Millstone Slab 5.4 R
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| Type: | Trad, 1000 feet, Grade II |
| Consensus: | 5.4 [details] |
| FA: | ??? |
| Season: | dry rock |
| Submitted By: | Brian in SLC on Jun 8, 2009 |
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Millstone Slab
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Description Approach: Follow the standard approach to the Millstone climbing area. Take the trail towards Lake Blanch, following the pavement trail out of the parking lot, then the dirt trail up Mill B South. Instead of crossing the creek, take the well worn trail which stays on the west side of the drainage. This trail eventually leads to the large talus cone coming down from the Millstone climbing area. Follow the talus up, until just below the bottom of the steep, east facing rock climbing area (50-80 foot vertical wall). Cross over towards the base of the steep wall, and, short break in the wall should be visible. Climb over this, onto the low angle, well featured slab, and, either cross over and climb onto the main slab (about 200 feet above the very bottom of the slab), or, carefully down climb the narrow slab (short 3 to 5 foot east facing wall on the narrow slab’s right side) to the bottom and cross over to the main, unbroken slab for the full meal deal. Pick a line up the smooth slab, start up. Voila.
Compared to the West Slabs of Mount Olympus and the Mineral Slab, this is sustained lower angle, but, much less featured and fairly polished in most locations. My guess is the angle is from around 30 to 45 degrees is all, but, the rock in most places is smooth and slick. Good route finding required to piece together a reasonable, safe route. Not much loose rock. The wall “rolls” like a wave in places, where it gets low angle enough to traverse or walk, and, high angle enough to get “interesting”. Traversing off if weather or conditions change may be somewhat difficult in the first half or two-thirds of the slab.
The slab gains about 700 feet of vertical and the ridge above can be followed to a nice high point yielding fine views of the Sundial and the upper Mill B South drainage.
Descent: follow social/game trails down and eventually hook up with the Broad’s Fork trail.
Location The Millstone Slab is located on the west side of the Mill B South drainage, and is the very large slab forming the west side of the steep, east facing rock climbing area.
Protection If using a rope, take a standard rack of gear including a set of stoppers, micro cams up through a #3 Camalot (or equivalent). There will be the potential for very hefty run outs depending on the line chosen. At best, expect to climb 60 or more feet without protection in places on the smooth, nearly featureless face. Angling back and forth might help connect discontinuities.
No fixed anchors or gear.
BETA PHOTO: The Millstone Slab.
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Panorama of the slab from the base.
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The average angle of the slab.
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Looking down the slab.
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From the top of the slab, hike a few hundred feet ...
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| Comments on Millstone Slab |
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By ColinP
Sep 20, 2009
| Long, consistent, and secluded warrants 2 stars for this slab in my opinion. I climbed directly up the middle following obvious seams in the rock. The climbing is low 5th class, and it's incredibly consistent for the entire 700 vertical feet. The exposure is beautiful. Two hours round trip from the car. |
By Brian B Ballard
From: Boulder, CO
Jul 30, 2010
| Not nearly as featureless as stated here. Pro is rare and often sketchy. I recommend free solo on this one. The game trails into broads fork go through beautiful open forest. |
By zoso
Aug 2, 2010
| That settles it. I'm going to spray about 150 bolts into it. (heh heh) |
By Tristan Higbee
From: Mexico
May 22, 2012
| I climbed this today and had a great time on it. As others have said, it's remarkably consistent. I started up in my approach shoes but switched to my climbing shoes a couple hundred feet up. Felt more secure.
For the descent I didn't want to descend down into Broads Fork because I wasn't familiar with that area at all, so I came down around the west (climber's right) side of the Millstone Slab and then followed a dry creek bed back down to the trail. Some minor bushwhacking was required but it wasn't bad.
Approach beta here was spot on. I scrambled down to the very bottom tip of the slab before climbing up again. |
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