Tom Hanson placed The Sub at the left end of the Wendell Spire area, in 1997. Subsequent to publishing his guide close to a dozen new routes were established to the left, so the limit to this site is a little vague. From the top of the boulder pile at the left side of the area, you can see a neat little formation that looks like the Beatles Yellow Submarine. Climbing on The Sub begins on the sub's left tail fin, a crack. Swim up through some interesting and intricate climbing with a couple of long reaches. Traverse left on great moves to catch a rest just before stepping back right for the crux. The goal of the crux is a large cobble on the right which is followed by several, still difficult, moves for a net worth of 5.12d in the finish. Tod Anderson snatched the FFA of this powerful line. Even with his gear in place I found myself stretching for the crux cobble with nothing but six inches of air to latch on to. This may be a reach problem, or maybe I just haven't sucked the lock-off deep enough. However, after returning from six weeks of climbing in Spain I jumped on The Sub again thinking it finally would fall. I still couldn't reach the cobble statically. More of a hard turn or a short dyno might work, but in TA's ascent it went with a smooth static reach. Any way you cut it, The Sub is one of the best routes in the sector and well worth solving.
Wendell Spire
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