Natural Born Drillers  5.12c

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Type:  Sport, 1 pitch, 100 feet Consensus:  5.12c [details] FA:  Nad & Goss Submitted By:  Josh Janes on Apr 23, 2012 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Description 

This is the first route at the Cathedral and one of the longest - it takes a traversing line linking great natural features before busting straight up to the rim for the final few clips. Several cruxes and good rests comprise this wonderful pump-fest.

Begin as for Speaking in Tongues (by far a more popular route - though it shouldn't be) on the right side of the cave. A difficult undercling move that isn't so bad if you can stay glued to the glassy feet leads to better holds. There's a shallow no-hands knee bar before the route moves right where Tongues moves left. Here you must pass two very poorly placed bolts - they are too low and too far to the right of the climbing, making the clips difficult and the climbing unsettling. In any case, move right to a huge hueco, then right again to a smaller, but perhaps better one that is home to an abandoned peregrine nest. Hope that there is a long sling on the next bolt as you move up on some cobbles in a shallow depression on the wall. A few more moves up and right around an arete-like feature lead to a great stance and opportunity for complete recovery. Easy stemming up a corner culminates in a big move to a good hole, and another rest before the final run to the chains: This section is steep and uncharacteristically crimpy, but it also has the nicest rock. The anchor is tough to clip.

When you lower, stop at the chain anchors and lower again from there. Otherwise you won't make it.

Protection 

16 bolts or so?