BETA PHOTO: A good look of the dihedrals--the right dihedral i...
Description
Stellar route with sweet views, exposure, and mostly clean rock.
See the description for finding the route to decide which start you want to do. I'll start with P4, but this could be P2 from the traversing start.
P4: 130' r-facing corner (5.8+/5.9) belay below a roof. P5: Traverse right about 10ft. then follow a 5.8 crack that angles back to the left. 160' 5.8 P6: Another small traverse right leads to broken rock and a L-facing corner. Keep going until you are at a ledge below the large R-facing dihedral. P7-8: One of the best pitches of dihedral climbing. Combine this with P8 to make a long, stellar pitch if you have the gear to stretch it. 5.9 long P9: Starts with a chimney that leads to double cracks (see hex master photo). Belay on a nice ledge. 5.8 P10: Continue angling right to a large ledge. 5.7 P11-12: easier climbing to the top.
Location
There are two starts to the route:
Start as for Major Dihedral, but angle down and right after the first belay point over a seam. Then head back up and right over flakes and ledges to the prominent r-facing corner.
A better start in my opinion, is from 3rd class ledges to the right of that dihedral. You'll have to scramble up a bit then traverse out left to the start. The way we did this makes the start PG-13 to R.
Descent: head south down from the tower toward the Center section. Look for a trail of sorts that provides a 4th class descent though grassy ledges. Requires a bit of route finding. The trail/route actually has a name, Grassy Goat Trail.
Protection
Standard rack with some extra cams in the hand range.
Fun Route! With the added benefit of not having to go over Jackass Pass...this one should be on your list for sure. With lots of fun varied climbing, and a very short cruxes. Leave those big cams at the trailhead (bring a fly rod and more whiskey), they aren't necesary...this thing eats up those big hexes.
This was the longest climb I'd ever done, on my first trip to the Wind's in '73. We were using the Bonney guide that called this a 23 pitch 5.7 route. Living in Chicago at the time, the longest climb I'd ever done was a 2 pitch climb in Estes the summer of '72, so the sound of a 23 pitch, 5.7 route was too good to be true.
At least we were Devils' Lake 5.10 climbers at the time, because I thought is was a "bit" harder than 5.7, or it could have been all the bivy gear we were carrying for a 23 pitch climb.
This is still one of my favorite climbs in the Wind's, a true moderate up a perfect face.
The original start is actually not such bad climbing. I thought it was worth doing, if only for the sake of making the route feel a bit longer. Sometimes longer is better.
RSS Feed
