This routes climbs up a giant arete system directly about lower mothers buttress. The suggested approach pitch to climb to begin this route is "Cowabunga". I would agree with that statment. From here five more excellent pitches grace the route. The rock is solid, and requires all the climbing disciplines. After five pitches, get into hiking/scrabling mode till the last 80' of the buttress. There is a 5.7ish pitch to the summit. I was confused where this pitch was, but I did find it, and here's the best was to explain its location. When you come up from the saddle (looking at the topo on pg 126 in the guidebook), don't look for a straight lined offwidth like that in the drawing. The last pitch starts in a crack that goes up for about 12' then forces you the traverse right via face holds towards a right upwards arching off width. The rest is easy to follow. Rumor at Grand Junction REI is that the upper 1/3 of this route fell off. Do not believe their beta! Fun route, more like a mountaineering ascent after the first 2/3. The leader MUST know how to place directional gear to keep the rope out of loose rock. I wouldn't suggest this route to beginning leaders. Bring helmets.
Protection
One set of TCUs, one #4 Camalot or #4.5 Camalot, 2 or 3 #3 Camalots, lots of slings.
Our experience varied considerably from the guidebook description, but rather than go into the details, just take the "adventure" description seriously. Off route? on route? Who cares, just try not to kill your partner. Additionally, the rappel anchors immediately west of this route are a horror show, as of 14 January 2006. This goes especially for the second anchor down which is just a few slings slung over a small, entirely detached flake, precariously perched and weighing in at maybe 200 lbs. Someone needs to replace this setup with bolts, preferably Before someone dies.
What he said. Not a bad route at all but you do have a lot of choss to cross at the top. All real climbing is on decent rock. I wouldn't say it's dangerously loose though - you just need to be a bit careful on the easy ground.
We started on Alex's - the advantage of this is that you can get to the base of the good stuff in 1 pitch.
The last pitch can go a lot of ways - no need to try and figure out how someone else did it, just pick a line and go. Ours was about 5.5.
The descent needs attention! New rings on the top anchor, a NEW ANCHOR (bolts preferably) at #2, and another new anchor at #3. We had a rope epic on #3 due to the unfortunate placement of the anchor tree. Plus the tree is full of sap right now and we got this all over our ropes.
Mother's Buttress
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