Great Roof Bypass  5.8+

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Type:  Trad, 5 pitches Consensus:  5.8+ [details] FA:  Jim Erickson & Luke Studer Submitted By:  Erik Corkran on Jan 1, 2001 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Season raptor closures MORE INFO >>> The following areas are closed from March 1-July 31 or until further notice: Twin Owls, Rock One, Batman Rock, Batman Pinnacle, Sheep Mountain, Thunder Buttress, The Parish, Lightning Rock and Checkerboard Rock are currently closed. The closures include the named rock formations and the areas extending 100 yards surrounding the base of the formation. This includes all climbing routes, outcroppings, cliffs, faces, ascent and descent routes and climber's access trails to the formation. Alligator Rock is also closed. www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/area_closures.htm This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

Yet another time I planned to climb Kor's Flake and there were too many people on it. The route we did appears to be a variation of what I have seen in most guidebooks.

(1) Climb the first pitch of Kor's Flake (I always climb through the "hole" but not for any particular reason).

(2) Start up the second pitch of Kor's Flake but break right to a black and slightly bulging dihedral. I think that the normal route continues up Kor's Flake and avoids this. Dihedral felt 5.9, though I had not done too many 5.9 trad leads at the time, so could be 5.8+. It seems like we belayed after the black dihedral.

(3) The dihedral continues but is very dirty, head up and left instead (heading for a flake at the left edge of a big roof). The flake is big and hollow/scary, but leads to the best part of the climb. Do a "squeeze chimney traverse" to the right under/inside the big roof. I managed to fit through after much wiggling. My partner was convinced he couldn't fit but he finally did. If you are over about 190 lbs you probably will not fit. Continue to the dihedral at the right edge of the roof (I placed a large cam on a big runner before pulling onto the wall) and pull over to the right on (mostly) good holds, with good gear (large stoppers). The route continues to the saddle though I don't remember exact details. Difficulty decreased after the pull around the roof mentioned above.

I was going to give the route a star for the roof traverse and pull over the dihedral. I really enjoyed this pitch, but I figured that many people wouldn't so I left the star off.

Protection 

Standard rack, I used one large cam in addition (seems like I always have one).