Ralph Fickle following the headwall. Who says NC ...
Description
Laurel's newest and quite probably hardest route! Originally begun years ago by Ralph Fickle and Burton Moomaw. See topo and photo for visual description and here is what Arno reported on the CCC site: Defective Sonar (between Fathom and Forbidden Fruit through an obvious right-angling crack at about 200' height) FA info: Ralph Fickle, Arno Ilgner, Shannon Stegg 8 pitches, rated IV 5.11a, C2 - On June 16 we completed this route that Burton Moomaw and Ralph Fickle started back in 1991. Their high point was three and a half pitches up, through the crack and into the bulging face climbing. - I went back in July with Shannon and freed all the moves but haven't yet redpointed it. The third pitch is a 130-foot diagonalling crack that has "challenging" pro and I think it is the crux of the route, although the next pitch is pretty cruxy also with a iron cross move to a blind hold. - The climb has much variety on it, from thin slab climbing on the first two pitches, difficult crack climbing on the third pitch, "interesting" face climbing on the fourth, beautiful groove climbing on the fifth, thin/technical face on the sixth, deep groove climbing on the seventh, and easy slab on the eight. -
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