P1: Work your way up cracks and hollow flakes to the flake with many slings. The first time I climbed this, I stayed mostly left until the long reach below the flake, and then traversed to the right under the flake and back into the right crack until traversing to the flake. The second time around I found you could stem up for a good distance and the gear on the right seemed a lot easier to place then on the hollow crap on the left (although I followed it this time). SPICEY! At least 8+ if not 9+
P2: Head up 2 off width cracks strait up the corner with some interesting movement and fun climbing. Up higher the left side crack squeezes out and you must stem between it and the now quite wide crack on the right. Felt pretty sustained and harder in the upper-mid section of the pitch 5.8 - 8+. Get some good gear in the horizontal crack at the base of the crux sequence. Then fire up the 10-15ft crux boulder problem to the belay 5.10-.
P3: Head up either of 2 parallel cracks to the upper section where you encounter the crux OW slot/roof exit to the top 5.9-5.10. We took the left crack which was thin hands, hands and where the angle mellowed out it was a bit wider. The beginning of the pitch was somewhat sustained but the mid section was really cruiser then your kinda thrown off for the somewhat awkward crux.
Kevin's description of the descent was dead on and it can mostly be seen the whole time while climbing, I made it down in my tennies.
Location
Far left side of the Castle.
Protection
Standard SP rack with some big stuff. I took up to a #6 Camalot. Edit: The second time back we brought a double rack from blue Aliens up to a #4 Camalot (used both #4s on pitch 2 and leap frogged one of them for a while), a single #5, 4 #3s (quite useful actually used them all on pitch 2), 3 #2s and I still leap frogged gear up the 5.8. At one point I remember thinking to myself another #5 and/or a # 6 would be an easy placement, instead I think I fought for a nut that was a bit less easy to place.
Photos of Castle Corner aka Unnamed 5.10 Slideshow
So, here is the beta the I have obtained from climbing this route: The first pitch is a little interesting, and I found it a little scary, mainly cause of awkward pro. I was nervous of some of the huge, hollow flakes I placed cams in, especially when I had to make a blind placement because the crack was awkward and I couldn't really see what I was doing, not to mention I think it was flared so I threw 2 cams in the upper being a offset Alien. Up near the top, it's really hollow where you have to traverse the flake or reach up high. There is some good gear to be had in the right hand crack, but I didn't find it consistently, not to mention logistically with out long runners you get a really zig zagged pitch. The flake on the first belay is kinda scary but can be safe I suppose. I thought I could rip it off if I so desired with enough effort, so I slung it with some new webbing and clipped it into the back up nut that was left there then clove hitched to it with about 10-12 feet of slack and hung well below it. Then I got a bit of slack and made a fairly large butterfly and looped another more solid looking flake as a back up then belayed through a cam up in the start of the second pitch.
My partner lead the second pitch as mentioned before. He thought it was cleaner then the first pitch, but he struggled to save energy for the 10 section as his OW technique is in need of improvement. I think he would have liked some extra large gear for this pitch. He lowered off a nut as it was pouring on us, and then I lowered him to the ground (after re-rigging) and proceded to to rap off old webbing on a scary flake with a single 60M reaching the ground just fine. A rebate is in order.
By Kevin Stricker From: Evergreen, CO Aug 28, 2007 rating: 5.10-
The route is commonly called the unnamed 5.10, although the Castle Corner is fitting. First pitch is 5.8, second 5.10-, and third 5.9. I wouldn't bring anything larger than a #3 Camalot, and if your partner was struggling on the easy 5.8 at the start of the second pitch I think the tips lieback would have been a shutdown.
The third pitch heads up a handcrack to a slot (crux) then easier ground to the top.
Scramble down to the West and head back South at your first opportunity to descend a gully with 15 feet of technical climbing at the bottom. You should be 30 feet from the start of the climb.
The Trout guide calls it Castle Corner and rates the first pitch at least 5.9 if not a very short section of 10. And yeah, my partner probably would have struggled with the section of 5.10, but we brought aiders, so it really didn't matter. But being in shorts and short sleeves in relentless sleet did.
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