White Wedding

A great hand crack in that slightly sandy Cocoweap of Pumphouse wash. Because it's a hand crack with good jams, the rock character is less of an issue than some of the climbs in Pumphouse.

Steve thought it was 5.11, I recall thinking it was a bit easier so that probably means that it has some thin hand sections.

I doubt this has had a second ascent yet because it needs some bolts for the belay on the first and probably for the lead on the second pitch. With those in place, this would be a classic.

On the first ascent, I was following the first pitch and was almost to the small roof when Steve yells down,

"Don't fall on this pitch."

I get to the roof, get a jam in above the small lip when a 2 ft cube comes off in my lap. I manage to keep the thumb down jam with my left hand, trap this rock on my lap with my right hand, and then count 3, cut my feet loose and give the rock a good flip with the right arm and let it fly to the ground.

When I get to the belay, I find Steve buried back in this wide slot in a full butt chimney stem. The belay nut is a #3 hex sideways on two points and a Grossman stem (pretty solid actually.)

Take a bolt kit and put in a belay.

Second pitch was a pretty full rope length with some 5.8 friction climbing off very manky gear (2 or 3 pieces in a full pitch ?) Add a couple of bolts to the pitch and you'll have a pretty decent climb in a great spot.

I will say though, that I was not a real happy camper running out almost a full rope and doing some sandy 5.8 friction moves over some overlaps while I was thinking of the belay Steve had in. And this was after I'd been climbing Sedona for many years. 2nd pitch was a bit like Dresdoom, only on the whiter rock.

Belay the second pitch on top off big pines.

I'm starting to remember that we might have had to simul for 15 ft or so for me to reach the top of the plateau.

Name comes from the fact we did this the day before my wedding.

We didn't have a bolt kit along because we figured we'd be crack climbing. We'd gone down for a late afternoon climb and ended up with a most memorable ascent.

I've given this an R, but it really deserves an X for the belay and runout second pitch. But since you've been warned to add bolts, it should become PG13 at worst. And yes, you can add bolts to the first belay and second pitch. You might even need to add in a belay on the second pitch but probably not with 60m ropes.  But I'm not saying plaster it with bolts.  Two bolts on the second pitch will probably keep you off the ground.

I think most folks now just do pitch one and rap.  We were trying to get out of the canyon and get to the rehearsal dinner.