Both my partner and I thought that this was a great dihedral and had wonderful moves, but not much good pro. It is a frightening lead.
The route is 5.9+. You interpret the +. It is height-dependent and a short person (5'4") might say "plus several" I was glad to be 5'10". Peter (5'8") wished he were too, but he made it anyway.
To find the route, go up the West Ridge to the famous and popular Pony Express area. In the middle of this area is a tree, 1/2 way up on a sizable ledge. The corner immediately left of this is Pony Express. Looking further left at ground level, about 20 feet left, is a flake, crack and corner system called Zip Code.
One more system left of Zip Code is a sizable, right-facing dihedral that goes 1/2 way up the wall to a large ledge (70'). The crack in the dihedral offers some generally poor and sparse protection, but it could hold a fall and is [definitely] better than nothing.
Climb the dihedral up to the large ledge, moving left to the face and [arete] when necessary. From the ledge, one can either climb up and right on more poorly protected face to merge and finish on Zip Code, or traverse left to a 5.8 crack system called Cold Turkey.
You will probably be wigged out enough to take the latter of these options with grace.
Protection
The pro is bad. In fact it is small and bad. The dihedral crack is mostly closed, with some iffy stoppers and some micro-cams or ball nuts. Aliens would probably be best due to their narrow width to get the best placement. So I've said some "S" routes are really "S-", but this route is "S+" The moves, while not terribly difficult, are somewhat insecure which adds to the stimulation of having little gear.
Ever wonder why everyone does the first pitch of Pony Express and Positively Fourth Street but they walk right past this one? Horrifying and committing, this is the real deal. 5.9 for 5.11 climbers.
Did this yesterday, and mostly agree with the description. I wouldn't say its [horrifying], but I would say you should be very comfortable at the grade before leading this. I found the gear adequate for the first half, less so for the upper section. If you're comfortable on this kind of climb, the moves are a lot of fun and its a good climb to get your head in shape.
More relevant: there is a webbing (tat?) belay anchor looped over a flake on the ledge at the top of the dihedral that you can belay/rap from if you don't want to go up higher. You might bring a loop to replace older webbing if you plan on using this anchor.
This is a classic for the grade, but indeed is not a pedestrian 5.9. I would suggest doing it to the Pony Express anchors as a single pitch lead; the flake mid-way is a little iffy as a rap anchor IMHO.
West Ridge - Xanadu to Pony Express
RSS Feed
