Only the Good Die Young 

FA:  Uriosites, year unknown, spelling messed up Type:  Trad, Sport Consensus:  5.11c [details] Length:  5 pitches Views: 742 page views Submitted By: Jake Martin on Mar 20, 2004 Add Photo  Add Comment

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Deanna sending the 3rd pitch right before she onsi...

Description 

Kudos, again, the the ASCA folks who rebolted this climb, taking from an obscure, old-rusty-bolts-that-will-snap scarefest to a super safe, super classic climb. Don't let the 5.11 grade scare you off, the cruxs are very well bolted with big, fat, new, shiny ASCA hangers. This climb is so well bolted, the cruxes could easily be yarded through (A0 style).

Anyhew, get to the route by first finding wholesome fullback. After you find this climb (see said routes description), hike climbers right for roughly 300 feet. As you go ascend slightly, you will be heading up into the mouth of a narrow canyon that splits whiskey peak and black velvet wall Keep your eyes peeled up for a bolt 10-15 feet off the deck, this will be the give away for the routes start, and will be on the same wall as wholesome fullback, that has now become the left side of the narrow canyon you are heading up. Again, the route will be between 300 and 500 feet climbers right of wholesome fullback. As you look up at the super-shiny new hanger, you will see several (3-4) other bolts about 40 feet up, twisting around a corner. Here you are looking at the second pitch, to give you a good idea of how short the pitches really are. So now you have found the climb.

The first pitch goes in supertopo as 10d, but I felt it was more 10bish, a one move wonder. Place some cams, and go up to the first set of anchors. Pitch 2 is the business at 5.11 plus, with bolts right there the whole time. This is a super steep, super fun portion of this climb, a few of the holds are climbing gym-esque. As you reach the second anchor, you will already be getting psyched for the great looking third pitch. Begin this pitch with easy slab moves, progressing into several 5.10 moves to the belay. As the pitch continues, so does the difficulty. Thank goodness for those incuts...Here we go, this is the crux. Pitch 4, you can see the three shiny traverse bolts, where the climbing is the most diffiuclt right at the beginning of the traverse, and eases as you get the overhang, which are really jugs. Use long runners on the first and last traverse bolts, or suffer the consequences of severe rope drag. Also notice the origional Uriosite bolt...don't both clipping it, I talked to the dude who rebolted this and he said they barely hold body weight. After the overhang, do some .10 slab moves, and then, belay if you want, or just launch into the 5.6 (at most) patina haul to the top.

The descent isn't pretty. You need to scramble back down the canyon that the climb started in (via some 4thclassing climbers right from the summit), the one dividing black velvet and whiskey peak, but be wary as the canyon forks, as we found out. You will need to do one short rap of like 70 feet once you get close to your packs.Thanks again to the ASCA, they are really doing climbers a service.

Protection 

Bolts protect the cruxes, and the anchors are new as well, but don't roll up with just a rack of draws and a rope---no, no, no, you will also need a sinle set of cams to #2 Camalot(I am not sure what SuperTopo says to bring, but that is what we had, and were fine). Only one rope is nessesary, and a 50 meter rope would work fine-the pitches are all super short. The only reason a longer rope might be desirable would be if you wanted to run the last few pitches together, not a problem as after the routes crux, the difficulty eases way back to 5.6 patina pulling.BAcking off this route would be easy.