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Brian Bhark expecting great OK climbing on Great E...
Description
Great Expectations climbs the prominent crack just to the left of the tiered dihedral system. Climb the slab using the crack for protection until the crack disappears. Head up and right to another lone tree and a two bolt rap anchor located on the wall. The route protects well all the way to the anchors – bring a good assortment of stoppers and cams. You can either rappel from the anchors with two ropes or continue up a second easy pitch. The second pitch climbs the easy flake above the anchors to a headwall. At the headwall, traverse (walk is probably a better description) left to the anchors on the second pitch of Water Streak. This second pitch is pretty short and very easy. Long slings will reduce some of the rope drag caused by the abrupt traverse at the base of the headwall. Even with two ropes, be prepared for a little easy down climbing at the bottom.
Location
Finding the start of the route is almost as interesting as the climbing. Once you hit the base of the slabs, trend right looking for a ramp that leads to a tree higher up. Belay from the tree.
Protection
Standard rack with a wide range of stoppers and cams. Fixed anchors at the top, two rope rappel.
The second pitch of this was my first lead climb ever, done after climbing Dihedral as a second. The Great Expectations route was my second lead. The crack quickly gobbled up nearly a full rack of cams. Only placed one stopper, but probably could have placed more.
The crux is moving over the lip and traversing over to the anchors. I ended up protecting up high then down climbing a bit before traversing over. This was a great climb, I felt pretty comfortable the entire time, but it did get my heart pumping a bit.
Cams .5-3 and one small Alien as my mental piece for the traverse.
Elk Slabs
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