Sixth route from the left. Au Natural climbs the left-most of the two dihedrals on the Riviera (the right dihedral being Devin's Dihedral) which separates the five short routes on the left from the rest of the crag. The bottom 2/3 of the route takes good pro, but it's a little run out up top. Interesting moves right off the ground using a combination of face, chimney, and stemming moves.
Once you reach the top of the dihedral, there are a couple of options:
Option 1: Place a #2 Camalot for a directional, then traverse right to anchors above Devin's Dihedral. This is easier, but have some one second the route to clean it; the anchor placement makes it difficult to clean on rappel.
Option 2: Continue up and left to the anchors above Seabreeze and The Minstrel. This increases the run out, but offers a more direct line from the anchors.
If you hauled your gear up with you to climb some of the mixed routes, you might as well do this one before you leave.
By Cody Munger From: Carson City, NV Oct 3, 2005 rating: 5.8
I brought my gear so I could avoid the lines on a weekend. Nobody on this route for some reason. Couldn't figure it out. I chose to finish left on the face climbing. You can get a couple decent stopper placements below the face climbing, but sport climbers may find it too run out. The climbing really isn't very hard from the last stopper placement to the bolt on the face, so I wasn't worried about a big fall.
Nice route though I'm not sure I'd call it a solid 5.8. Maybe the top part. Unfortunately, I got suckered into continuing up the dihedral to the roof and then traversing left to a bolt. Gear is pretty thin up there and it was mighty dicey. Still a nice route with easy access to the anchors for Sea Breeze and The Minstrel. I'd definitely do it again.
RSS Feed
