This is an excellent two pitch variation to the start of The Consolation. Start up The Consolation on moderate climbing, then exit right to a pleasant vertical crack. A 5.9+/5.10A exit move over an overhang takes you to easy ground and then a belay at a tree. On pitch 2, some steep, tricky face moves lead to a long, sustained thin crack (5.10A). This crack eventually merges with The Consolation.
Good pitches, but haven't seen much traffic. P1 starts out with an excellent tight-hands/hand crack (5.8) in a left-facing corner with good stances to place from. The corner then splits with a grungy upper corner leading to a roof and a promising looking lower corner that leads to a dead end. At the top of the nice hand crack, it seemed easiest to move left into the lower corner for 5 feet or so, then transition right into the upper corner. A little liebacking and jamming in the lichen filled corner leads to the well protected crux (10a) move over the roof. Easy scrambling 30 feet to the belay. P2 takes the crack that starts about 10 feet above the ledge, not the wider, grungier looking crack to the right. Some balancy face moves, lead to some flaring jams that pull you over the bulge (10a) onto slabbier terrain where a shallow finger crack angles up and left to meet Consolation.
We felt the roof on P1 was more difficult than any climbing on P2, though P2 was more sustained. The climbing on both pitches was fun, but the quantity of lichen on hand and foot holds, as well as somewhat chossy crack in places detracted from the route. With more traffic, this could clean up into a better line, but I doubt it will ever get it.
Northwest Recess
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