Natural Enhancement
5.11 YDS 6c+ French 23 Ewbanks VIII- UIAA 23 ZA E4 5c British PG13
Avg: 3.9 from 92 votes
Type: | Trad, 115 ft (35 m) |
FA: | FA Darren Singer 1992, Full Route FA Dan Foster, JJ Schlick 2002 |
Page Views: | 5,793 total · 29/month |
Shared By: | JJ Schlick on Aug 17, 2008 |
Admins: | Greg Opland, Brian Boyd, JJ Schlick, Kemper Brightman, Luke Bertelsen |
Description
At some point in time, Dan Foster and I made it a mission to climb any unknown route with tatty anchors and install a modern anchor. It was a surprising number of routes and this line had some of the last tat to go. The first 75' of this route was done by Darren Singer in the early 90’s and ended at a webbing anchor with old Chouinard Curved Nuts. After onsighting to this anchor and exhausting crucial pieces of my rack, I lowered off staring at the top 40’ of steep terrain. After filling Dan in on the prospects, he casually flashed the route and then punched it through the final 40’ of overhanging finger splitter onsight. An anchor was placed, and a cross generational route was born. All this created one of the longest pitches on the right side, as well as, one of the most classic 5.11, all natural gear lines at the crag. It is a glorious haul with a lot of crisp, steep jamming.
Starts on a zig-zagging crack made of large blocks, directly above a large, pointy boulder. Take care when leading or following because a fall onto this rock would probably ruin your day or more. The start is both physical, somewhat deceptive, and IMHO feels every bit 5.10d/11a. It’s the kind of climbing people explode off of. Continue up through a blocky chute, and make your way to the "diving board" feature which juts out of the wall.
Once you get onto the diving board, expect small hands to fingers, with a 5.11 finger crux mid height. There is a good rest at the point where the tatty anchors once rested and take advantage of that, because the climbing gets more strenuous and steep from here with fingers, edges, and pockets with muscley climbing. The gear can be a bit tricky on this section...save a #.5, #.75, and a #1 BD Cam for the top. The climbing is physical, though the edges are excellent.
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