This is the link up of the Illegitimate to the Bas...
Description
This route lies at the junction between the Northwest Recess and the Maiden Buttress. It starts with a left-slanting hand crack (5.8). You can shorten the length of the first pitch by scrambling up along the easy part of this crack and setting up a hanging belay. Pitch 2 is the crux, and is quite sustained. It involves face climbing past several sections of the crack (some 5.9) and then an exit right (not obvious) around the corner and down to a belay. A 5.8 pitch takes you to the junction with White Maiden’s Walkaway.
I find this route everybit as good as Consolation and the other North Face routes. While it ends at White Maiden all too quickly, the 5.9 pitch feels really improbable for its grade and has great position. Definitely one of the better 5.9s on the rock.
I feel like we must have been a little high on our "improbable traverse" as we traversed across a very lichen full overhanging flake just a couple feet under the roof. It looked like maybe the real "improbable traverse" was about ten feet below that? I ended up traversing to about 8 feet below a tree in the crack system 20' to the right, and belayed from that tree (no "down to a stance" bit). The move around seemed more like a mid-10 move, and the rock didn't seem to have as much traffic once you'd climbed 15' above the piton seen in the picture. Anyone have any thought on that? Also, my partner pulled off a flake about 1'x1' when doing the traverse, but managed to hold onto it, and keep from dropping it on anyone below (he tucked it in his shirt, and stashed it on a ledge higher up). Fun route though, and not your typical tahquitz style. I felt the 5.9 pitch really made you think.
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