The old man, feeling the pain on the crux of Guano...
Description
Start the climb from the west end of the blocky shelf near the west end of the large roof system. The route moves out a hand crack that splits the roof on this west end of the roof system. It is visibly identified by a triangular prow that makes up the east side of the crack, and the copius smears of bat guano that coat the shelf immediately underneath the roof. Work up to the base of the roof, via easy, but un-protected climbing. Rope drag can be a major problem after passing the roof, so I placed a cam in the back of the crack, with a 3' sling, then placed another cam nearly at the lip with a 2' sling. This seemed to help out significantly. After dogdging the quano, much grunting and puffing puts you over the roof (after turning the lip, a big crystal helps immeasurably) past a fixed piece (whoever placed this had more hang-time than I do)and onto lower angle, yet surprisingly tricky climbing. Footwork is key through this section (as are small cams and nuts), then over a smaller roof, and on to the 2-bolt belay. Excellent fun on the roof, and consistent, attention-getting climbing throughout. Three more feet of roof and I'd give it three stars.
Just thought I'd add... You may want to tape up, as the roof crack eats skin.
By glen kaplan From: Salt Lake City, UT Nov 6, 2006 rating: 5.10d PG13
I don't know about tape man, you don't even need to jam this thing...
hint: figure out the horizontal double undercling move, then... such a sweet, sweet kneebar...
that's probably how the fixed nut got in place, you can literally hang out there for a bit...of course, moving from the kneebar poses some problems...but its 10d after all!
the top of this climb is quite spicy...we found that you can either finish to the bolts (moving past the pin in the roof which seems useless) or you can exit left, earlier, and enjoy a pretty fun face section on micros...
overall...the roof is phenomenal!!! and the rest of the route just needs more traffic...
I'm putting PG13 because the top of this route seems way more spicy than, say the Fingertip Variation...the pin doesn't look worthwhile at all, the other option is some suspect blocky rock with good placements, then...the next placement is in a flake that looks to be detached...plus, the rock at the top is really crispy...I say PG13 until convinced otherwise or it cleans up.
one last thing: the bolts at the top seem to be in good shape but both of them are so close to the edge that your carabiners will get snapped in half!...I thought girth hitching slings right to the hangers seemed to be best but...girth hitched slings!...so we backed up the anchor with a nut...either way...its not the best anchor placement I've seen...
all in all...I will definitely be back to do this one again! The roof is tremendously exciting!
Guano Wall
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