China Loving Blues  5.8+ R

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Type:  Trad, 2 pitches, 200 feet Consensus:  5.8+ [details] FA:  Goldstein & MacDonald, 9/30/06 New Route:  Yes Submitted By:  david goldstein on Oct 2, 2006 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Season raptor closures MORE INFO >>> The following areas are closed from March 1-July 31 or until further notice: Twin Owls, Rock One, Batman Rock, Batman Pinnacle, Sheep Mountain, Thunder Buttress, The Parish, Lightning Rock and Checkerboard Rock are currently closed. The closures include the named rock formations and the areas extending 100 yards surrounding the base of the formation. This includes all climbing routes, outcroppings, cliffs, faces, ascent and descent routes and climber's access trails to the formation. Alligator Rock is also closed. www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/area_closures.htm This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

This independent line can be used as an approach to P3 of Marlin Alley or P2 of Bat Crack. The climbing is primarily excellent, if run out, knobby slabbing.

Start between the easy and hard starts to Bat Crack P1, to the left of the bulk of the lower half of Bat Crack P1. Climb straight up on easy knobs for about 5m to a horizontal crack. Load the crack up w/ gear (red TriCam, opposed small nuts) and head up ~6m of knobishness to the right side of a long horizontal roof; the first crux of this pitch is about halfway between the gear and the roof where a fall would be neither good nor fatal. The last few moves getting to the roof are dangerously run out but pretty easy. At the roof, make up for lost time and place solid gear. Traverse left, underclinging and jamming the crack at the base of the roof for about 5m with good gear throughout. Somewhere before the roof makes a sharp upward jog, break through to more knobs; depending on exactly where you break through this may be the crux of the pitch. Continue up for about 4m to a shallow left facing corner with small gear. Follow the corner for about 3m as it becomes a small roof until a decent stance is reached below the point where the roof turns up and becomes a corner again. Belay at this point on a variety of gear from RP to red Alien.

For the second pitch, you can either follow the corner up to slab knobs, eventually reaching the roof of Bat Crack, or diagonal up left about 13m to the Marlin Alley P3 roof.

This was named after a famous Dylan song.

Protection 

RPs to gold Camalot with the concentration from thin fingers to thin hands.