Rock Odyssey

WOW! What a climb! The name of this climb should be ZIG-ZAG. A few caveats to the above-mentioned route description. The description says to combine pitches 2&3 and belay at OLD 1/4 inch bolts. These bolts look really crappy, so we belayed at the previous set of anchors. You have the choice of combining pitches 2&3 (traverse pitches) which provides a good amount of rope drag, or, like we did, combine pitches 3&4 (traverse/out of dihedral) to belay at a two bolt anchor below the final roof. Either way it is inevitable rope drag from the zigzag nature of the route. Also, make sure the leader clips the anchors in the dihedral to protect the second traversing (it would be a HUGE whip for the second if you do not.) One final note, the roof is AWESOME, and the crux is getting out of the roof to the face. At the second to last bolt (next to an obvious undercling) watch out for a death block ready to come out at any time. There are a few blocks that are loose, so test your handholds. Enjoy! Sep 18, 2001

Did this route yesterday, and I found it to be lots of fun. The first pitch has a great slabby crux on some thin holds, and ends at a comfortable belay on top of a huge flake. The second pitch is a fantastic lead, but it's probably very reachy if you aren't very tall. I ended up doing some wild stemming and had a couple of big stretches to holds; the second half of the pitch is nice and juggy. I would STRONGLY recommend stoping at the new-looking bolts for this pitch rather than continuing to the nasty rusted bolts at the roof.

When leading the third pitch through the roof, the leader should put long runners on the 3rd bolt (the second bolt isn't really necessary, it's super easy climbing there). We put 2 shoulder length runners on the third bolt and it cut down the drag pretty well. The leader should also definately clip something through the old set of anchors for the second to prevent the second climber from taking a massive swinging fall should he/she come off above them.

Overall it's a great climb, except for the stopper move on the last pitch. It's either extremely powerful or extremely technical, take your pick. As the above comment says though, it's easily yarded through! Apr 26, 2002

Does anyone know the grades for all of the pitches individually? I have a good idea but would like to see other people's opinions.Thanks. Jul 17, 2003

The route name is very fitting. The 2nd pitch is wild and memorable.

About the loose block that Chris talks about on the last pitch, I tried to trundle this thing late Wed night when the canyon was empty of people, but it wouldn't come out. The block can be avoided completely so it shouldn't keep anyone from doing the route, but if it does come out, it most likely will fall on to the belayer.

Btw, Rossiter rates the pitches 11d, 11d, 11d, 12b although I thought the first pitch was easier. Jul 25, 2003

This climb features several cool sections and quite hard cruxes interspersed with uninspiring climbing. A worthy outing but calling this one 3 stars is a bit of a stretch. The second and third pitches are way harder than the first. The section above the roof on the last pitch is bolted strangely: the zig-zaggy positions of the bolts leads to massive rope drag on the finish... I'd recommend judicious use of long slings on this pitch. Compared to other routes in Boulder/Dream Canyons, I would rate the four pitches: 11c, 12a, 12a, and then the last pitch 12hard (c'mon, does this really go free?). May 20, 2004

The last pitch of this route is problematic, and I'd recommend avoiding it. It has at least two good-sized semidetached blocks that could easily kill your belayer, not to mention people lower down, and the moves after the roof are strange, insecure, and manky.

Also, it seems that the crux lip turn is substantially harder than 12b -- it felt to be on the order of Your Mother or Flying Beast, or perhaps even harder. There might be a smart 12b way to do it, but I couldn't figure it out, even from a hang. Bob Horan: any hints?

Does anyone know about the 12b alternate route to the right? It looks like it might be a better finish. Bob?

All that said, the lower pitches are superb, with some really cool moves on p2. How often do you get a Yosemite quality pure traverse pitch in Boulder? And the 5.9 flake at the end of the pitch reminded me of Wheat Thin in the Valley. Very nice. Aug 11, 2004

Wow! This route is wild. I would agree that the 2nd (traverse) and 3rd (pulling out of dihedral) pitches are significantly harder than the first pitch even though all three get the same grade. On the 3rd pitch we climbed down to anchor that marks the beginning of Tripendicular Wildman (I think?). This shortens the rope drag experience. We then finished with 3 pitches on Tripendicular Wildman. The 12b crux on that route is wicked hard. i couldn't figure it out. I ended pulling on a draw to get passed it. Does anyone have any beta on the crux of Tripendicular Wildman? Nov 10, 2004

Having read Jim's warning about the regular last pitch, I did the alternate finish (Tripendicular Wildman) a couple of weeks ago.It starts out with a slabby traverse on imperfect rock and then up a seam/crack to a rest before the roof. The roof is hard with a big throw way right to a small edge and then a couple of hard moves on crimps. One can see that some little flakes have fallen off, but it's solid now and good climbing.To get to the point, my guess at the rating would be 12c/d, so it's a nice, exposed, and safe finish, but a considerable notch up from the rest of the climb. Jul 13, 2005

I was only able to do the first couple pitches yesterday due to limited time. The first pitch was good but the second was pretty wild. The moves right off the belay were tough. Once thru this, the climbing is very fun and interesting. Aug 28, 2006

I did not encounter a large, loose block on the last pitch, as earlier comments mention. A few tiny flakes exfoliated, but nothing major. The route seems as safe as any.

The last pitch goes free at about 12c, but it's tricky to figure out. Rolofson's guide mentions an enormous dyno, but thankfully, I didn't have to dyno. Jun 6, 2017

From reading some of these comments, you'd get the impression that the last pitch is loose and doesn't go, but I didn't find this to be the case at all. It's in fact a big, spectacular roof way off the ground with a cool sequence to a fun headwall.

Here was my experience (some spoilers):

P1: nice thin face climb with some funky slabby cruxes, but all there if you take the time to find the holds (5.11+).

P2: powerful off the belay then very bouldery and traversy for four bolts. Not height-dependent at all (I'm 5'6")--just unique and stemmy, with some creative sequences. Short pitch -- stop at the nice belay bolts at the top of the 5.9 layback flake (5.12a).

P3: funkville. Weird licheny step-across leaving the belay, then up a slab into the China Doll corner, then downclimb some hollow blocky shit (5.10-, spooky) to a good stance. Clip the old 1/4" belay bolts or at least one of them for your second, who will be downclimbing here not on TR at all. From the stance, a bizarre, blind 5.11+/5.12- move around the arete gets you up and over onto the slab. You can climb out/down left to belay to be close to your second, or once stood up keep going up the slab to the belay below the final, crux pitch (5.11d).

P4: the crux. Up into the roof on big holds with powerful moves (5.11) to a rail over the lip. Long slings down low and in the roof are very helpful, to cut down on drag later. Or, if redpointing, you can even take off the draws on some bolts once into the higher one above to really cut drag—I did this in a couple of spots. At the lip, the "stopper" move people seem to be talking about would be encountered going straight up past the bolt, which does seem pretty jacked and blank—there's just some shit slimpers there. Instead, continue left on crimps/horizontals, getting a high right heel hook, until you can stand up and punch for a good flat edge high and left. This sequence is a little spooky to work first time through on lead as you go pretty far left, but you can easily pull through the "direct crux" and get into the bolt above you to work it on TR. From here, the pitch is 5.11, and I didn't find any loose blocks as warned about. Maybe someone trundled them (5.12c)?

This route has some lichen here and there but is overall a cool experience and certainly climbable! Sep 23, 2018