Some crags in this area are closed 1 February to 31 July: MORE INFO >>>
The following crags are closed 1 February to 31 July: The Goose Goose Eggs East Ridge Mars Block Nebel Horn Tower of the Moon Jamcrack Spire The Pyramid Incognito Crag Devil's Thumb Shadow Fax Isolation Rock Sunset Wall Devil's Wing (W. Face) The Matron Lost & Found The Sibling Toddler Rock
Find and do the West Face route on the Matron and note the face just to it's right, going more or less up the center of the West Face (which actually faces SW and gets sun by 10am this time of year). Climb up this to a set of fixed anchors to the left. One can continue to the summit on West Face.
Rap via a 60m+ line to the West (CAREFUL!) or to the North, where a 60m and probably even a 50M would reach the ground.
Protection
You can TR this route from the anchors as for the West Face (minor swing potential) or you can "lead" it.This route has been refered to as 'S' in print, but I believe it is 'VS.' Aside of a few medium nuts and then a large nut or a solid tricam 20-30 feet up, most of the rest of the route, including the insecure crux, is exposed to ground fall potential. Perhaps some great amount of wandering about could have lead me to find potential gear placements, but I did the route on TR and I liked it just fine that way, since it appeared very much that a lead was the equivalent of a solo.
I totally agree this thing is VS, or VMS (very much a solo) but has some real quality moves on it.
Question though - how does this route really differ from New Age Slab? Rossiter mentions climbing this route to a fixed pin and then breaking right. There's no fixed pin or even a pin scar as far as I can tell, but there is an ancient bolt about 90ft. up. I assume this route is suppose to cut left to the anchors on the West Face (which is what I did) and that the New Age Slab cuts right to another set of anchors that seem poorly placed. Then, New Age Slab goes back left through the small roof with a pin in it and to the top. So, isn't this route really just an incomplete ascent of the New Age Slab? I scoped out the right arete, and it does not seem like a likely line for New Age Slab, and the vague description leads me to believe Rossiter didn't climb this route and only went with the info others gave him. Anybody have any insight?
Here's the real story on this climb: I climbed it as a "guide" with a cool guy named Kerry Schroyer, who wanted to do a new route. This was 1979 or 80. I had done the West face before and noticed the nice face out to the right. Kerry and I went up there and I just started up the middle of the face on challenging but not really hard climbing with good rock. Quite a ways up, about 20' below the little roof I found a place for a wired stopper or something, then climbed directly through the apex of the roof and engineered a belay a bit higher. I didn't traverse over to the belay on the west face, as was suggested. Kerry followed no problem, then I climbed up and left to climb through the blocky roof to add a second pitch. The x in Sunday Comix is a tongue-in-cheek attempt at humor in naming the route. Obviously, since this was the first route to climb the center of the slab, predating all the others, and since it goes all the way up the middle and adds the top pitch through the roof, it should be recognised as the main line on the face.
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