[Hide Comment] This route is super classic, some bolted face, long free climbing, some loose junk, a sweet finish and big ledges. Start as for Teddy Bear's picnic.
P1 - move up the huecos and step up into a shallow right-facing corner and then move up and left past a few bolts (10a) on small knobs and belay in a corner.
P2 - climb up and left over a small pinnacle and step down left to a nice ledge (this is a little funky but straight-forward and not hard).
P3 - get your head on and move up, passing on the left side of a huge hollow-sounding flake and into the overhanging section, move right past this (5.9) to belay on a small ledge.
P4 - jam up right in the clean, solid crack for the money pitch of the route (5.8), then follow the chimney to a big ledge.
P5 - two options a) climb straight up the face past bolts and join the wide crack at about mid-pitch b) get right into the big stuff and grunt your way through (both 5.9)

Walk off the back side. Beware there is a HUGE white owl living in the top of the chimney next to the P4 belay. If you choose to do the wide start to P5 you'll probably make friend or foe with this spooky avian creature! His pellets are all over the P4 chimney and you could mistake them for bear crap or some other large carnivore...sweet!

Gear - singles of smaller stuff a few doubles in hand to fist size. Feb 21, 2009

[Hide Comment] Dan foote and an unknown friend put this route up. Dan is deceased as of 2009. Jun 7, 2011

[Hide Comment] This route has better rock quality than NE face of the main Smith group but is covered in turds. Enjoy the rusty angle above the P3 overhang that is covered in pigeon shit. The bolts are all relics you would not want to fall on from P2 to P4. Nic and I were hard pressed by this route because it is soo nasty and dirty but there is good climbing to be had. Any climbing team considering this routs should wear helmets and have the utmost respect for rockfall, you are launching missiles on to the switchbacks that all Misery Ridge hikers walk up. All in all a great experiance that I would recommend to someone who I don't like....

Edit from Nic: The best pitch had a bird carcass in it. May 31, 2012

[Hide Comment] Decided to just do the first pitch yesterday, as a last route of the day sort of thing just to check it out, a few thoughts:

1. This route is full of loose rock and friable flakes, and anything that comes off is likely to strafe the tourists/hikers on the misery ridge trail.

2. The climbing is sort of so-so, somewhat runout traversing.

3. Pitch is a full 35M. Ropestretcher! If you rap from the anchors with a 70M cord, the ends of your rope will be a couple inches off the deck, it barely makes it down. If you have a 60M rope, you won't be close to getting down in a single rap. In this case, make sure you don't miss switching to the Five Easy Pieces anchors.

Not my favorite pitch at Smith, but not without merit... kind of cool as a single pitch sport climb,but you will want to ensure you have a long enough rope (which I did - good) and also ensure there aren't a bunch of hikers below (which there were - bad) if you really want to enjoy it. May 20, 2013

[Hide Comment] The gear beta above is pretty much spot on. While there's looseness everywhere, really only the first pitch and the third pitch suck to climb. Higher up the rock that you have to touch improves dramatically. It's worth noting that the 3rd pitch is a traverse with some climbing up and down. In hindsight, this seems obvious, but I missed it despite reading the beta above and in the Watt's guide. Feb 20, 2015

[Hide Comment] On the second pitch traverse the leader can clip a permanent biner over the flake and can actually be lowered from here instead of down climbing al the way. The follower has the sketchy job on this pitch, but if the leader lowers the follower from the same permanent biner, the follower can clip a QuickDraw straight from their belay loop to the rope above them, preventing hem from swinging out, you can even pull a cross this line if you wish. Once in direct to the anchors the follower can untie and the rope can be pulled through. Don't risk down climbing this traverse. Sep 9, 2016