Finger of Fate
5.8 C2+,
Trad, Aid, 8 pitches, Grade V,
Avg: 3.7 from 97
votes
FA: Layton Kor, George Hurley, Huntley Ingalls 5/1962
Utah
> Southeast Utah
> Fisher Towers
> Titan
Access Issue: RAIN, WET ROCK and RAPTOR CLOSURES: The sandstone around Moab is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Also please ask and be aware of Raptor Closures in areas such as CAT WALL and RESERVOIR WALL in Indian Creek
Details
WET ROCK: Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN MOAB during or after rain.
RAPTOR CLOSURES: please be aware of seasonal raptor closures. They occur annually in the spring.
Description
A certified desert classic and a visionary first ascent in its day. Not nearly as loose as rumored, but do expect large doses of mank. Only a couple sections require tricky aid but loads of ancient, often hilarious, fixed gear keep the excitement level high. The aid is mostly clean but we did have to place about 7 or so pins.Most of the anchors have at least one good bolt.
There are a couple strategies for climbing this route. Many guides call this route grade IV but only a very fast party will be able to do the route in a day. In the end it took us about 14 hours of climbing spread over 2 days to summit. The most likely option is to climb the first 5-1/2 pitches on the first day, fix 3 ropes down the descent route, then jug to the highpoint and finish off the route the next day. The jugging on the descent route is miserable so if you're pretty fast (or you have the long days of late-spring) then try to do it in a day.
Approach: follow the obvious trail to the Titan, circumnavigating the tower around to the NE side. The approach takes a little over an hour with full aid climbing regalia. The route starts in the crack system about 30 feet to the left of the obvious descent gully.
P1- Aid up the crack system, passing a false belay, to a belay about 130 feet off the deck. A lot of this pitch could be free climbed at a moderate grade. Triples of #2 and #3, doubles of #4 would be useful if aiding and not wanting to back clean. 5.8 C1 (130ft)
P2- Continue up the crack system into a flaring groove, 5.7 C2 (80ft)
P3- Continue up the obvious line to a ledge at the base of the Finger. Pin scars and holes off belay is tricky aiding but brief. Some mandatory free moves that are committing on this pitch. 5.8 C2+ (70ft)
P4- Traverse the ledge around the corner (5.6) to an ancient bolt. Aid the roof (A2, tricky) and continue to a belay on the other side of the Finger. If you're lucky the pin stack we placed and couldn't clean will still be there. The traverse is well protected by the original drilled angle anchor one bad angle and bad star drive and one good angle. the old star drive protecting the beginning of the roof bulge is still there and is manky, both fixed tricams are in place and menacing as ever! haha, I brought one screamer on route it came in handy for piece of mind...gets you to base of The Finger. 5.8 C2F (50ft)
P5- Scramble up to a drilled pin, then continue up the strenuous flare (C1 or 5.10). At the top of the flare, 5.8 groveling (free crux) is required to reach the belay, ends standing on ridge with the duck in front of you. C1 (80ft)
P6- Traverse around the left side of "The Duck". On the other side of the duck is the anchor for the descent route (3 double rope rappels to the base). Continue up the wide crack system to a large ledge (bivy site) and belay, 5.8 (85ft)
P7- Traverse right around the arete to a seam. Aid the seam (A2) back up to the crest of the arete. Mixed free (5.7-5.8) and aid (C2) past questionable fixed gear leads to an exposed stance on the arete, some placements and fixed pin lead you to many bolts to anchor. 80 feet. 5.7 C2 (80ft)
P8- Mixed free (5.7-5.8) and aid (C2, very long reaches, trickery necessary) past more museum relics to a wide crack. Continue up the crack, over a roof in the caprock (wild exposure), and mantle up to the belay. Almost a bolt ladder, with some free moves and top steps. 5.8 A0 (100ft)
P9- 4th class to the summit
Descent- rappel from the top of P8 to top of P7. Rappel from top of P7 to the anchor next to The Duck on P6. Three rappels down the gully to the base.
You can also save yourself the trouble of walking all the way back around the Titan by making 2 double rope rappels to the west down the cliff near the base.
Protection
Bring stoppers (doubles in medium to large sizes), 2 sets of cams from blue alien through #4 camalot, some KBs, arrows, and angles (with 1.5" to 2" angles useful for stacking). Bring something to rig a cheater stick and a belay seat is useful.
2017 Update from Tito Krull 1 Did this route easily in a day no fixing.
GEAR:
We brought most of the rack in Totem cams. made 95% of all placements bomber!! we brought Tricams and Ballnuts and didn't place a single one!
x2 .2
x4 .3 (only really need 3)
x3 .4
x3 .5
x3 .75
x2 #1 (3ea could be useful)
x2 #2 (3ea could be useful)
x2 #3 (3ea could be useful)
x1 #4 (2ea could be useful)
x1 #5
Doubles in Offset cams. (we could of left a set behind because we had so many Totems, but would be otherwise useful to have two sets).
1 good set of Offset nuts.
12 draws mostly alpines.
1 screamer (To protect anchor falls from dicey gear off belays)
![3 45 minute exposures stacked.]()
[Hide Photo] 3 45 minute exposures stacked.
![Michael Swanicke or Peter Gram on the Finger of Fate. <br>
<br>
Photo taken from The Oracle.]()
[Hide Photo] Michael Swanicke or Peter Gram on the Finger of Fate. Photo taken from The Oracle.
![Kor nailing the first ascent. As seen in National Geographic Nov. '62<br>
<br>
<br>
Photo by Huntley Ingalls (Copyrite N.G.S.)]()
[Hide Photo] Kor nailing the first ascent. As seen in National Geographic Nov. '62 Photo by Huntley Ingalls (Copyrite N.G.S.)
![Sufferfest 2: Desert Alpine]()
[Hide Photo] Sufferfest 2: Desert Alpine
![Steve Mestdagh on 8th pitch of The Finger of Fate. Photo: Bob Horan Collection.]()
[Hide Photo] Steve Mestdagh on 8th pitch of The Finger of Fate. Photo: Bob Horan Collection.
![Complimentary summit photo]()
[Hide Photo] Complimentary summit photo
![The homies got this sweet photo of us from across the way (we're on p.3)]()
[Hide Photo] The homies got this sweet photo of us from across the way (we're on p.3)
![Brits hanging about on top.Tony Penning. Paul Ross]()
[Hide Photo] Brits hanging about on top.Tony Penning. Paul Ross
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Boulder, CO
Boulder, CO
Boulder, CO
go buy a guidebook. The info here is the perspective of someone who climbed the route recently and is meant as a supplement to any info in a guide. Anyone who has climbed this route knows that the info in the guide, especially the topo, is useful but somewhat dated. Jun 17, 2002
Boulder, CO
Lander, WY
you could probably link p2 and p3, but the drag would be not wonderful and it would be a lot of gear.
i don't know about that c2+ grade for p2 that was mentioned above. i haven't done it totally clean myself, but the clean grades i've seen were more in the c3-c3+ range. of course, i could be quite wrong. Mar 17, 2003
supertopo.com/climbing/thre…
Great to hear that the anchors are now bomber. I have mixed feelings about the replaced bolts on the bolt ladder, though. Part of the character of the route for me was in trusting the old fixed gear. On the other hand, the fixed stuff was probably pretty decent back in the day. Apr 13, 2004
DON'T NAIL ON THE FINGER OF FATE!! Apr 24, 2004
...or did you say nothing and come spew from the soapbox on an internet forum? Apr 26, 2004
As a matter of fact I just finished the Titan several days ago and I have several comments for you. Just so you know I did meet you face to face and you were certainly less than adamant that the Titan would go clean and you certainly did not rebuke me for my intention of hammering on the "big dirty". In fact I would tend to believe that your party consisted of two other solid climbers with some aid experience and you - the eternal jugger - this hardly gives you the right to critique others regarding their placements. Am I right or am I right? I would prefer to hear from the leaders in your team next time. As it happened we met an extremely strong, competent team from Boulder at the base on our second day and they hammered the whole way finishing in about 10 hours. I was never dumbfounded by the damage wrought in the wake of placing pitons by the other team or my own. In addition, regarding your comment that the rest of us gumbies (yourself excluded of course) steer clear of aid climbs that have recently gone clean, I would say that is great news for the Huber brothers and Dean Potters of the world and bad news for the rest of us weaklings who actually aspire to get our asses up Zodiac someday - with or without hammering. IN fact once an aid climb has gone free why the rest of us don't just piss off and stick to the local crags where we belong? I suspect you won't be joining them up there anytime soon either . . . May 6, 2004
If you intend to slander me then at least sack up and leave your name and e-mail address. Better yet, email me with your problems instead of spewing your un-informed beliefs about me and my climbing on climbingmoab!On my own behalf: I led plenty of the 'Finger'- including the 2nd and 4th pitches- all clean. That was in fact my first aid climb... ever! I certainly don't have the right to tell another how to climb any route, but I find nothing wrong with passing judgment based either solely on my own opinion or upon a widely accepted standard. I'm not sorry I hurt your little feelers by reprimanding those who nail on well established clean aid routes. May 7, 2004
Grand Junction, CO
1) This route is not grade IV.
2) A cheater stick appears in the rack beta above. It's fine if you use one, or if you manage to climb the route clean using one, but do note that you have not actually climbed the route. You might want to mention to others your use or nonuse of such when offering rack beta as it can make a very big difference. I find it interesting, given the above posts, that a very experienced climber claims in the guidbooks that this route was 5.12 C3 when done clean. I have heard similar comments made by others. It's the kind of beta that makes one want to pack a few pins. But - mud changes, French climbers sometimes spray, and some people just get lucky - ie, if one is able to make use of a tricam on p. 4 rather than use a pin stack (or freeclimb 5.12), it doesn't automatically mean that placement will ever hold a tricam again.
3) If you would like to nail, I would suggest a set of sawed-off angles from 3/4 to 2". This would likely eliminate the need to stack pins. If climbing a few other beat-out routes is in your future, I think a full set of sawed angles will come in as a handy addition to your pin rack.
4) As a member of the above mentioned party that "hammered the whole way" I would like to clarify that we clipped a few pins on pitch 2 from the party we were passing. Thereafter, I believe I made a total of 3 placements on p.3,4. (off the belay on p.3, middle p.3, 3rd placement above the roof on p.4). My partner, a relatively inexperienced aid climber, made 2 placements somewhere in the middle of p. 7. I would like to confess that I believe all these placements might be avoidable with 1-3" tricams and some mid sized (red and few sizes larger) Aliens - at about middle A2. Obviously, we didn't do it clean as I didn't have this kind of gear with me so I can't say for sure - but this wasn't my first day out aid climbing either. It's unfortunate none of this gear is part of the recommended rack in any of the guidebooks.
5) So, my beta: Bring some of those above mentioned tricams and Aliens, pack some sawed-offs, a few Z's and a couple fat angles just in case, toss the cheater stick in the trash, and let us know how it goes. It would be a good thing if more precise (and credible?) beta existed for this particular well-traveled and fragile climb that would allow more people to climb it clean - ie, where exactly did you need to nail and/or use difficult clean gear - and was it scary because you've never stood on piece of aid gear before, or can you give it a valid clean aid rating based on experience. If people see pins on a rack list, they will likely feel free to nail every pitch. However, if someone presents a valid clean rack list and some assurance about what pitches can go clean, then some good progress will have been made toward preserving this route for the future.
- AC May 10, 2004
"2) A cheater stick appears in the rack beta above. It's fine if you use one, or if you manage to climb the route clean using one, but do note that you have not actually climbed the route. "
I agree with most of your post, but on this point you're talking out your ass, AC. Let me get this straight... I'm 5foot6, so on the last bolt ladder pitch, when I rigged my hammer with duct tape to reach a distant bolt, I invalidated my ascent. Gimme a break, a taller person reaches that bolt no problem... probably doesn't even need to topstep.
What about my belayer? Since she wasn't leading that pitch anyway, does that mean her ascent is invalidated due to my actions. By that logic, then unless you lead every pitch, then you haven't climbed the route.
Or what about the fact that you've climbed this route in the supertaco-ASCA-retrobolting era and clipped shiny bolts, whereas I climbed on the aforementioned "museum relics" 5 years ago. Ever thought that the locations might be different now, or that that part of the climb used to be scary. Perhaps I did it in better style than you after all.
So if its OK with you judge, I'll tell people that I've climbed the Finger. All it means is that I may not have done it in the best style possible. Kinda like nailing up a route that goes clean, eh Boulder-boy. May 10, 2004
However, cheating up to the next piece of fixed gear to avoid placing your own intermediate (and often harder) gear isn't legitimate - and was the context of my comment.
BTW, my partner is shorter than you and clipped the mentioned piece on the last pitch with his bare hand from a top step. May 10, 2004
Parker, CO
As far as "cheating" is concerned, this my friend is aid climbing and it's up to the ascentionist to determine the style in which they climb.
In general I agree with the idea that a route that's been AIDED clean should be accomplished in that manner, as far as is practical, on future ascents (hey, this is the Fishers, fixed pro sometimes blows and the rock (as mentioned above) has a tendency to change. May 28, 2004
Estes Park
piquaclimber.net/past/thebi… Oct 12, 2004
the Mountains
The hammering question seems to be moot now that a British team has freed the Finger of Fate route. Ethics dictate that it now go clean aid or free. Also, don't know if it applies to the area in which the Titan is located, but the NPS rules on climbing in the Canyonlands area are:
All climbing shall be free or clean aid climbing with the following exceptions:
*
No new climbing hardware may be left in a fixed location; however, if a hardware item is unsafe, it may be replaced. *
Protection may not be placed with the use of a hammer except to replace existing belay and rappel anchors and bolts on existing routes, or for emergency self-rescue. *
If an existing software item (sling, etc.) is unsafe, it may be replaced (software that is left in place must match the rock surface in color). Apr 1, 2005
Second, b/c the Finger goes free, that does not dictate that the route now must go free or clean aid. That never has been an accepted ethic (and from what I've heard the route hasn't been completely freed anyway). The only cases I can think of where that particular ethic has been accepted is when the route has been freed ground-up, (i.e. if the route can be done at C1 or C2). The only really accepted ethic for Cutler sandstone is to tread as lightly as possible. Apr 4, 2005
denver, co
josh Nov 25, 2005
Joshua Tree, CA
Joshua Tree, CA
Bailey, CO
Title is "We Climbed Utah's Skyscraper Rock" Sep 16, 2008
Sandy, UT
Pocatello, ID
I've got a TR and pics at my blog. tristanhigbee.com/rock-clim… Apr 2, 2010
Telluride, CO
It went completely clean with 2 sets off-set aliens, 2 sets aluminum off-set nuts, 1 #5 and #6 brass off set, 1 set regular aliens, tri-cams (blue and brown, I think), and 2 sets bd .75 - 4. Most of the free can be aided as well, but who would want to aid a perfectly good hand crack? The roof on P3 was the crux and may be harder for shorter people (I'm 6'3").
If you are going to fix, fix the route and not the rappel gully as it is very gritty and has many bulges to clear, some of which are sharp edges that can quickly wear a rope. We fixed the route from the top of the traverse/roof pitch (p3 for us) with two 60 M ropes and jugging the next day was quite pleasant. Apr 30, 2010
Aurora, CO
Boulder, CO
Lander, WY
Santa Cruz, CA
2 sets camalots Green C3 - #4 C4
2 sets off-set aliens
1 ea. camalot #4.5 (old) and #6 (new)
2 sets offset nuts (no micros
Tricams
Sawed-off angles 1.5", 1.25"
Bongs 2", 3"
10 draws
5 trad draws
Anchor gear
Thanks to whoever upgraded all the belays in the past year. Each belay and rap station now consists of super bomber bolts with Frost power draws ( bit.ly/HGls5G). Apr 1, 2012
Nomad
While I believe this route really needs to be climbed with nothing else except stoppers and cams, it's dumb to say "you shouldn't be up there if you need pins"
This is the Fishers and the rock changes from ascent to ascent. Even cleaning the cams enlarges the scars....I'm not saying to bring pins and go nail by any means. Don't do that. I will say bring some sawed offs for a just in case, to hand place. Along with lassoing skills or a stick clip...."Bring a lil of everything" You never know what your going to expect. The "you suck if you need pins" attitude just pisses me off. Hand place if you absolutely have to. But it can be done with just cams and stoppers as of Spring of 2012. We actually only used one stopper on the whole route. We also had a set of offset cams though. Oh ya... the #5 was REALLY helpful along with the blue TCU! Apr 18, 2012
Santa Cruz, CA
Glenwood ,Co
SLC
SLC
Wondervu, CO
After easily climbing past the duck, the short roof pitch is no big deal. There were 3 questionable fixed pieces that one could equalize, and than make one step on the etrier before getting a great alien slot. The bolt ladder pitches on the final summit arete are fun. You can free a lot of it so it feels like a really wild sport pitch. There was a spot where a cheater stick proved useful, but looks like it may be passable via freeclimbing around 5.10 or so; maybe much easier.
Toward the end of the last technical pitch, you will encounter a detached block/flake on your left that you will have to hand jam and climb. Sounded hollow to me, so I decided not to aid it. I free climbed it at around 5.8. DO NOT clip the old star drive attached to this detached block just in case it decides to give way while you're on it. Following that is a slightly runout 5.6 traverse to the left, and then scramble to the summit.
Descent: You'll be able to see the rap descent gully on the right as you climb to the duck. Above the duck, you'll rap the route.
The second to last post I saw in the summit log was Alex Honnold who said he freed the whole thing with Cedar Wright; didn't provide the rating though.
Gear: We brought no pins or hammer. Did bring 1 set offset stoppers, double set of aliens and cams to #3 camalot, single #4,5, cheater stick, 4 tricams, 2 large lowe-balls, 30 biners, 12 runners, etc. All pertinent bolts appear to be new. Mar 30, 2015
Eagle, CO
With a bunch of offset cams and nuts the aid sections are a breeze. I placed a total of one "bad" piece on the entire climb, a red tricam right off the belay at the start of P3. Everything else felt pretty bomber and if it didn't I was able to get another piece in right next to it. Nov 17, 2016
noco
Do it in a day. Mar 23, 2017
Yosemite Village, CA
The aid grades on this route depends heavily on your personal comfort zone doing intermediate free moves in sandy dirty grit where good gear may not be found.
Pitch 1: 5.8 C1 (130ft) Aid/free the obvious crack systems. lots of it could be sandy free climbed at a moderate grade (triples of #2 and #3, doubles of #4 would be useful if aiding and not wanting to back clean)
Pitch 2: 5.7 C2 (80ft) Continue aiding up the obvious crack/pin scar system.
Pitch 3: 5.8 C2+ (70ft) Pin scars and holes off belay is tricky aiding but brief. Some mandatory free moves that are committing on this pitch.
Pitch 4: 5.8 C2F (50ft) The traverse is well protected by the original drilled angle anchor one bad angle and bad star drive and one good angle. the old star drive protecting the beginning of the roof bulge is still there and is manky, both fixed tricams are in place and menacing as ever! haha, I brought one screamer on route it came in handy for piece of mind...gets you to base of The Finger.
Pitch 5: 5.8 C1 (80ft) Some easy scrambling with good bolts leads you to a wider crack system, good bigger gear leads you to some 5.8 groveling. ends standing on ridge with the duck in front of you.
Pitch 6: 5.8 (80-90ft) Around The Duck puts you at the rappel stations for the decent. climb some 5.8 weird to anchor.
Pitch 7: 5.7 C2 (80ft)some placements and fixed pin lead you to many bolts to anchor.
Pitch 8: 5.8 A0 (100ft) Almost a bolt ladder, Be bustin' some free moves and top steps.
Pitch 9: 4th class
Many of these pitches can be linked at your own judgement be mindful of rope drag. We short fixed them instead.
GEAR:
We brought most of the rack in Totem cams. made 95% of all placements bomber!! we brought Tricams and Ballnuts and didn't place a single one!
x2 .2
x4 .3 (only really need 3)
x3 .4
x3 .5
x3 .75
x2 #1 (3ea could be useful)
x2 #2 (3ea could be useful)
x2 #3 (3ea could be useful)
x1 #4 (2ea could be useful)
x1 #5
Doubles in Offset cams. (we could of left a set behind because we had so many Totems, but would be otherwise useful to have two sets).
1 good set of Offset nuts.
12 draws mostly alpines.
1 screamer (To protect anchor falls from dicey gear off belays)
This is a great adventure route that is very safe and relatively clean compared to most Fisher routes. Due to the shorter pitch lengths and short fixing this route also isn't that long, it is 100% doable in a day from the parking lot with no fixing. All in all it was a blast and an honor to climb this beautiful mud art sculpture!!!
9-10 hrs Base of route to summit, 15 hrs car to car. No fixing. Mar 24, 2017
New Haven, CT
TRIP REPORT mtnthought.com/climbing-rep…
twas fun Apr 7, 2017
The Dungeon, NM
-Didn't bring, didn't need: a hammer, pins, or stick clip
-Brought but never placed: tricams, hooks, hexes, or ball nuts
-Didn't have, but they sound great: Totems
-Key on p2 and p3: offset cams & offset nuts (we had 1 set of each). Totems potentially could substitute for offset cams.
-Otherwise: just a typical trad free climbing rack
-I needed to free climb a little bit (~5.7-5.9 for 2-3 moves at most) between bolts in a few places on the last 2 pitches-- if you're unwilling to switch from aid-to-free, you'd need a stick or other lasso-ing type trickery for those 2 pitches, I'd think.
Someone has added a new, good, bolt, at the p4 roof. It's no longer scary. Jun 5, 2017
Golden, CO
Also that crazy, precariously fixed tri cam in the roof of P4? It held a small static whip. I couldn't believe it either.
We did a reverse alpine start due to it being 110 degrees during the day. Left the lot at 8pm, summited to the sunrise, and arrived back at 10am. Beautiful night on a fun route. Jul 8, 2017
Lakewood, CO
Here is our gear beta:
1x set of offset nuts
1x set of offset X4s
1x set of C3s
3x set of C4s .3-4
18 alpine draws
We did not use: Tricams, ballnuts, hooks. Nov 26, 2017
Salt Lake, UT
1. Huge thank you to Sam (I believe?) for updating all of the belays with bomber bolts and awesome wire chain thingys.
2. No way the approach will take you an hour unless you're trail running. We took a light haul bag and ledge and it took us a solid 3 hours to get to the base of the route. It's a pain because you have to walk around the entire Titan (like a full 360 degrees around it), and then hike up a steep gully and cut back to get to the base. It's a slog.
3. P3 is scary. This was my 6th wall and by far the sketchiest most challenging aid pitch I've ever lead. Lots of hand-placed sawed-offs and beaks and creative tricams. I think ballnuts would've taken a bit of the sting out of this pitch, but not much. I took two 15 footers on the crux move and it is damn scary falling on a 0.2 placed in Fisher Tower mud. Might be helpful to have like 2-1 and 1-0.75 offsets... do they even make those?
4. We brought a hammer and accidentally dropped it on the approach, and it magically helped us find our way back to the trail on the descent in the dark. I think the route would've felt much safer with a hammer.
5. The final bolt ladder pitch that leads up the ridge to the base of the 4th class scrambling to the summit could really benefit from some cleaning. I totally get leaving a bong in a crack and maybe a few hammered angles in to reflect sort-of what the first ascent was like, but there's hardware all over this pitch and like a third of it actually has to be there. There is an absolutely extreme necessary top stepping move on this pitch that was really hard (I'm 5'10").
6. If I ever did this again I would wear goggles. The amount of sand in every crevice of my body is astounding.
ALSO, don't do what we did and go back the same way you came in. Rumor has it that there are some raps you can do to the West that will deposit you directly back down to the good trail on the west side of the Titan, rather than have to walk all the way back around the thing. There is a sketchy and dangerous section of the approach where you have to traverse loose talus, where if you slipped you would surely slip over the edge off a cliff and get seriously injured or die. This can be entirely avoided by doing the raps. Oct 19, 2020
Sioux City
AMGA Rock Guide
This route felt pretty tame to me, with no big loose sketchy stuff (plenty of dirt though), and quite comfortable with modern gear (C2). There is a bit of fear-mongering in these comments IMO.
NOTE ON DESCENDING WEST FACE TO TRAIL: Two double rope raps using bolts. The first rap is short (possibly single rope?) to a set of bolts, then a long rap to the ground. Don't skip this first set of bolts or you'll find yourself on a ledge and rapping off a less bomber boulder. While rappelling spot the trail and the line you would like to hike to join it.
Curious if anyone has kept track of speed ascents? Or speed solo's? I'll start the bidding at 4:48 bottom to top, rope solo. It was my first time on the route. Might try it again just to see how much I can cut it down! Super fun adventure. Oct 11, 2022
Chinley, Derbyshire
Sierras
I’d highly recommend bringing some tools to do some cleaning/mining for gear placements, whether that’s a nut tool and a soft brush or whatever. We were the first to climb the route in about 6 months and there was a layer of mud nearly an inch thick on most of the route from I’d imagine months of rain and runoff caking the route. As a result we had to clean out the cracks for almost every placement, some of the mud being so thick we didn’t even know there was a crack to take gear under it! Something like goggles would also not go unused although not necessary.
I am 95% sure this could be rapped with a single 80 but we had a 70 and tagline so I can’t say for sure. If you wanted to try the only rap that would be close is the first rappel from the duck down the decent gulley and if I’m incorrect there are several beefy bolts on the rap line you could get weird with to add another rappel if that’s your style
Quite the experience and crazy to picture them on this in 1962, although I kind of think this would be much more manageable with the ability to hammer and nail. Feb 23, 2025