Approach as for Challenge Buttress. Continue up the talus past Winky and Waxman to the Strone Crag on climber's right of the gully. Start here. Gain the ridge and ride it for 8 to 10 pitches. Expect sections of (very) loose rock (wear a helmet!), and sections of excellent bulletproof quartzite. Pass gendarmes on the right (west) for more solid rock.
Stop at the gully above Glass Ocean. Descend this gully (to the east). The top of the gully is loose and kinda scary, but it gets better. I'm guessing that the total descent time is about 30 minutes to an hour.
In order to preserve the adventure of this route, I don't want to reveal too much detail. Have fun.
Protection
A full set of nuts. Cams, blue alien through #3.5 Camalot, or hexes in the larger sizes. If you've climbed Outside Corner on JHCOB, use the same range of sizes.
The gear listed is a bit much. The ridge is very moderate and only has a few cruxy moves. Every time we did a "harder" move, it was over really fast. A single set of nuts and a hex or two is all you really need. Instead of a hex, maybe a yellow C4. Some slings would be a good idea as wel. Did a lot of simul-climbing and was surprised when we were done how much ground we actually covered. We also droped down to the west instead of east to descend. We did have to do a bit of 3rd class and one short rap from a tree. But after that, the gully went really fast and put us right back at the base of the ridge. We also did a variation on the last pitch, which I posted as the "5.8 variation".
This is a really nice ridge climb. I thought the rock was generally excellent! We pretty much were able to avoid any loose rock, in fact this route has WAY better rock and seemed WAY safer than the Outside Corner on JHCOB wall. Maura and I climbed this route in 6 pitches (no simul-climbing). We were using a 70 meter rope. There was also a bit of unroped scrambling near the end of the ridge. We were also able to do some climbing on the Rush Wall, about halfway up the ridge, which was a nice diversion. We brought a set of nuts and a set of cams to #3.5 camalot size. Maybe a bit much, but that is my standard rack for most everything in the Wasatch, and we used most of it.
Just climbed this 2 days ago (Aug 4th, 2009) and wanted to add a few things.
The base of the Rush Wall is litered with a bunch of huge boulders... weighing a ton or so each. We had one of these slide off on us (fortunately my partner had the anchor on a different boulder). It was stacked on another angled rock... my partner had stood on it checking the belay. It slide later when I was about to start the pitch. Huge, massive rockfall, which probably went all the way down to the trail below which connects Challenge Butress to Narcolepsy. All of that to say that you shouldn't trust the boulders below the Rush Wall for you anchor system for fear of being pulled down with a boulder should it slide.
For what it's worth, there are also several death blocks waiting to kill someone on the pitch heading up from that, so be very careful what you pull on.
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