Approximately 100' to the right of Arrow Place is a prominent undulating crack system. The middle of the first pitch is interesting and entertaining. However the start and finish of the first pitch involves deceptively awkward climbing and tenuous, hard-to-get gear. The offwidth bomb-bay chimney at the top of pitch one is short but intimidating. And gear can only really be gotten very deep in the crack. The belay at the top of P.1 is a manky collection of aging detritus. It is more of a history display than a substantial anchor. All in all this route is worth doing at least once.
Protection
I found much of the pro to be difficult and tenuous.
I am not sure how the program elected to give this a vs rating, probably because I made mention of the less than ideal protection. I would not consider this route vs. Maybe s (with a small s). But I would consider it harder than the 5.8 the guide gives it. In fact I think it is much harder and more serious than Arrow Place but there is NO reason to get hurt on this route. On a side note I got a camming unit stuck in the back of the bombay slot right below the belay station. You can have it if you can get it.
Glad someone else thought this was more difficult than Arrow Place. As a side note on my first attempt I fell on a cliped "fixed" piece at the awkward spot ~ 20' off the deck. Said "fixed" piece popped - fortunately the alien below it held and kept me 5" from the deck. The fixed gear was a home made nut - probably from the original ascent. I managed to go back and bag it the second time but not without a lot of grumbling. It's worth doing once. Side note - I was working on a line in between Arrow Place and Wishbone (left a nut and never finished it).
RSS Feed
