This challenging line ascends a thin seam of excellent limestone with challenging footwork. Its possible to make things easier by using the larger crack three feet right of the main line. For full-value, use all of your thin-crack skills, pasting and rand-smearing your feet. After the 4th bolt, things get a lot easier with great crimps and face holds.
Location
Furthes N route at the Far Side II, just a bit north of the Pizza Slab.
I used the crack to the right near the start. Maybe I'm chicken, but at least I'm not chicken hamburger. Another Palomas cheese-grater fest.
By Daniel Trugman From: Los Alamos, NM Sep 4, 2009 rating: 5.11a
I thought this was a lot of fun, one of the highlights of my first visit to Palomas. I used the crack on the right and it seemed like 11a (as per the online guide).
Yeah, I'd consider this a good 11a. The crack is just too obvious and tempting to ignore, and I think it's the more natural line. Going left into the skittery feet and awkward handholds down low seems rather contrived to me. Mid-section climbs oh so nice.
Come on now this is Palomas, part of the game is ignoring those tempting looking cracks so you can crux out on slippery footholds. I actually really liked this one, one of my favorite Palomas 11's. Remember the hard to see jug at the 4th bolt. It is only easy to see once you're past it.
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