BETA PHOTO: The amazing finger crack of Sunblessed
Description
Sunblessed is a very high quality three pitch climb, popular for its memorable second pitch hand crack. Begin at a bolted dike in the center of the wall.
P1: Punch it up the dike at run out 5.9 to the first of a series of bolts. Continue up and then traverse right along the dike at 5.10 to a ramp and the base of a beautiful splitter.
P2: Ascend the steep thin-hands crack for 120 feet to a low-angle ramp and belay. 5.10b.
P3: Head up and around to the right on easy terrain, then continue up the corner vie stemming and face holds initially and then better jams. 5.10b(+).
There are several variations/link-ups that alter the upper pitches. Rap the route (2 60m ropes or one 70m).
The book pitches this out in four. As stated do it in three. There is bolts before the last crux crack on the right hand side of the wall. Belay from here or at least have your leader clip the bolt, as blowing it before they get to the bolt next to the crack would set you up for a bad day.
I remember the first two bolts off the deck being smashed, so no gear for 25 feet or so. It's probably 5.9, slick , but with positive edges. A great route, but i could have skipped the last pitch (p3) and been happy to go back to camp.
By Peter Spindloe Administrator From: North Vancouver, BC Apr 23, 2008
I really enjoyed this climb. The first pitch definitely has you go about 25 feet until the first bolt, but I didn't see any smashed bolts.
The second pitch was great except that it's hard to see how long it is so I kept wondering what gear I needed to save for later. In the end I would say that two purple, three green, and two red camalots plus some large nuts (#12-14 BD) would be ideal. I only had two greens and ended up doing some leapfrogging, although if I knew that it stayed reasonably moderate after the first ten feet I probably would have just carried on without leapfrogging.
I wanted to do the last pitch even though it seems to have a reputation as less pleasant. While it's not a three-star splitter like pitch two, I found it really rewarding. McLane's guidebook described it as "hand and flary fist jamming." I was surprised by just how much it flares at the bottom. I got a 3.5 camalot in the initial flare (where it's worst) and actually felt pretty comfortable stemming until the one and only bolt. Once I had the bolt clipped, the jams gradually got better and so did the pro, but it was burly for the grade all the way to the top. No amount of gym climbing will teach you how to do this pitch.
A 70m rope was perfect for getting down in the three rappels.
The Solarium
RSS Feed
