Chad Berger on the crux moves of Cerberus. John Wa...
Description
This is one of the best routes in the Needles, and is a must do for any climber. The climbing is fantastic, the summit is very cool, and the simulrap is exhilarating.
From the gully between Tricouni Nail and Queen Pin, look for a few old fixed pins on a steep face. Climb past the drilled pins to a good stance on a shoulder. Sling the shoulder and move up and left towards a ring bolt, placing a medium stopper in a seam along the way to avoid a groudfall. Traverse right at the ringbolt to another bolt, and then fire for the top on good crystals.
The route is only half over on top. Belay the follower from the top. To rappel, toss one end of the rope off either side with the rope laying in between two of the horns. Take a deep breath, and make a counterweight rappel off opposite ends of the spire. The simulrappel or Needles rappel is pretty commonly used to descend from summits with no anhors in the Needles area, and this is one summit that seems to have been designed for this technique.
Protection
Quickdraws for bolts and pins, long runner for a flake, medium stoppers.
By Peter Gram Administrator From: Salt Lake City, UT Feb 5, 2003
This is one of my favorite routes in the Needles. The climbing is very fun, the protection is more than adequate, and the simul-rappel off the summit horns is classic.
Fun. Found it very open mid-late afternoon.Met a pair of climbers visiting from Japan. They drove over from the tower just to do this one route before heading back.
By Jason Halladay From: Los Alamos, NM Sep 17, 2006 rating: 5.8
Great climb for sure! We climbed there last week (9-12-2006) and never saw any other climbers. Lots of tourists taking our photos though. =) The route has three pitons down low, the flake to sling, a nice crack perfect for a #9 BD wired stopper, a ring pin and a final bolt before the summit--nicely protected!
The summit perch is amazing and the simul-rap was a blast!!
Favorite of my trip. As usual around here a little run out but the ring bolt half way up looks fairly new and would protect well. For the decent I lowered my second on the route side of the pin and then used him as my anchor to lower on the single strand down the other side with a 60m rope.
By Bob Kryzer From: Mantorville, Minnesota Oct 31, 2007
This route offers some great protection low on ther route to avoid ground falls, and some of the needles classic run outs near the top. Even has the best simul-rap in all of the black hills! Its totaly a classic!
Tricouni Nail/Cerberus
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