Undertow 

Thanks for adding this stuff Ken, I was wondering about the aid routes on the Black, it seems they need a repeat. Can you post beta on the other aid routes?

Mighty generous placing my name first on this route...Trout led all but the top out and I'm sure I never would have visited the Black Wall in the first place were it not for his vision.

Is the RURP traverse visible in the main picture for cannon ball corner up in the upper right corner the thin crack traversing that roof from right to left?

I believe that Asa Firestone and Matt Othmer did the second ascent of this route last summer. They were bummed to see that an old RURP was fixed in the crux as they were up there to claim the first ascent. Absolutely beautiful looking line though I hear that the top seeps quite a bit.

After two seasons of cleaning, replacing bolts, and fighting wetness in the later part of the alpine season, I was finally able to free this gorgeous line with Brad Wilson last Saturday (6/23/12), with both leader and follower freeing every pitch. The whole route is probably no harder than 5.11+, but as it is very sustained and at high elevation, it sometimes feels harder.

The majority of the route follows the aid line, except for half a pitch that completely avoids the A4- roof traverse. The rock has cleaned up well with maybe only a few suspect rocks that may come off with a crowbar. The climbing is tenuous, sustained, fairly sharp, and gear is sometimes tricky to place (a green/yellow Alien offset cam is really nice at the top of pitch 1!). However, the entire route takes great gear with clean falls, no runouts, and sinker finger locks are to be had throughout. As Ken points out, even though the upper pitch is often wet, the rest of the route stays dry. 

The pitches break down like this:
Pitch 1: 5.11- (130 ft). Start the route as Ken says on a ledge below the large dihedral of Cannonball Corner. Climb up easy ledges up and right to a small hand crack that leads you to the start of the main Undertow dihedral system. Clip a good piton and climb the sustained dihedral thru some cool flakes (green/yellow offset Alien very helpful here) and up to a stance on a small ledge. The anchor takes finger-sized gear.

Pitch 2: 5.11+ (40 ft). This pitch could be combined with Pitch 3. Continue up the dihedral (crux), pull around a small bulge to a ledge with a bolt. A finger-sized piece or two can back up the bolt. 

Pitch 3: 5.11- (50 ft). Continue up the dihedral, past a thin flake that I couldn't pull off despite several attempts, and up into the 35 ft roof traverse (pumpy!). Belay at the lip on a small ledge. Anchor takes hand-size and small cams. 

Pitch 4: 5.9 (110 ft). Climb straight up the fun hands and fingers corner to a good ledge. Anchor takes finger-sized cams. 

Pitch 5: 5.11 (50 ft). The Undertoad Variation. Continue up the corner to the roof. This is where the original A4- traverses left under the roof. Instead, stay in the crack, which cuts thru the right-side of the 10 ft roof. The lip of the roof is very sharp, so the trick is to back-clean as much as possible before the roof, and from a good stance under the roof, place one or two medium-sized cams in the middle of the roof on VERY long slings (we used 3 shoulder-length slings clipped together, which worked great). Undercling the roof to the right (avoiding the A4-), pull the lip, clip a fixed yellow Alien (wires broke so I couldn't get it out, but it's a good piece), and finally face climb a couple moves to the left under a massive shelf to an amazingly exposed, hanging, bolted belay on the aręte. 

Originally, I set a natural belay at the fixed yellow Alien, although this required the next pitch to traverse around the very sharp aręte. Not only was this very dangerous, but it didn't allow the pitch to reach the summit. The face moves getting to the aręte and keeping the rope off the sharp lip of the roof is the reason it's key to have the long slings under the roof. It was considered to place one or two bolts on the face to keep the rope off the sharp lip instead of the long slings under the roof; however, using the long slings was completely safe as you can get good gear in at the lip. 

Pitch 6: 5.10 (70 ft). Sometimes wet. Traverse left from the aręte under the shelf for a few moves and join back with the original aid line. When the shelf becomes a manageable bulge, clip a high bolt and face climb up to the aid line belay ledge. Continue up past two more bolts to a big ledge, which is where the collected water drips from when it is wet. Climb up and right past a piton and finsh in the chimney or on the aręte to the left. Traverse left on big ledges to gain the summit and belay bolts. 

Rack: doubles to #1 BD Camalot, with extra finger-sized cams, one #2 BD Camalot (extra #2 and #3 could be useful).

A big thanks to Will Butler for conceiving of freeing this route and his hard work the last two seasons trying to make it safe and climbable. 

Good work, guys! Was just up there a couple of weeks ago and rapped in to check out that line. After seeing your chalk and gear, I realized it was an active project, so didn't pursue it - but I am super curious: what was the old flimsy wooden board doing strapped like Ahab to that last bulge?

Radical! Can't wait to try it.

Nice work, Shaun! The line looks kick-ass, I hope I get a shot at it before the end of the season.

Thanks, guys! I still need to clean the "Ahab" board from the last pitch. I think the biggest reason no one has done this line before is that the final chimney on the last pitch seeps water over the "Ahab" bulge straight down the last pitch. For the last two years, the seeping started in July and didn't stop for the rest of the season. I put the board up there in a crude attempt to divert the flow. Ha! I think it may have done some good, but the last pitch isn't too hard and is essentially a sport climb. The rest of the route stays dry, so maybe it just adds some spice at the end of the route. If you're not into climbing wet granite, just drop a rope down 90 ft from the top to the anchor on the aręte like Ken suggests. It may also be possible to add a variation to the left with a couple bolts that would join back on the left of the "Ahab" ledge where Canonball joins into Undertow.

Ah, that makes sense - the Ahab board. I thought maybe that's what you'd beat me with if I'd have decided to try it before your send....

Do I have to have the offset aliens?

7/30 Update: Probably wet for the season!

Hi Jay, sorry for the delayed response, but I think you would be able to get away withouth the offset Aliens. It's only the first pitch that they are handy for, and there are other gear opportunities, so it wouldn't ever be too run out. I don't typically place stoppers unless I can't get anything else in, but I would imagine you could use stoppers, especially offset stoppers. On one attempt, Brad didn't have the offset Alien on the upper half of the first pitch, but he did find some RP placements I didn't notice before. Let me know if you get on it. As far as I know, it is still awaiting a second ascent.