BETA PHOTO: This a photo of the route with the top pitch varia...
Description
8-9 Pitches of quality climbing. High quality rock and aesthetic movement make this a quality route worth the hike. Lots of slabby corners and a challenging crux pitch.
To reach the base of the climb approach as shown in the picture. Scrambling through the trees and some boulder fields will get you to the cliff. Scramble up to the big red/orange spot and belay at its bottom.
P1 Climb up and right to a ledge below two shallow right facing dihedrals and belay. 100'
P2 Climb up the right most dihedral, curving right at its top and finally slab traversing right to a left facing corner and belay.
P3 Climb up, left around a flake and up left facing corners to sizeable ledge.
P4 Climb more left facing corners to a large, sloping ledge at the base of a large crease/open book.
P5 Ascend cracks up crease (5.8ish) moving left then back right before climbing a shallow overlap to a small stance about 10-15' below a bulging right facing corner.
P6 The crux. Climb through bulging right facing corner, ascending a ramp with a thin crack to a steep thin crack and up to the right side of a large sloping ledge.
P7 Climb a finger crack through a small overlap/roof up and right. Follow this to a ledge. Descend ledge right until somewhere below the second right facing dihedral and belay.
P8 Climb challenging slab to right facing corner and up corner. Traverse left on chicken heads/knobs before top of corner, ascending to a roof and doing a hand traverse left, continuing for 15 meters or so until reaching a good stance/ledge below a right facing corner.
P9 Ascend right facing and low angle corner up and past steep move up and to the left about 5-7 meters off the belay. Follow low angle crack to large ledge and traverse up and right to obvious corner cracks. Climb up and through cracks, belaying when you run out of rope.
Scramble to ridge crest.
Descent: Follow ridge crest north and then continue north until above the grassy goat trail. This is about a 15-20 minute stroll from the top. Lots of boulder hopping. It is easiest to stay high on the mountain (to the east) and then drop back down and to the grassy goat trail in a NE to SW direction. Cairns are fairly easy to spot. Descend with caution as there are exposed areas.
Location
On the southern half of the west face of Haystack. It is above Deep Lake.
Protection
A standard rack to #3 Black Diamond Camalot with extra small wires and cams. Offset nuts and or aliens would have been useful.
By Stan Pitcher From: SLC, UT Sep 16, 2008 rating: 5.10c
I think you mean the right of the two corners on pitch 2. That is what we did and your pic makes me think that's what you did too. The crux thin crack is hard to protect - got one decent .75 camalot. Make sure you take the right of two large right-facing corners on pitch 8 (the left one is no fun!). We started in the left one and then ended up traversing to the right one. Also it looks like you added a direct finish (how hard was it?). We traversed left for about 300 feet or so on the prominent ledge as the guide dictated.
I'd reiterate what Stan says about the crux being hard to protect. I backed off this pitch when I was 20 ft. above my last gear, unable to get anything in, unable to see any good placements up above, and right in the middle of 5.10 climbing at my limit. We had a fairly spartan rack-some extra-tricams, large hb offsets, or small offset cams (which neither of us owned anyway) could help, as the crack is more of a flared overlap.
Or being bold could help. I wasn't.
The climbing on the 5 and 1/2 pitches we did was awesome, and it looked even better above. Pitch 2 seemed suprisingly difficult (Kelsey's topo implies that its 5.7).
By Jared Spaulding From: Southern UT/Central WY Sep 20, 2008
Ahh you are correct, it is the right most of the two shallow corners. Thanks, I'll fix that.
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