This one-pitch climb has it all (whether you want it or not!). It starts out with a couple chimney moves, exiting with hands into OW, and continues up the shrinking crack, past a few horizontals, until it fizzles out completely. Place a good small cam and nut at the top of the crack and launch out onto the face, heading for the (last) horizontal. Traverse right at the horizontal (with gear) and finish up with what is now Braggin'. It has excellent stone all the way.
(Guidebooks say the first ascent was done prior to any bolts being in place - but do not list the first ascentionists.)
Location
Start in the crack between Braggin' and Sketch Palsy. The crack is very wide at the bottom and fizzles out to nothing just under the last horizontal crack on the wall.
Rap from Braggin'. A 60m rope just barely makes it - WATCH THE ENDS OF YOUR ROPE.
Protection
Rack from 1/4" (nuts) up to 5" ("new" #5 Camalot) with a few longs slings to reduce rope drag on the traverse and draws for the bolts on Braggin'. Doubles on 3"-5" cams if you want to sew it up.
[Hide Photo] S = 'Sketch Palsy', A = 'Arete Already', B = approach to 'Bragging About Jesus' (start indicated behind the 'little raptor boulder'). *NOTE: Long rap can 'just barely' be made with a 60m, but you m…
[Hide Photo] Arete Already starts at the bottom-center of the photo, heads up past 4 horizontal overlaps, and traverses right into Braggin' at the 5th horizontal.
[Hide Comment] Although I did not get a chance to try this - it seems a more natural line would be to continue up Sketch Palsy after the crack fizzles out. Either way - excellent climb... DO IT.
Jul 30, 2012
[Hide Comment] A good climb and a very long pitch by Voo standards. The traverse over to Braggin' can be protected by gear up to 2" in several flaring pods. This climb stays at a pretty consistent level (9 - 10a) despite the "wide" variety of climbing encountered. I led with only one each of #3, 4 (new), and 4 (old) Camalots, and ended up leap-frogging them more than I wanted.
Jul 30, 2012
[Hide Comment] There were no bolts on this section of the wall (no Sketch Palsy', no 'Bragging about Jesus', etc.) in late summer of '93 when Jim Brink and I spotted a moderately difficult looking, near-vertical crack heading up past about 4 intersecting cracks to a significant horizontal break about 40 feet up. We figured the crack would continue on but couldn't see if it really did. I took off up the line, passing the 'horizontals', got some decent pro in, and about that time it diminished to a seam and petered out a few feet below the larger horizontal break. I managed to get a good cam in and moved up trending slightly right, now mainly on crystals. I found a perfect TG placement for a #3 cam and looked around. There was absolutely no hope of using conventional pro. The terrain was now a mind-bending puzzle of crystal pinching and delicate footwork up steep, unprotectable face towards an arete 35' above. This was going to get dicey. After moving up a few feet, I returned to the relative safety of the last cam. Again, up a little further ... and back. At about 25 feet of runout (and now easily 70+ feet off the deck) the pucker factor got the best of me. I visualized raw hamburger coming out of a meat grinder. I gingerly backed down and lowered from the top cam and a small wire I managed to wiggle in. Jim went back up, passing my last cam and followed my chalk marks up the runout. I heard him say "oh my God, it can't be", but he went for it anyway, slowly, deliberately running out the remainder of the steepness to the relative safety of the arete and yelled 'the arete already' ... which echoed back and forth in the church-like stillness! Time seems to stand still when one is concentrating 110% on staying alive. It was another 35 feet of runout to the top, but it backed off in grade and steepness. Jim was out of sight for a few minutes, but the rope was still running normally until I heard 'off belay'. I followed, and back up in that crystalline peppered blankness, I thought I felt something warm running down into my shoe (even though I was on the rope). What a price to pay, but the climb was well worth the adventure. We found a roundabout way to downclimb back to the base and sat there wondering if what we had just done was a figment of our stressed out imaginations or actually real. It was both .... and we laughed like hyenas which helped put out the adrenaline stoked flames. It was a day to remember.
Oct 23, 2014
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Ann Arbor, MI