This route is the last one on the climber's right on the square, black-varnished wall which houses the routes Doobie Dance and Romper Room.
Pitch 1- Crux pitch. Climb the left-facing corner/crack, pulling a small overhang onto a ledge with a large bush. Scramble up to the next large bush on another ledge.
Pitch 2- Climb the low-angle crack system to a belay stance in a left-facing corner.
Pitch 3- Head up the easy crack/varnished face to a large ledge.
Pitch 4- A pitch worth of fourth class. Those that are not comfortable with 4th-class terrain may want to rope up.
Descent: WARNING: THE GUIDEBOOKS ARE WRONG! Do not descend via Lotta Balls descent gully. It is long, indirect, brushy, and involves tricky ropework. THE BEST WAY TO DESCEND is to move right (west) from the top of the climb and scramble down a gully (3rd class on its west side) to a small pine tree with rap slings. Two straightforward, single-rope rappels (60m works) and a little downclimbing take you to the base of the wall just east of Rising Moons.
Re: Pitch 1 There is a rap anchor, one bolt and natural pro at the first ledge with a bush, if you choose to do only the first worthy pitch. You will need two ropes to rap. Also... you may want to bring some webbing to back up the ratty ones if you plan on rapping from pitch 1.
By Larry DeAngelo Administrator Nov 30, 2006 rating: 5.7
This is actually an excellent climb. The initial corner is, paradoxically, harder than the face climbs to the left. On the upper pitches, there are many options. Probably the best is to stay left, on high-quality varnish and aesthetic cracks. This way the climbing is generally delightful and easy. It is probably a 3-star route, but I am voting 4-stars to offset Gigette's terrible 1-star rating. She must have taken a bad variation, or suffered from the Lotta Balls descent...
It was the Lotta Balls descent, Larry. You know me well! ; ) I awarded it a one star, because the upper pitches were easy (much easier than the first pitch), and over too quickly, but the descending was a nightmare, and took longer than the climb. I guess the beauty of the last pitches was tainted by the so-called "Lotta Balls descent" (those fu#kers!) so I'll maybe bump it up to two stars, folks. I'm so glad you found an easier descent, Larry; if anyone can, you can. : )
we loved the climb. the first pitch is the hardest but something to remember on the descent, we had to rappel three times cause we only had one 200ft rope. the picture shows only two. there are three obvious belay points but you could easily skip the third if you had two ropes. maybe people crazier than me down climb the last section.
Very fun climb. Much longer than it seems from the ground. 600'+ After the first pitch it is a romp, but a very fun romp! All pitches very well protected. This would be a great climb for a party with a newer leader as the 2nd & 3rd pitches are great practice. First pitch was stiff 5.7 (maybe even 5.8), but had great edges for placing pro. I went to the second tree/bush: maybe 40' above the first tree/bush (which is passed on the left). Second pitch is long, fun, heavily featured crack. Never harder than maybe 5.3. We did about 30 feet of simulclimbing to get to the sloping ledge (w/ 60m rope). The third pitch is also 5.3 (not class 4 -- well, maybe Sierra Class 4!) and we bypassed what looked like a little 5.6 overhang by stepping right about 6 feet and then coming back to the main corner on the left. Finish up a white fin of sandy rock. Descent info was right on, with only a bit of class 4 downclimbing. If you stretch the first rappel to the second tree (reach for it!!!) you can get down with only two rappels. If you stop at the first (smaller tree), three rappels are required. The last being about 20'.
Romper Room
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