Rocco Vartanian leading hands, fists, and offwidth...
Description
Tricks of the Tramp is easily located at the base of the prominent central buttress of Isaac. The climb starts in a clean 4-inch crack located 50 feet to the right of the major chimney system.
Pitch 1: Climb an enjoyable 5.10 hand-to fist-to offwidth crack past some fixed protection to an obvious ledge on the left.
Pitch 2: Continue a few feet up the crack, place a large cam, and fire up the impending offwidth to a bolt and take a deep breath. Continue comfortably to a fixed belay.
Pitch 3: Shift the belay up and left onto the breakdown in the large chimney system. Ascend the chimney system through the Mines of Mordor (5.8) to a bolted belay.
Pitch 4: Continue up the chimney system, negotiate a few blocks, and belay at fixed anchors on a big dirty ledge inside the chimney (5.7-5.8).
Pitch 5: Climb up, backwards, and sideways directly above your belayer through the Santa Claus Chimney (5.7) and scramble to get in a piece. Continue to anchors.
Pitch 6: The Calvinator Pitch (5.10). Climb double cracks in a chimney, working left and moving up through a small roof. Stem wildly upward through an unprotected chimney (relatively easy) and hop over to a ledge with fixed anchors. There is a good bivy at the base of the Calvinator Pitch and the view really starts getting good here.
Pitches 7 through 9: Climb 3 pitches, mostly Class 4 with some 5.7 on soft rock. Look for the bolted anchor at the top of Pitch 9 below a bush, up and right. You should now be on the large ledge below the headwall (good bivy area), with a distinctive large pine tree.
Pitches 10 and 11: Climb up and left from the pine tree to the base of a large crack on the right side of the pillar. Climb the pillar to its top (5.10+ off-width)and belay on a small ledge.
Pitch 12: Continue up the 5.10+ handcrack on the right to a pendulum point, lower about 60 feet, and pendulum right to a bolted stance.
Pitch 13: Climb a hollow 5.9 flake and then 60 feet of C2+ using small wires, sliders, and a cam hook to a small stance.
Pitch 14: Climb the 5.10 splitter hand crack to a belay with a bolt next to the crack.
Pitch 15: Continue up the splitter hand crack (5.9) to a bolted belay at a small ledge on the right. Although lengthy, Pitches 14 and 15 can be combined.
Pitch 16: Continue up the crack system (5.8)into softer rock.
Pitch 17: Move left around the top of an arching flake (5.8)
Pitch 18: Move up and right through loose terrain and wedge blocks (careful!) to a bolted belay on top of a big block.
Pitch 19: Step up and right across a slab and enter a steep hand/fist crack to the top.
Notes: A good bivy exists where the route tops out. To summit, hike up and left through loose, sandy terrain for a great view. One can descent by traversing the hillside to the North, locating a pine tree with slings. A system of 11 rappels takes one into the drainage between Isaac and Jacob (full day).
Protection
The amount of gear needed depends on how much of the route is climbed free. Generally, (3) sets of camming units to 4 inches and a #5 Camalot are useful. Extra hand-sized protection can be nice for the headwall. Also bring (3) sets of TCU's, stoppers, biners, and long slings.
Pitch 13 was aided clean by Rocco Vartanian on May 15, 2002. Rocco used small wires, slider nuts, and a Leeper cam hook and rated this pitch C2+. Good going Rocco! Fixed anchors exist at most of the belays. Beware of soft rock when setting up anchors on the slab pitches. We had a near disastrous anchor blowout while the leader was hauling and the follower was jumaring one of the 5.7 slab pitches.
I'm not sure if the route was originally named "Tricks of the Trade" or "Tricks of the Tramp", but I have commonly seen it referred to as "Tricks of the Tramp". Most people simply call it "Tricks". I forgot to mention in the route description that the last 2 pitches go at 5.7 and 5.10+/5.11a, respectively.
Hauling was the most work for me, considering I only weigh in at 125 pounds. Generally, hauling was straightforward, although the bag needed a little help in the chimneys and especially up the slabs, where hauling was more like having a wrestling match with a dead overweight pig.
This may be my favorite route of any I've been on.
I'd also like to comment that my partner on Tricks was the late Ryan Sayers. His passion for chimneys ad offwidths found a home on this route. By request, he led all the offwidths (which was fine by me!) and champed out every one. Truly a desert rat, I'll miss him.
Wanted to get some firsthand information from people that have done Tricks. We're hoping to do it in a couple of weeks. I have heard conflicting information about number of big cams to bring. On this site it says "a #5 Camalot." But, I've heard from others that you should bring 3-4 each of #4-1/2 and #5 Camalots. So, what's the story? Thanks for your help.
I've only been to the top of the aid pitch, but the wide stuff is pretty much over at that point so hopefully I can help.
We took only one #5, and had doubles of everything else. We brought a couple big bros as well but never used them. P1 was the longest and most sustained offwidth, but only took up to a #4. P2 had a bolt or two in spots and was kind of short, but wide. Don't remember the gear there. P3-4 were chimneys, and as such provide intermittent smaller placements. The Santa Claus chimney would probably take a big bro somewhere, but was a little too big for a #5 as I recall. You can get a #4(?) or something at the end of that pitch, when the chimney squuezes you out. On P5, the Calvinator pitch, I remember lots of #2 to #4 or so, wider near the end where you come around the roofy thing. I was leading it in the dark, so I may not have seen everything. The offwidth at the start of the upper headwall (after the Ledges) widens to #5's, but the wideness is only 30 feet or something. You could place multiple #4's and #5's here, depending on how well protected you like your offwidths. If you feel strong here I'd just place a good #5 and lieback quickly through the tough spot.
I don't know about the upper pitches firsthand, but from what I gather the offwidths are over. You can definitely get away with a single #5, but two won't kill you. All depends on how much you'll want to place.
Good luck, those chimney and offwidth pitches were among the best I've ever done! So fun the whole way!
Michael: More simply stated, you only need a single No. 5 Camalot or equivalent as listed in the gear description above. Most of what Dan said is correct, note that there is only one bolt on Pitch 2.
So, what is the best strategy for descending this route? Is it to take a bolt kit (for anchor reinforcement) and go over the top? Is it to only haul to the bivi ledge and then rap the route? What is the best way down???
Second, I was under the impression that cam hooks were not good for the rock in Zion. What gear are others using to negotiate the aid section of the headwall?
You can now rappel the entire route. All of the anchors are double bolt so no bolt kit is needed. The original descent was into the gully between Isaac and Moroni and sounded epic. We only hauled to the bivy ledge and then rapped the route. I felt like this was a good way to do it because it breaks the route into two nice blocks.
On the aid pitch I used small HB offset nuts, ball nuts, and offset aliens.
The first two can be combined w/a 60. You can leave the pig at p2 do 2 pitches of chimney and then rap and haul out of the chimney. We hauled at a anchor on the arete but I think, humm...pretty sure can get. Well if you do haul on the arete you can haul the next two in one. Between santa and calvin there is a no rope passage but the pig doesn't fit. The base of calvinator is a good bivy. If you make it up to the sand slope area there are some bivy's in the dirt but where the rock starts again there is a flat wonderful looking spot around left.
It goes clean. My partner is a short guy and did it with just rps.
p14/15 is pretty casual if you can climb at the creek, and a beautiful link up. Beyond this I don't know, we rapped.
Go light, but some big cams are nice a #6 works in the clause chimney.
A friend and I just climbed "Tricks" over the course of three days in early Nov. I had a few comments I wanted to make for future parties.
The route is great as a whole, though it does have some awkward, loose, and sandy sections. My partner and I went into it with the misconception that it was a trade route a la Touchstone or Moonlight. After encountering much faded webbing and sandy chimneys on the route, we made a point of asking the NPS backcountry folks how many parties had regestered for a permit to do the route this year. We were surprised to find that the number was a mere five. This route is a serious undertaking but also a lot of fun.
Another thing that surprised us on the ascent was that a large number of the "bolted anchors" actually consisted of one good bolt and a "drilled piton." This was quite a shock to us after having climbed a lot in Yosemite, where I can't say I've ever seen such a thing done. Also, two or three of the anchors had a good bolt w/ hanger, a drilled piton, and another 3/8" bolt with no hanger! If future parties are looking for ways to beef up the belay/rappel anchors, bring some bomber hangers and some 3/8" nuts. Definitely also bring a good amount of 11/16" or thicker webbing for the rappels. We brought something like 40' of 1" webbing and ended up leaving it all, along with 4-5 leaver 'biners and quicklinks, during the rappels. The majority of the anchors above the second pitch do not have chains or quicklinks, so come prepared.
Some other random recollections: The "Clause Chimney" is not difficult for someone used to squeeze chimneys, but it really won't take gear until the business is pretty much over. We had an old school BD #5 cam (equivalent to a new school #6, I think) and it went in solid near the mouth of the Clause just before one pulls out of the squeeze and moves to easier ground above. Without this cam I would have been very wigged out! The pseudo #6 also went in on the 5.10+ off-width pitch right off the ledges. It's a large cam to lug along, but we were very thankful for it more than once.
Finally, as this is NOT a trade route, we encountered a good number of large loose blocks that had to be dealt with daintily. The first pitch of the Mines of Mordor begins with some climbing/chimneying over a stack of apparently solid blocks. I pulled one the size of my torso off into my lap (not on lead, luckily) and only managed to free myself by rolling it off into the abyss of the Mines. Several other pitches demanded delicate tip-toeing around some pretty large, pretty ominous blocks.
All that said, this is a very fun route with some really memorable pitches, great natural bivvy spots, and few crowds. Enjoy!
Not to take anything away from Rocco and his 2002 clean ascent, but I climbed Tricks clean in 1998, used only 20 or so feet of aid, and it was done with an rp and small aliens. No cam hook required. Also the descent is a b*tch as described here. You can rap the route, but there is one one bolt belay on the headwall, all the other anchors had 2 bolts. The Dr.
Isaac
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