Latch Hand  5.11c

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 60 feet Consensus:  5.11c [details] FA:  Billy Westbay, Scott Kimball, 1981 Submitted By:  jason seaver on Feb 19, 2003 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (2) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

John starting the seam. 4-12-05

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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 

This pitch is on the far right side of Gollum's Arch Rock, about 100 yards past Seam-stress and Gollum's Arch. Walk past those routes along the base of the cliff, boulder up into a hanging gully beneath an overhanging, rotten section of the cliff, scramble up to the gully's highpoint then descend just a bit to the base of the route. A short, narrow, and hanging right-facing dihedral is the start of the pitch.Gain the hanging corner, climb to its top, then traverse left to the obvious, thin seam that splits the upper slab. Climb the continuously delicate tips crack past a piton and a tiny tree. The gear is very good but not immediately obvious. For what it's worth, I find the moves off the ground to be really burly (not 10a as the guidebook suggests).I have also led an alternate "direct" start. Just left of the original start, climb a left-angling weakness to a short right-facing corner feature (11/11+ R), then move right on a sloping shelf to the base of the crux seam. I certainly don't recommend this start over the original, since it's kinda dirty and dangerous, but it is something different. From the top you can walk left (West) down a ramp to get back to the ground.

This is one of a killer circuit of hard seam pitches in this general area. On the Hens and Chickens check out Two In The Pink (11+) and Hagakure (12a); also on Gollum's Arch Rock, try Seam-stress (11d) and Wrath (12).

Protection 

Bring RPs, small stoppers, and cams up to 2". There is one decent pin in the crux seam.