Type: Trad, 700 ft (212 m), 5 pitches, Grade III
FA: Michael Covington & Wayne Goss, 1972
Page Views: 42,740 total · 151/month
Shared By: Mark Wyss on Dec 31, 2000 · Updates
Admins: Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac, Tyler KC

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Description Suggest change

Hike uphill and west along the base of Sundance, past the huge roof band of Turnkorner to a large, fairly obtuse, but distinct enough right facing dihedral.

P1-The base contains a wide crack on the left and a finger size crack on the right  which ends about 10 feet up. Between the two is a thin, flared crack. I recommend climbing the right crack to the top. Step left on a narrow ledge and place gear. Proceed upward using a combination of crack and face holds left of the dihedral and roof seen from the ground.  Several more cracks and ledges lead to a stance at about 100 feet with a wide crack on the left which is the start of P2.  Belay on the ledge with gear in a flake/crack system on the right. head up the dihedral, sometimes using the cracks and flakes to the left, and belay after 100 ft (5.8).

P2-more of the same out on the left, to a passable ledge. More specifically, follow a wide crack to where it peters out. Follow discontinuous cracks and face to a roof/overlap. Make an awkward move over the roof and continue up about 15 feet to a horizontal ledge with a splitter crack and the P3 stem moves about 40 above. Belay here. 

P3-Head up into two shallow, opposing corners. Stem them (5.9), continue past a ledge and over a 5.9 bulge to another ledge below a large, right-facing corner. After the bulge, the crack slips into a left facing "corner" which really feels/looks like a big flake for the right-hand wall. Make an awkward move into the corner/v-slot. Continue about 15 feet to a giant ledge at the base of a large right facing corner.

P4-climb the corner at 5.8 and belay on a low angled area or continue up P6 to the top. Step left at the top of the corner and either belay or continue to the chimney/crack. 

P5-climb a flared 5.6 chimney/ crack to the top. After P4 and the slabs, look for a 12-18 inch wide crack which is narrow in the back and accepts gear from .5 to 3 or bigger. Climb on the left side and inside the crack for about 60 feet. This crack/offwith/chimney is the most parallel sided feature above the slabs. If you linked P4 and P5 run the rope about 190 feet before looking right for a ledge system. You may want to summit at this point as this system is used as the walk-off. One does not actually summit the west side of the buttress to descend. If done as a separate pitch you may have enough rope to continue further but you still may want to stop at the ledge system to walk off.

Head east to the descent gully. More specifically, climbers should look for a relatively large ledge system which contours around the side of the buttress.  It is not at the true summit but level with the east summit. Walk/scramble east looking for tracks of prior climbers. If you get lucky, as of 2021, there is a permanent anchor attached to a large dead tree. The tree sits about 40 ft below the ledge system. The slings pass through a large snap-link. Back this up with a #3 cam or two if you worry about the tree pulling out. Rap, with saddle bagged ropes, down a v-slot overgrown with vegetation. At about 30 meters you'll arrive at a slung horn with two carabiners. This is the second rap station. Rap from here down a clean face/slab to gain the descent trail. (There may be alternative raps but we did not find them in Sept 2021.)

Protection Suggest change

Standard rack.

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