This route is the left most line on Playhouse Rock. It follows the obvious crack and corner from the low point in the ground to a point up top near the walk-off. This is shown in the attached photo as being to the right of the two lines marked. The protection is available to be safe, but the route is not sewn up. You may also note that I have substantially upgraded the line from 5.4 to 5.6. Although the route is probably mostly 5.4 or easier climbing, I believe that there are a few spots substantially harder and would not advise this as a good beginner lead.
Belay on the top from gear and descend by walking/scrambling to the south (climber's left), down to a gully.
not a good lead for a beginning 5.6 leader - flared offwidth with marginal small pro
By John Schirmer From: Canyon Country, CA Feb 12, 2007
Glad to see the rating on this climb bumped up.
I took a fall on the roof section of the 5.5 Roboranger the day before. Even though my gear held and I learned the hard way that I was making good placements on my early leads I was still a bit shaken.
My partner talked me into leading this route before we left to go home. This route is for certin not 5.4. Gear is real sketchy and you have to work for good pieces in some not so secure stances. This route was super fun and was just what I needed after taking that fall. Gave me my confidece back and then some.
Becareful this route will entice you and then beat you down. FA was in '74 so that should tell you something about the grade. I love J-Tree and it's rating system. This route was much harder then any of the 15 5.4's and 5.5's I did in my 3 day weekend.
Real fun climb! Yeah, there was one sketchy placement in the wide section where I thought my foot was going to blow before I got the cam set. If you are not comfortable on slab I can see where this one is quite heady for the rating. Toughing it out in the groove is rewarded with 5.easy climbing up a well-protected crack.
By Rebecca From: Broomfield, CO Oct 27, 2008 rating: 5.6
As my 6th official trad lead, and believing at the time that the route was a 5.4, I had wondered briefly, as I was ascending and feeling a bit insecure, about the sanity of the person who originally rated it - no offense intended. I thought there were two cruxes, one at the second (third up in my picture) large "bulge" about 20 feet up where there is a flaring crack, not much for good pro and no really decent, obvious hand holds. (By the way, there is an easy way to bypass this part simply by walking up the ledge to the left, up the easy and shorter left side and back over to the route - in case your head gets the better of you). The second crux would be pulling the little "roof" part at the top which looks far more daunting than it is as there are great hands, feet and solid pro spots all over the place. Fun route, good for beginning leaders trying to stretch their abilities and better rated at a 5.6 for sure! I really loved pulling the little roof at the top much more than the flaring sketchiness of the crack below.
Playhouse Rock
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