The Starcastle

BETA PHOTO: Tod Anderson on the South face of The Starcastle

Description 

The STARCASTLE is the highest crag on the hill in the Devil's Head climbing area, and the one sporting the most obvious turret-like crags that look from a distance like the spines on the Devil's head. Overall, it is a little less steep than The Red Wall and tends to run into a bit more moderate climbing. The Starcastle also presents several brilliant cracks that are largely done on trad gear, so don't forget to bring the trad rack. All of the routes can be done with a 60m rope, but most are right on at 90ft or so. The largely vertical face climbing is on good alligator edges, although some big corners and some small roofs, and overlaps await. Many of the FAs on the Starcastle are difficult or impossible to identify. Once again, the whole Head Crew was hard in action simultaneously on most of the routes. Tod Anderson, Tom Hanson, Richard Wright, and Rich Magill spun in most of the bolts, while Tom Hanson battled incrementally up the trad cracks, cleaning as he went.

Getting There 

From the Zinn Overlook, take a faint trail to the right, through the woods for 100ft or so. Then head directly up hill by a very indistinct trail. You want to hit the main yellow wall above on the right side to avoid the large blocks in the talus field below. As you negotiate your way left (South) down the Starcastle, you will first encounter Scott Sill's "Pig's Nose" (a fine line) on a separate turret. Further down hill and on the next turret you come to Alan Nelson's trad crack "Silver Winds" (also good, but lacking a top anchor). Scramble over some large blocks and at one point down-climbing a fixed rope for 15 ft. The routes begin before the rope descent and continue Southward along the face and downhill. A rough map can be found in "The Devil Made Me Do It".

Add Photo Photos of The Starcastle

Starcastle

The east face of Starcastle from Headstone.