Originally touted as "steeper, longer and harder than The Beast," this route is merely longer. Nevertheless, it's a fun climb up a funky pillar-type feature, and has become pretty popular in recent years.
This is the second route from the right in the Wasteland, and is one route right of Gunshy (more or less the last route on the blue/grey sector of the wall). It has gold-shut bolts on it, and climbs over a small roof to start, then up a groove onto a pillar, and through a second roof to anchors.
Pull over the opening roof on square holds, then amble your way up the groove on cool features. As the angle steepens, the holds get smaller, until you must overcome the roof moves on bizarre pinches.
A second pitch climbs the friable corner above the anchors at 5.11, but is not recommended on busy days due to rockfall potential.
I know it's not the coolest route at the park, but it's one of the best routes I've ever done. That's probably because it took a behemoth effort to redpoint it, and routes that push you that hard are always memorable. But I have to think that the moves on this route would be cool even if it wasn't at your limit. It has a lot of distinct Rifle characteristics -- like wide weird pinches, a knee bar that rests your fingers but tires your core, and all kinds of chalked holds that are only useful in the perfect sequence. The bottom boulder problem is hard (stick clip yes). The middle of the route is puzzling and thought provoking. The moves to get past the crux bulge at the top are fantastic and throwy, and you're pretty pumped when you get there, at least I was, and I had a knee pad on each leg, not ashamed to admit it either. At the crux, the holds I used were well to the right of the bolt line. Go ahead and skip the crux bolt if you can count on a soft catch.
The Wasteland
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