The Greatest Show On Earth  5.13a

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 90 feet Consensus:  5.13a [details] FA:  Linn Hill Season:  Year Round Submitted By:  jgallagher on Oct 5, 2010 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

I'm sure this pic doesn't do it justice.

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Description 

This is one of the prettiest pitches of climbing in the southeast as well as one of the most intimidating looking finger cracks just about anywhere.

Start on top of a boulder just down and right of a fixed pin. Climb through a slightly heady but easy opening section up to the base of the roof passing two fixed pins and a gear placement. From a pumpy stance on a slopey jug place several good cams and get your head together for an amazing roof sequence on horizontal finger locks. A few crimps to the left of the crack as well as a good hand jam near the end of the roof make this roof possible. A huge jug just over the lip allows you to place a much appreciated piece of gear. From the jug a couple lock offs on good slots get you into the corner. Place gear from a decent rest stance and gun for a good hand jam before the business of the corner. Slopey laybacks and miserable feet with insecure stems characterize the middle part of the corner and placing gear is pretty strenuous. In the last 15 feet of the corner the crack opens up and allows for great hands but the feet stay pretty bad so its still relatively strenuous to place gear. Its easy enough to where you will almost want to just punch through and not bother with gear. It would be a long fall but very clean, the choice is yours.

Location 

Starts 15 feet right of puppy chow on a boulder.

Protection 

Bring several cams up to a number 1. Emphasis will be on finger sized gear and slightly smaller. The corner eats up stoppers but placing cams instead will be much more efficient. If you choose cams, c3s would be ideal but anything that size will work great.

Note that the face leading up to the roof has definite no fall zones just because the pins are very sketchy looking. Up until the first real gear placement the climbing is 5.9-5.10R.

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BETA PHOTO: The Greatest Show on Earth