Looking back (west) towards Potash road from the b...
Description
Moonwalker climbs the crack system to the large shelf then up the face to the left hand ridge to the summit.
Pitch 1- climb the flaring crack 40 feet to the shelf. Belay on natural gear. 5.9
Pitch 2- climb around 6 1/4 studs to a 3/8 bolt with hanger. Two more pins lead to more studs and free climbing moves onto the ridge. Free climbing is protected by 1 bolts and about 5 more studs. Then traverse around the right of the summit block and mantle to the top. Most studs had washers and machine nuts on them.
Descent- rap the north face with 2 60 meter ropes. 1 70 meter rope will get you down. 1 60 meter rope will get you very close, you may need to downclimb a couple of easy moves.
Protection
Bring a single set of cams for pitch 1. All you need for pitch 2 in many medium wires for protection over the studs and washers and nuts. Quickdraws (x5) free biners (x10).
Powerful Jim and I did this thing yesterday. We had been told by a friend that the 1/4 inch studs were sketchy... his partner broke one under body weight. For this reason we went prepared to replace some. I tested the first one off the ledge and it snapped-off on the first tug... dido second one. I was then able to break every studd (Funkenss just broke them) with less than three taps of the hammer. Not whacks, taps. We ended up replacing all the studs with 3.8 studs and a couple of halfies to keep you off the deck. It actually has fewer fixed pieces now, but stronger ones. Good, clean anchor on top. Some things to keep in mind: The 4th class approach is sandy with very dire consequences. Keeps the muggles away. The single cam rack is perfect, but that pitch is also sandy and has a spooky start. A small nut of large micro nut will probably fit in a pin scar for the sandbox move off the ground. While the means of gaining this summit are less than inspirational, the views from the top and the close-to-town-adventure quality make it worthy. Moamar Bonswali managed to run from his car to our fixed line, jug it, and hit the summit, in less than 40 minutes. Solid effort.
Sam, you must be really really strong to break those studs because all of my climbing partners (Ben, Brad and Bill) all tell me I am fat (especially Ben, he can be rude) and the studs held me!
Wow, scary to think about when those were all I had for gear between me and that big ledge.
Thanks so much for all your hard work you put into keeping climbing in the desert safe. We all really appreciate your time and effort, as do those who like having us around. You're the man!, man.
Powerful Jim has been climbing around here since the Colorado Plateau was a coastline. He was completely shocked about how easy they snapped... you were on A5 dude, you just didn't know it.