Warpy Moople 

I found p2 (after the 5.9 roof) to be the most run-out section- but the runout is on 5.7 terrain. Pitch 5 is definitely the psychological crux- I'd say you can one gear placement about every 10' if you traverse left (keeping the route at 5.9). Look for pro in both the thin vertical cracks and the horizontal slots. Overall this climb isn't radically scary, the R in the book is to keep people off it who shouldn't be there... there are many many places I wouldn't want to climb 5.9R or have scared the hell out of myself on 5.9R, but this isn't one of them and I've gone back 4 or 5 times. This is my favorite climb in New Mexico.

Thanks to Chuck and Tamara for the nice route topo pic. This really helped us to avoid any route-finding problems. As we were told by another party, just about every pitch has its "spicy" parts. We found some use for a #4 BD cam, but it probably wasn't absolutetly necessary.

A brief memorial to three friends who died on this climb is on the web at http://www.cs.unm.edu/~moret/jane_death.html. They were very smart and capable athletes with unfortunately less experience in their heads as their hearts were full of adventure. I knew Glen and Carlos but never met Jane. I ended up with Glen's gear from the SAR retrieval. I kept it for about a year in my garage until I figured his wife would not want it back. I remember finally tossing the rack and shoes and gained the sudden relief like the shrugging off of a heavy Grade V pack at the end of a big day. Yet, nothing weighs more than a heavy heart.

A small metal placard attached to one of the bolts at the 4th belay memorializes someone who loved the Sandias, although time has made the inscription (and name) more difficult to decipher. Any info on this person and their story? It was not one of the people from Jane Tenneson accident described in the above link, as the date of passage on the memorial is 9/18/95 and the name is Berg or ??berg.

This climb has seen multiple unfortunate accidents, and you can't help but wonder about these fellow climbers and know that it could have been you while on this classic with only a few of the wrong mistakes at the wrong time.

George, I am not certain of the info on the tag. There is more about Jane at this site (http://www.cs.unm.edu/~moret/jane.html .) I know Glen was married and may have had a child. He was a senior resident in Psychiatry at UNMH. I know Carlos was also a resident (I think a Psych intern also at UNMH) and Jane was a PT. Seems like those final pitches in the Sandias can often be covered with kitty litter and dead trees. Not the sort of place to let down your guard and relax or to send a noob up the dark.

The medallion located on Warpy Moople is for Jeff Winberg. Jeff was a great friend and climbing/guiding mentor for myself and many others. He did not die climbing. The medallion is there only in his memory because Muralla Grande was one of his favorite places to climb.

As mentioned in the description there are a lot of variations to the different pitches. For example you need to push P2 belay up as far as you think you can in order to link P3 and P4, otherwise you may come up about 10 feet short using a 60 meter rope. Also - the first photo of the starting dihedral (black rock) shows the major dihedral that is commonly wet after a rain storm (and can be slick). There is also a very nice dihedral that starts in the left corner of the same photo that can be climbed - is commonly drier - but you must move right at the roof and then back left to reach the block covered ledge. Nice way to do it, but watch the rope drag.