Hike past the Sunday and Fortress walls and continue to the Hidden Valley wall. Walk past a deep alcove near the center of the Wall and continue on for about 80 feet. Start in a right-facing dihedral where a white pegmatite dike meets the ground.
Pitch 1: Jam up a slightly bushy corner with good hands and stems to where it starts to flatten out. Continue up into a wide chimney and belay on a flat chockstone with slings, 5.8, 80 feet.
Pitch 2: Classic. Continue up the chimney for a short distance then pass a bulge to gain the nice hand crack above. Follow this crack straight up for about another 50 feet before reaching the crux bulge. Plug in good gear and pull through the bulge as the crack narrows and belay above on a good ledge. 5.10b, 150 feet.
Pitch 3: Continue straight up following the crack past a roof using hand and fist jams (two #3 Camalots useful). Pass the roof and continue via hand crack to easier ground and belay. 5.10, 75 feet.
Descent: Scramble up to flat ground atop the cliff and walk to the climbers left at the top of the route and contour along the rim. Downclimb 3rd class for 20 feet into the gully and locate 2 Metolius eye bolts. Rappel 180 feet to the ground or 165 feet to a ledge and down climb 15 feet of 3rd class.
We have nicknamed this route the "Never Ending Offwidth", finding a little bigger than the "perfect hands" so often described. I guess if you reach in deep enough into the flaring cracks you will get a hand jam. Nice route, though.
The second pitch is stellar but is a bit fisty to only bring 2 #3 Camalots. I would bring a couple of #4 Friends and my partner wouldn't have minded a #4 Camalot for the last pich where she was hand stacking. The belay ledge is great but doesn't take nuts well, I used 2 yellow Aliens and a green. We had triples from #0.5 to #2 Camalot and doubles/singles in the small, and it worked pretty well on all the climbs we did, bring lots of slings! A. Everhart
Hidden Valley Wall
RSS Feed
