Heart and Sole 

The first bolt is tricky to get to, you can put a small cam behind the flake but it won't keep you off the floor. Beautiful slabby moves lead to a secure and fun layback.

If you are not used to J-tree dime-edging and smearing I sincerely recommend warming up on another route prior to attempting this. The initial 50' is bolted, but is NOT a sport route and falls could be serious. Additionally, the moves are slick and for non-chalkers (me) were a little funky on a warm day.

this is my favorite route ive ever done in jtree i love it so much, the line is so f'in bad ass the thin face moves are definatly the crux, but everything is there, a trick i found when traversing back across the roof is to use the under side of the roof for a hand hold made it much easier than using the small face holds in front of your face, once your done with these moves say hello to one of the cool lyeback dihedrals around!!!! oh yeah make sure to leave a long sling at your last cam at the top of the flake to keep it from getting stuck behind in side the flake.

The traverse is slippier than it used to be. Many years of climbing have smoothed down the crystals and greased it up somewhat. Further, some of the finger holds have popped off. I popped one myself a couple of weeks ago.

This was an excellent route, but I have one issue with the climb. The first bolt is quite high off the deck, which is fine. However, the bolt is one move (and a sketchy hard move) above an excellent stance. Why did the first ascentionist place the bolt above this excellent stance? Was this to keep the "riff-raff" off? It seems like artificial boldness to me. Although the smear I used to get to the bolt felt pretty serious to me, and I remember the move with distinct claritry, more so than if I were climbing past an already-clipped bolt. Maybe that was the point.

Great climb for cold days.

This route needs a good scrubbing! The traverse is much thinner than I recall and needs a wire brush overhaul! While it is an excellent route, I would only climb it again at about 50 degrees F with no sun. It is slippery at the crux (the traverse??), probably due to the millions of shoes that have traversed it! Still the best route on Echo in my humble opinion. Relatively well protected, but has some real thin sections at the bottem.

With all due respect (or maybe not) to TraiseB: Using a wire brush on this (or any) route will only make the holds smoother and more polished (think about what hundreds of more ascents by people with sloppy footwork would do). Keep the wire brush for those home improvement projects.

Consensus Question for the bold...

There is an alternate finish to this climb using 3 or 4 more bolts up the face, in my hasty study of the guidebook, I thought H+S went straight up this line of bolts, and the alternate went into the flake oops...

In the book, this alternate is rated 10b, but it uses the first three bolts of H+S, traversing left, and then right climbing around some ultra-thin hard moves.

Has anybody skipped the third bolt and all that traversing and gone straight up? Any stabs at the difficulty of the moves, felt stout? The pucker factor was high, and I don't think a fall would be pretty.

Any info would be great. Thanks.

Tom

I love this route, I only wish that the finishing flake was sportier, because it looks so cool from the ground. The sport of the route is definitely in the first half.

I really found this route to be fun and quite reasonable. I thought the lower section up the roof to be quite hard and thin to clip the first bolt and the traverse quite straight forward once you got your right foot situated properly so the left could step out. The move to the crack was actually more intimidating for me. Up the flake was just pure fun and a nice way to end the route!

Great climb, the best one on Echo Rock! Sweet dicey face moves below and above the roof reward the climber with a comfortable, easy crack. This one's a must for your tick list. I second the opinion for using a long sling on the last piece (learned the hard way).

The moves to the first bolt are no joke. The gear in the flake will not keep you off the deck.

The slab is the main course, while the crack is the dessert. I am glad I talked myself into leading this one. One of the best of the trip...

Rick Graham and I did this route on 3-2-08. First time climbing with Rick in 28 years and last time I climbed Heart and Sole was 15 years ago. Nice to revisit old friends and climbs. Great fun. Nice lead Rick. Just like the old days(almost)! The climb was as I remembered. Always interesting, never really hard, and most of all, fun.

A memorable climb that I can still relive in vivid detail, three years after I lead it. Some climbs are like that, this is one of them.

Did this a week or two ago, and there are a couple of welded cams in there, one right off the deck and another in the bottom of the crack. One right off the ground is going to require some kind of hand tools to get out...chisel, hacksaw blade, something...at least there's a good stance to work on it.

I've done this a few times now and it's a great ride. Down low is a little spicy as you are high enough above a .4 camalot going for the first bolt that a fall should not really be in the equation. Not sure about the traverse getting more slippery!? Not really all that bad....and the move getting into the dihedral is cool too! Great and memorable climb.

Do this on a cool day or out of the sun- learned this the hard way.
Made the face climbing feel a whole lot harder than it should have. Cool route, although I don't think its the best in Echo.

Led this one today and it's been a long time since I've done it, over 15 years I think. No really hard moves but yeah the lip traverse left felt slippery, although it was over in a couple of moves. I thought the first traverse right was the crux, but I didn't use the underside of the roof, might try that next time.

Wonderful varied climbing, and one of the essential Echo Rock routes.

So glad my friend hand-picked this for me to lead--full of thoughtful, beautiful moves requiring care and finesse (my favorite). A must-do in the area.

great slab, its all there just look for the feet, bring smaller cams for the flake and your good to go! (did this climb yesterday)

Very fun climb! I wish the difficulty would have been sustained for a little longer, the dihedral is very easy (but still fun), and this is a classic! The moves are a little thin, but it's all there, and well protected after the first bolt (which is a little sketchy to get to).

With Wayne, Debbie & Mike

Ying and Yang!! Great, scary slab down low and Fantastic Layback crack up high!What more could you ask for! The First bolt is a little high but after that your golden!! Ohhhhhh It is so fun!

This climb reminded me of the Van Halen Greatest Hits album "The Best of Both Worlds", a little DLR, and little Hagar, maybe some Gary Cherone there too. A right hand palming move proved key to reaching the first bolt.