Color Blind

Really cool and heady route that climbs one of the "last great faces" of Endless Wall. The FAist originally scoped out this line, and planned to bolt a slightly different variation of it into a harder sport climb, but the NPS denied his application to bolt it on account of some endangered lichen at the top of the route. So now, instead of a sport line, we have another great addition to the NRG's lineup of hard, gear-protected faces.

Start by soloing the corner to its right for 15-20 feet, up to a ledge that is not as good as it looks from the ground. Place a bomber 00 tcu from the corner in a horizontal, make some tenuous moves right to another good horizontal, a bomber .3 camalot, and a creaky flake. Rest up here, you'll need it– the next 25 feet are the crux! From this stance, make some reachy moves off tiny holds up the blank orange face, placing a 1 ballnut along the way. At a decent left crimp you can build a mini-anchor out of a 2 ballnut and a 000 c3, which will protect the crux throw from one crimp to another. After this, the climbing gradually eases up, trends left, gets great gear, and you get to a really good rest jug. Above this rest jug is more sequential 5.12a/b climbing on sloping pockets, about 20 feet above bomber gear.

The FA gave this climb an R safety rating because of the tiny gear under hard moves, and because of the intricacy of the placements, but if you suss this out on rappel (easily accessed from the nearby Honeymooners Ladders), it is not too bad. An onsight attempt by anyone whose limit is 5.13 would be VERY serious, however, and possibly dangerous.