Sinistar  5.11a/b

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Type:  Sport, 1 pitch, 100 feet Consensus:  5.11a [details] FA:  Alan Humphrey Aaron Rickshaw, 9/2001 Submitted By:  Boissal on Sep 13, 2007 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (12) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Sinistar

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Stay on the trails MORE INFO >>> This is private property. Respect it and consider it a privilege to climb here. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment Park your car off of the main canyon road.

Description (2 or 3 in this one) 

Sinistar is one of the older HelmetGate lines and departs a bit from the sanitized feel you get after a too many line on Melting Mud. Expect a bit of gnar, a (fair) bit of sand, big moves, ugly old bolts and an assload of fun and pump on this one.
The black rock at the bottom is Devils Castle-ish, the white rounded choss in the middle is reminescent of Ibex's eroded caves, and the headwall feels like typical pockety helmetgate.

The start is a bit in your face and the hardest moves on the route might be right off the ground (they won't feel bad at all when fresh). Clip the ancient bolt and make your way through blocky sidepulls and a few long moves until your reach the chossier rock/chossiest rock divide below the start of the overhanging section.
Catch a rest, ask for the protection of whatever deity you believe in and fire up the roof using jugs that have been defying erosion and gravity for way too long.
You might want to thread the 2nd bolt in the white section with a runner instead of clipping it, it's resting in a recess and would take a lot of torque if you fell on it...
Shuffle up and slightly right through a pumpy section of pancake pinching and sidepulls until you cross the ill-defined chossiest rock/chossy rock boundary and re-enter helmetgate style climbing. Brush an unbelievable amount of sand from your hands, shoes and eyes, start breathing again and motor up the pocketed headwall to the longest set of chains you'll ever see (longer that Sasquatch. For real).

Lower and proceed to dodge the sand avalanches the next climber will be sending your way if you're belaying - while trying not to fall of the slowly decomposing belay stance.

Did I mention this one is really good? GO DO IT.

Location 

Sinistar sits West of the pillar that marks the left end of the Melting Mud Wall. Approach as for Melting Mud, skip the last switchback and head West to a giant alcove featuring 3 layers of rock: compact black, sandy rounded white and brittle looking gray. Kinda like a layered cake. One that tastes like sand and choss.

Scramble up into the alcove looking for an old trinket bolt at the base of a steep blocky section of black rock. Look up and be scared. You should see another bolted line to your right. If you don't, you're about to get spanked on Septic Death.

Protection 

13 bolts to chains.
60 m rope only and you won't have much to spare.

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this one definitely was solid 5.11! steep, long, ...	another look at the 5.11 that travels through the ...	Sam on Sinistar
Emily on Sinistar