Devious climbing with hard to place gear on a right leaning arch. Good route with good gear...if you can hang to place.
Climb the corner just right of Ventre de Boeuf...tend right to the arch and climb the arch to a small overhang (crux) to a slab. Reach the anchor and rap.
Location
Start just right of Ventre de Boeuf.
Protection
Small to medium gear with double rp's.
Add CommentComments on Uphill all the Way AKA The Man Who Fell to Earth
I did what I thought was the FA on aid in the mid 70s. Dick Williams says it was done earlier by Dennis Mehmet & Co., but I'm a little skeptical, as there were no pin scars. But perhaps in the hard Gunks rock, one aid ascent wouldn't leave any scars.
My "FA" was done self-belay all nuts with hooks. At one point I did 3 hook moves in" a row with 2 hooks by hanging on some small free holds as I moved a hook up. That was pretty exciting. I was either self-belaying with prussiks, or maybe I had moved up by then to jumars.
My name for the climb, "The Man Who Fell to Earth", came from this story: Jeff Pofit attempted (what we thought was) the second ascent. He didn't know that I had used hooks. He ripped his gear from the crux aid section, where the arch jogs right, and zippered a bunch of other gear due to the sideways pull caused by arching right. He landed on his head at a soft spot between some rocks. I think he was carried away, but he would have been able to walk away.
The original route went right at the top of the arch to a platform on the arete and then angled left and up on some nice free climbing at about 5.8. My understanding is that Hugh & Co. freed the final traverse right to the arete but that most people end the free climbing by exiting left near the top of the arch.
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