Schooldaze 

Very fun route. As the description mentions, if you've been itching to place that large cam or BigBro, bring it along. Be sure to start P1 from the top of the short slab or you'll run out of rope before hitting a good belay spot. For a slight variation on P1, exit to the left (over the lip) before you reach the top of the arch - small gear is helpful if you finish in this manner.

Great Route! We got a little mixed up on where to begin and end the pitches so we ended up doing it in 5 pitches (with a 50m rope). We started P1 at the base and ended it just after the short chimney section. P2 stopped about 30' short of the roof section because we couldn't keep the rope out of the crack. P3 ended on a huge ledge below the bathtubs. The ledge was too good to pass up for belaying. P4 ended on the east shoulder just past the steep 5.4 crack (a full 50m). P5 was short (maybe 40') to the summit. The summit is great and the descent is exciting but do-able in rock shoes (or Chaco's with 5.10 soles. God bless Chaco's!)

Follow the crack up using awkard jamming and slab work. Above you the crack will begin to arch towards a point far left. Eventually you will have to turn the corner back towards the right. I placed a #2 Camalot here before committing to the move. Turning this corner was exciting and felt like the crux with very balancy moves and a funky jam. Once established on the other side of this I started to continue up the crack which was still growing wider. Safe to say ran out of big pro with the arch still looming above me and wisely downclimbed back to the corner. I opted here to climb out over the lip at a notch heading left and onto the face. If you have lots of big gear finish with the crack looks like fun. Otherwise I would exit to the left. Be forewarned that my #2 ate the rope and created a substantial rope drag. Thank goodness we were using half rope's. Supper cool climb!!

I really thought this was harder than the 5.5 rating, especially after I no longer had any big gear left.

Very runout, especially the first & second pitch. We were off route most of the first pitches and created a crapload of ropedrag trying to get on-route. Did find a nice 5.7-5.8ish finger crack if you exit the belay under the roof about 20 or 30 yards up and left. The upper lip "5.7" crack is about as tough a "5.7" move as I've done, my second could not pull over the roof and it made for a not so pleasant time. I do not recommend the 5.7 crack finish to beginner leaders, it scared the crap out of me and I fall into that category. Downclimb sucked ass as well (5.4ish in places). This climb seemed to not let us go. 1 star for scenery.

Jay -

I wouldn't consider this 'way runout' at all unless you don't bring any big gear. Perhaps that was due to the fact you were 'off route most of the first pitches'.

The bathtub area could be considered runout (there IS pro available), but it's only 3rd class (ish).

If your downclimb was 5.4 you didn't find the easiest way down.

Rog

This route is in no way runout (there is a large crack the whole way up). The second pitch is a bit runout though the bathtubs (3rd class). The upper lip is a fun exit...downclimb is about a 5.2....fun stuff.

As mentioned above-exiting the crack left before the arch this is really fun-a good alternative if you dont have large pieces of gear. i also liked the 5.7 variation. tough, intimidating because of the exposure, but sweet. be careful with communication-it can be windy. -cheers-

After finishing the 5.4 crack you are still about 15-20 feet from the summit and are on a huge BBQ ledge. There are a few options from there to get to the actual summit that seemed to vary greatly in difficulty to our group and none of the guide info we had described them. So, I thought I would leave my personal impressions of that section.

If you are imagining the summit as a circle and you are looking straight down on it and the northern downclimb is 12 o'clock then you finish the 5.4 crack at about 7 o'clock. Summiting at 7 o'clock looked/felt about 5.7ish. Summiting at about 5 o'clock up was an easily protected but overhanging crack system which felt 5.9ish. Summiting closer to 3 o'clock felt 5.6ish (one 5.7ish move followed by a 5.4ish ramp). One of our parties went up the 5.9ish route and one went up the 5.6ish route.

Also, we left come cord on the descent because there is one section we felt like rapping down instead of downclimbing. Part of the way down we saw more cord from another party that apparently felt similarly.

Caveat: I'm trying to grades relative to the 5.5 rating of this particular route which, for example, felt two grades stiffer than the same rating would be at Shelf Road.

This was a fun exploration route for me in 1996. I set up 1st belay just below where the huge crack begins to head back to the right like a backwards question mark, because I doing the climb on-site and wasn't sure of what I was getting into. Then once I was in the huge crack, I placed a #3 Friend with a runner and a #4 Friend higher up with a double runner just before the crack and route heads back to the left, which kept my rope nicely out of the big crack. My second belay, which I believe is the normal 1st belay, was at the little roof where I found a nice vertical crack that took a #1 Friend and a horizontal that I was able to bury and oppose a #2 Friend with a large nut. I then wondered up the run out 5.3 over to the right before heading straight up for about 100 feet without placing a thing until I stumbled on a large turkey neck in a bathtub to sling for another belay. From there I climbed up to what I felt was a short and stiff, slightly overhanging 5.7 crack. Just then Thor threw a very large bolt, that stuck the summit. I quickly down-climbed and traversed over to the large platform on the right side of the dome and threw in yet another belay so I could get my 2nd, Dave Meyer up as fast as possible. Dave was only 67 then and, it was hard to communicate, but as soon as he arrived we fled down (actually ran rather than walked) the 5.2 ramp back to the start. I've never made it back but sure is a beautiful place.