Britney's Spear  5.11+

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Type:  Sport, 1 pitch, 75 feet Consensus:  5.11c [details] FA:  Bryan Beavers Submitted By:  Aaron Martinuzzi on Sep 21, 2008 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (2) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

This is the Crystal Wall from the pulloff to The P...

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Description 

Scramble up the gully from the base of Inyerbuttkwa via the path of least resistance to 2 bolts that can serve as a belay anchor. A lead fall would yank your belayer around some pretty uncomfortable terrain if s/he isn't clipped in.

Climb up through some blocky terrain (5.7-5.9) through the first three bolts to gain the left face of the striking, orange prow seen from the alcove. Move up on some tiny, lichen-y holds (5.10/11) to a crux that starts just beneath the 2nd to last bolt.

At this point, I did a bit of 'aid' climbing to reach around the corner of the arete into a wide fissure that offered some usable holds. The climbing was not at all obvious, and harder than any of main wall P1s or Ballet of the Bulge. Definitely 11-something, possibly harder, and also possible to cheat your way around, as I did.

Clip the last bolt as the terrain eases and top out! It is a sport climb, but it's sort of epic. Whether or not you agree with that, the good climbing, neat feature, and fun topout make for an excellent route.

Location 

This line climbs the left face of the prow visible way up the gully from Inyerbuttkwa or Ballet of the Bulge. The 2-bolt 'belay anchor' mentioned above is ~15' down and slightly left of the base of the prow, as seen from the alcove.

This feature is also visible from the Palace pull-out, and looks pretty stunning from there; a large, clean, orange prow jutting out of the choss-pile behind Crystal, upper right in the photo. The line of bolts ascends the shadowy left face.

Protection 

9 bolts.

Two options for anchors - top out and belay from the 3-bolt set-up on top of the pillar, or break right at the 2nd to last bolt and make a reach for the fat Metolius rap bolts on the downhill face of the prow.

I topped out and belayed from the 3-bolt anchor, but rappelled off from the 2 bolts on the orange face with one 60m rope, and then walked off and around back to the alcove. Rapping from the 3-bolt setup off the overhanging face could finish with your rope stuck in a rotten crack at the edge of the prow.

Alternately, one could be lowered or rappel from the 3-bolt setup down the route to the belay anchors.