember dusting off a nub on the ledge to sling like a horn and using a fat rope and hip belay for bringing up my second safely.
The final pitch is a 100 foot exit crack, maybe 5.5, from the big anchor-less ledge to the summit.
Location Divine Wind / All the Nasties begins from a nice belay zone, at the base of the Main Wall, between Split & Malice Boulders. Divine Wind starts from the top of the Malice Boulder. Nice sun atop the boulder, but many people like leave packs below the boulder and wear climbing shoes for getting onto the boulder.
Protection Mostly quick-draws. Maybe some steel nuts and more likely small aliens for isolated back-ups on both Brain Dead and All the Naties.
For the anchor-less ledge atop pitch two, I would bring a 70 meter rope and maybe some hand sized-plus cams to get a better belay anchor. My recollection is that you'll have to climb up the crack a bit to find any placements worth using and they won't be enough for an ATC Guide-on-the-anchor setup. Just gotta sit tight and hope your partner doesn't out-weigh you by much.
On the FA this pitch was done with two bolts and one TCU.
Four stars for a route with a funky belay ledge? Oh Yeah!
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