Note, some of these cliffs are often closed (Mar 3 - July 31) for raptor nesting. MORE INFO >>>
Closed areas, from March 3-July 31:
Twin Owls Bat Flake Batman Pinnacle Batman Rock Lightning Rock Checkerboard Rock Thunder Buttress The Parish
Description
Sun King is located downhill and west of the Orange Julius area and just right of Sicilian Defense. Begin in a thin crack underneath four bolts. For those familiar with the Bookend this is just left of the Foxhead.
Pitch one (old school 5.10d) was bolted on the lead and consequently the easiest path is not always directly in line with the bolts. This pitch is loaded with exciting 5.10 face climbing with the technical crux passing the first bolt. Decent trad gear can be had at a couple horizontal cracks between bolts #2 and #3. There is a new Fixe anchor at the belay and you can rap with a 60m rope to the ground from here. According to Gillett, pitch two (5.11d) turns the corner left to a hidden bolt, then climbs back right past three more bolts to a two bolt belay. This pitch didn't look so much like free climbing to me.
Descent is two single rope raps.
Protection
Bring a light rack up to 2.5 inches including some very small nuts or RPs. The last two bolts on pitch one appear to be 3/8" machine thread and the hangers are rusting. These should be replaced with actual climbing hardware.
All of the bolts on the first pitch were replaced with ASCA hardware as of 6/15/05. The second pitch awaits replacement bolts. The first pitch is one of the better slab pitches at this grade (11a?) at Lumpy. You definitely need a heads up belayer as the fall before the 2nd bolt would put you close to the ground.
The Bookend
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