Richard at the blots at the top of pitch one - Rag...
Description
The classic trad route of Willow Springs. This route faces NE and can be cold, it is shady most of the day. Last time I led this I kinda forgot about all the wide sections and got a bit nervous on the runouts. It is quite commonly led with nothing bigger than a #4 Camalot (or less), for which it should probably be considered to have an "S" rating.
If you don't have big gear you can just do the first (short) pitch and rap from bolts. Be considerate of others who want to do the entire route, however. Especially with a 60m rope, it is possible to lead this as one long pitch, although you may want to do a short second pitch to reach the walk-off.
Climb the obvious crack in the center of the cliff. The first part is hand jamming and stemming, you will reach a 2 bolt anchor at 60'. From here you can toprope Ragged Edges and Plan F to its left. Above here the crack gets wider, at one point where it looks like you will have to get inside and offwidth it you move out onto the right face. The top out is rather indistict and it can be hard to find a good belay anchor. Watch out for crumbly rock at the top out.
From the top, walk down easily to the right (north).
Protection
Standard rack, plus large cams are needed for good pro on this route. Take #3, #3.5, #4, #4,5 and #5 Camalots if you want good pro. Often led with much less than this, however (add pg/s rating).
I climbed this route a couple of years ago and found myself it deep doo doo above the bolts because I didn't have any large cams. I had a most unpleasant runout up the right side of the crack. Take large cams--4 to 5--or the largest tri-cam. I also feel the final moves to the bolts rate 5.9.
Yeah, my pro list means take 1 each of #3-#5 Camalots (including half sizes). However I've never seen anyone lead it with this many big cams, I've never had anything bigger than a #4 on it.
Are there now bolts at the top out? I remember it used to just turn into a series of ledges covered with gravel, and it wasn't clear where to finish the pitch.
By John Hegyes From: Las Vegas, NV Jun 13, 2004 rating: 5.8+
Climbed Ragged Edges today. We used up to a pair of #4 Camalots and felt pretty well protected on the second pitch. The only runout, where the crack got a little wider, had good hands. Lots of places for a #2 around the start of pitch two. Nice and shady, the sun went behind the rock at about noon. There are no anchors for the top of the second pitch, I third-classed it up the low angle slabs to a tree and belayed from there with a fair bit of rope drag. The walk-off to the west was quick. I saw more loose holds on this route than I would have liked, but otherwise a fine route on a gorgeous day.
The crux section on pitch one , a beautiful "splitter-like" crack nearing the top of the pitch, takes #2 camalots well. I only had one of two left on my rack by the time I reached the crux ,but I was able to "walk it up" without any problem but ......TO save TWO, #2's ,would be good TO do TOO!
Climbed this last March and used a few c-4's as well as tried out Trango's mid-range Maxcams to supplement my rack. Liked the fact that the Max Cams fit in areas that my C-4's didn't fit as well.
I took up to one #3.5 old size camalot. I did not feel the route to be scary with that size gear, as the runout part felt easy. I found the crux lower down to be pretty stiff for 5.8 though.
Its unfortunate that the anchor bolts are placed where they are. They come right in the middle of the best section of the climb. Ideally, they should have been placed about 10 feet higher at the end of the splitter fist crack and before the ow section. This would have warranted a four-star pitch.
By 46and2 From: Las Vegas, NV Apr 9, 2007 rating: 5.8
We only climbed pitch 1 today because we did not have any large cams with us; heed the advice from an earlier post and have two # 2 camelots saved for the splitter crack crux. Makes it super nice and well protected. Brock/McMillan guidebook says pitch one is 5.7 but our party of four thought the crux was 5.8 for sure. Go climb this today; great pro and as good a pitch at the grade there is.
Climbed pitch one but not two. Pitch one has either very nice hand crack climbing if you want to strictly stay to the crack (although it is probably more like 5.9 then with the overhanging bulge) or huge buckets 2-5' to the right which provide rest spots and holds. You could pretty much face climb most of the thing on buckets but that's not why your here. I led by using the crack (mostly perfect hands here and there) for some parts and grabbing the buckets if I wanted a rest for pro. Then on TR it was great hand crack practice, especailyl the last few moves to the bolts on the top of P1.
Ragged Edges Area
RSS Feed
