About 50 feet to the left of the Tits Up/Hot Beach area on the left side of Cactus is a nice section of cliff with a distinct bulge about 30 feet off the ground. Two routes climb this section of cliff with the left route being Da Fly (13a). The right route that shares the same satrt with Da Fly is Glue Slippage.
After climbing the scary loose start of Da Fly, move slightly right to a ledge system below the bulge. Move up to the bulge (tricky) and then make burly moves along an overhung right-trending seam with difficult clipping stances (crux). At the top of the seam move left onto a thin headwall with sustained climbing to the anchors.
A Cactus Cliff three star for out-of-the-ordinary steepness for Shelf and historical reasons (since it is rumored to be the first route at Shelf)
This climb looks great from the ground, but compared to the many other great climbs at Cactus Cliff, I felt this one was mediocre. It starts with 25' of chossy, easy climbing. The next 3-4 bolts up the steep arcing crack feature are fantastic and pretty hard. The final crux involves (for me) pulling on a hollow-sounding Frisbee-sized flake. I predict that this flake will soon be tossed just like a Frisbee thus making the route a bit harder. Due to the chossy start, creaky flake, and non-sustained overall nature, I can only give this climb 1 star. The star is earned by the fun and hard moves up the crack with a touch of historical perspective.
By Bill Ballace From: Wheat Ridge , CO Nov 12, 2007
Anyone climbing at this level will certainly understand the subtlety of pulling down rather than out when they reach the "Frisbee" in question. Certainly this route is better than one star. Not a classic, but very good, and well worth doing, especially for the unique lower crux.
Cactus Cliff
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