Country Club Crack 

Country Club Crack can be led in one pitch if you arrange runners well on the lower part, and place long slings on gear below the upper roof. Check out the rock at the bottom of the route if you want to see the aftermath of pre-modern bolt wars.

Easy, there - Mr. A.C.! Personally, I enjoy SL's comments - his sense of history adds a hell of a lot of value and interesting reading to this site. Our local climbing history is incredibly interesting and invaluable and needs to be passed along to the next generation. Keep up the good work, Steve - you are a definite asset (and I have commenced my search for Roger's graffiti in Eldo - excellent bit of trivia you mentioned previously...).

A few thoughts. 1) You can get by with, at most, one #2 Camalot and nothing larger. I find this route protects well with plenty of Camalots between 0.5 and #1, some screamers for the pins and a few (very few) nuts and aliens.

2) Share the rock! I've seen many people tie up the route for half a day or more while pracicing aid. If must practice aid here, try going on off hours.

3) You can rap the route with one rope by swinging over to the anchors atop the second pitch of Athlete's feet.

Tom Isaacson

RE/raps: a 60 M will get you to the bolt anchor atop P1, and the leader can even lower down and belay the second from here, if desired (this will require exciting swinging shenanigans for both the leader and the follower). Since noone mentions the current state of the fixed pins on P2, I will--there are none above the first 5.9 section! (but the rest of the route takes perfect gear as mentioned).

I love this route. I've done it nine times and still no redpoint of the upper pitch. Only once have I had another party on the route at the same time. If you want this route to yourself get on it early on a weekday morning. Of the nine times I've done this route, six of them were before work. This is the time to climb it anyway since you want the first pitch cool and in the shade.

Others should definitely share the rock, but I think topropers and (clean) aid climbers have a right to climb this route as well. Heck, the Salathe Wall on El Cap is a free climb. Should all aid climbers be barred from climbing it? Common courtesy should be exercised by all involved. Maybe the aid climbers can offer to let the free climbers by after the first pitch?

Bill Wright was kind enough to drag me up this route this morning. What an absolute classic.

Really enjoyable, both from a climbing perspective and from a historical perspective. It is not everyday that you can climb a route mentioned in both Pat Ament and Royal Robbins' biography.

The 5.11 finger/off hand crack (crux second pitch) is a humbling experience... It is unbelievable Derek Hersey soloed this... I died three times before I reached the saving jug...

What a great morning... WT

I found it more enjoyable to climb as one pitch, however, it's easier for the second to impale their backside on a fall from the opening moves due to the rope stretch. The thin section at the top is much easier without tape.

What a fun/scary lead. Scary - because I lack ability, strength, etc. Fun - because the route takes pro so well.

The original comment on the route says to take a #4 Camalot. Somone else said you only need a #2 and smaller. I found a #3 Camalot protected the roof, and then right after you move left from the roof, and #2 Camalot helped calm my mind. As the crack gets thin, the green, yellow, and red Alien were perfect. Better leaders probably wouldn't see the need to place all three pieces throughout this thin section. Once you get to the top of the crack, the route moves right. Before moving up and right, I placed a #1 Camalot as a passive piece to protect the second from a pendulum after he cleaned the Aliens at the fingers crux.

Hopefully, this will help others in deciding what pro to take.

I found that the best way to protect the second is to clip a .75 cam up and left of the belay or a red/yellow Alien just left of the belay to minimize the pendulum (the traversing face moves at the end are the scariest moves on the whole climb). You don't need anything larger than a #3 cam although there are places to put big pieces. Not many nut placements, but there are a few that are completely bomber. There are also a few hex placements that are definitely more bomber than the cams that would go in their place. When I do it as one pitch: set of stoppers, few hexes, 2 x red Aliens, 2 x yellow Aliens, 2 x (#.75,1,2,3) Camalots, plenty of draws for the pins/nuts/hexes, and a double length to equalize the bolts with a runner to reduce drag. This is a good training route as most of the falls are safe (except the start - safe at A0) and (if you are proficient at placing good pro) all the gear is bomber.

casey bernal

After 3 or 4 trips up to Castle Rock in the last year, I was finally able to get on this route... no aid climbers this morning! The face climbing at the start is desperate, though possibly slightly easier than the Athlete's Feet mantle... I'm not sure how shorter people are able to do the move past the 2nd bolt. The crack pitch is pumpy, though look for a tricky no-hands rest on the upper part. From the anchors at the top you can TR the excellent Englishman's Home (11c- very thin looking gear) which takes the Athlete's Feet start straight up through a series of lieback corners to the flake system left of CCC, joining that route at the roof.

It too finally got on this climb this weekend. All I can say is "tough climb" and that I will be sore for days. I agree with that above comments that you can do without the #4, no reason to lug that thing up there. I'm hoping to figure out some sort of rest in the section of wide crack just past the roof (knee lock???), otherwise I have know idea how I could do it continuously, way to pumped for the thin fingers, difficult feet section (the real crux of the route to me).

I found the only real rest on the second pitch came after the roof, where I was able to slide my whole right leg into the wide crack, flexed and torqued until solid and I was able to hang quite comfortably sans meathooks (what my arms felt like after the roof). I wouldn't call it a "knee lock", more of an off width jam. I got it all back but it didn't really matter a hoot, the last 15' still kicked my ass.

Out of curiosity, where do people feel the hardest moves are at the beginning: by the first or second bolt? There are 2 very distinct cruxy sequences--I climbed the route yesterday, and found the moves by the second bolt harder (and I'm borderline 6'), while my partner thought it was the other way around.

Someone added a new bolt between the second bolt and the crack. This bolt was not needed for a safe free or aid ascent. We promptly removed the bolt and the hanger. It is a self drilling bolt and the sleeve is still in the rock. If any one knows how to remove the sleeve WITHOUT damaging the rock further, email me or someone to do so. Epoxy and a little rock dust should minimize what is already a swiss cheese rock.

Casey Bernalc a s e y b e r n a l @ h o t m a i l . c o m

I think the first bolt holds the crux. The next move felt much easier for me. That added bolt was ridiculous!

The middle part of this climb is some of the best moderate, crack climbing in the canyon!

Got on CCC the other day (Oct 17) and found two cams (#1 & #2) in the crack, climbers left of the second pitch just above the picth one belay. I think someone was using them as directionals for the second but I am not sure. Contact me if you are the owner at arod825@hotmail.com.

Primo booty.

A 60m rope will not reach the anchor on P1 of Athlete's Feat! I was about 5 feet short, dangling in the air. I could not find a placement for the #4 even though I brought it. I had a #3 above the roof, but one or two #2s would have been enough.

Can be done in one pitch and what a great pitch, but it leaves the second in a scary situation for the opening face moves due to rope stretch. And nobody should miss out on that awesome face climbing.

My ONLY complaint with this route is that the first (and only) bolt is in such an awkward position--ok, maybe not so awkward if you're 5'7" or more, but let me tell you, when you're 5'4", it's a SCARY first bolt... Otherwise, ditto on all raves above.

Taimi...there are two bolts on the first pitch. Clipping the second is little bit of a reach.

I know a lot of people would frown on this but, this climb is a great place to practice aid climbing (clean of course), along with the aid roof a little farther west on Castle Rock. If your rusty and headed for a big wall or trying to learn, taking laps on this is great fun.

Side note: Try to climb this when it is not conducive to free climbing, i.e. cold, night, early am, winter or the like. Be mindful, if aid climbing, that this is a very popular and quality free line and chocking it up for hours aiding would be less than polite.

A 70M rope makes it in one pitch with about 25ft of rope left. Doing it in one pitch I used my whole rack, which was triples of everything Camalot 0.5 - 3 and a few smaller cams. Amazing pitch!

A 60M will make it in one pitch as well. Just leaves you a bit short on the raps. A 70 would be ideal cause then you can rap to the first pitch anchors of A.F.
pump fest in one long one for sure.

Edit***
We climbed this again yesterday with one 70m.
Rappelling from the top of P.2 the knots in our rope were only about 8 ft down and to the right of the anchors top of P1 for athletes feet.
I advise a 70 or 2-60's to avoid any big swings.

FYI- There is now a fixed red TCU top of the 2nd pitch crux. It walked to far back and over cammed too much to get out. Its in a great spot though just before the thank god jug. Clip it and keep moving. :) :)

Nice climb, but it looks like a junkyard with ~20 bolt studs and ~12 pins.