Planet Claire

"Planet Claire" starts at the base of large Ponderosa Pine on "Planet Claire Wall." There is an obvious starting rock for those climbers who are vertically challenged (in height, that is) that gets you to the sharp starting crimps.

Crawl up the small crimpers and awkward balancy moves to a small roof. After the roof the climb backs of to 5.9-5.10 climbing. But until after the fifth bolt the climb is on you with the smallest crimper I've ever felt on a 5.11--and you'll use it to clip! You don't have to clip off of, but it makes the climb that much more interesting.

When I climbed this on 06/10/2003, I broke off THREE holds, and one of them is a crucial left hand after the fourth bolt. I'm not sure if this bumps the grade up a letter, but it's a smaller hold now (three or four fingers, half pad to two fingers, half pad) at the start of a small sequence to clip the fifth bolt.

Despite the sometimes unreliable nature of this rock, "Planet Claire" is worth doing any time you are in the Monster/Marker Area, in my opinion.

There are eight bolts on "Planet Claire" and two rusty chain anchors on top. One 50m rope will suffice in rappeling off.