Truly one of the great routes in the Black, and perhaps the world. Yes, THE WORLD! Great rock and great gear throughout.
P1: Face climb trending right with gear and past 3 bolts to the base of an open corner. Two bolt belay. 5.11.
P2: Climb the amazing corner to a stance. Unbelievable. 5.12-.
P3: A short crack leads to a corner and a mantle and easier climbing to a stance below a bolt and corner. 5.11+.
P4: Climb past the bolt into yet another amazing corner. Belay at a stance below a shallow corner/slot. 5.12-.
P5: Climb the slot past a roof. 5.10. A ledge and a short difficult corner follows. 5.10. At the next ledge, bypass the corner on the face to the right. Belay at grassy ledges.
P6: Go up 5.8 corners trending slightly left. After 200' move right and continue with a little simul-climbing up stair step ledges to the base of open black corner.
Variation directly to 2 Boulder Bivy: Belay after 200' and then step a little right and go up obvious 5.8 flake corner (nice). Some slightly mungier and harder climbing tops out on the bivy.
P7: Climb a black corner (5.11a) stepping out left when convenient and finishing at the base of a obvious thin crack in a wide dihedral. An easy 50' traverse can go from here to the 2 boulder bivy.
P8: 50 feet right of the two boulder bivy. Climb a shallow splitter through a black streak. When the crack peters out, step right, then up and left to a bolt. A difficult leftward traverse (11d) ends at a two bolt belay. 5.12. Stellar.
P9: Follow a shallow crack, then faceclimb right to a bolt and mantle move to a ledge. Step left into a shallow corner and another ledge with a small crack for gear. Step down and right, then up to a rampy corner. Follow this to the top and a good ledge. 5.11.
P10: Ignore the flake going out left. Go up into twin cracks then face climb past a seam to a ledge (12-). Continue up a left leaning corner past a bolt (12-) to belay stance. Minus too much rope drag, you can continue another 40 feet up 10+ to a chain anchor (the third station on Astro-slog raps).
P11: (The extra 40' in the above pitch can be added to this pitch, too, or done as a short pitch to reduce drag) Go up corners and face climb out right past some cracks. Climb the right leaning corner to a sloping ledge and a single belay bolt. 5.11.
P12: A very difficult overhanging crack splits a short headwall to chain anchors (the second rap station). 5.12.
P13: Up through chockstones to grassy ledges. Resist the temptation to go straight up. Head directly left under the prow to join the top of Astro Dog. Belay below 5.9 S-crack on Astro Dog. 5.8.
P14: Climb 5.9 s-crack. Trend left to 5.9 corner. Go through bushes and behind flake. Chimney up and step across. Battle drag up pegmatite ramp past a pin. Belay at the top of pegmatite.
P15: Tend right up gully and under roofs. Step around the roof to a slab and head up and left. Climb chimney corner past chockstones. 5.9. Belay at chains on top.
Location
This route is on the South Rim below the South Chasm Overlook. Descend the Astro Slog descent. The route begins just right of the first pitch of Astro Dog. Look for face holds and cracks trending right to a bolt.
Protection
Set of stoppers with extra 4 through 7. "RPs" (those BD steel micros work wonders). Two sets of cams from purple TCU size to hands with one micro-cam.
Yo Chris, any info or done Eighth Voyage of Sinbad? We got denied way up high on Sunday trying to get to the off-hands pitch from the hands corners.-jay
Somebody took the piton that was part of the anchor below the last 5.12 pitch, right under the Astrodog raps. Right now it is a single bolt anchor with hard climbing above. It might be worth taking a medium-sized angle on the rappel to add to the anchor, then leave the hammer there to pickup on your way out.
Posted a new and fairly accurate topo after doing the complete route with Chris Righter. The only guesswork is the pitch lengths, but they should be about right. J Wharton suggests linking pitch 2 and 3, but drag may be a problem and then detract from the absolutely sublime climbing you just completed on pitch 2. I'd suggest belaying and soaking it in!
As to Topher's above comment: On pitch 12, we put in a nut that becomes part of the anchor and the first piece for the crux climbing. It goes just below the pin scar. I fell on it a couple times. Sounds sketchy but it keeps you off the ledge just fine and your other belay piece is a 3/8" bolt in bullet stone.
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