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Chalking Dead

5.9-, Trad, TR, 60 ft (18 m),  Avg: 2.8 from 32 votes
FA: Billy Smallen and Carl Dec -- 9/24/12
Utah > Wasatch Range > Central Wasatch > Big Cottonwood… > Salt Lake Slips

The Climbing

This great corner throws all sort of BCC style your way. Juggy roofs, splitter cracks, and tricky gear--all in 60 ft!

The corner is the right-most of the two prominent corners located off the ledge above and to the right of Roll the Bones, with the other one being Zombieland's second pitch. It shares anchors at the top and bottom with Double Tap.

Climb up with sparse gear for 10 feet. As the climbing gets harder the gear gets better. Keep moving up past jugs and around a roof to the point where the crack ends. Clip the bolt and face climb on jugs to gain a splitter widening finger crack, which takes you around a roof. Keep moving through hidden finger pods to more jugs and the top of the climb.

How to Find It

This route takes off from the ledge that runs from the top of Italian ArĂȘte to Zombieland. Climb any of the routes between these to gain the ledge, with Zombieland being the most direct. Belay from either of the right-most sets of anchor bolts and head over to the corner! Chalking Dead can be toproped after leading pitch 2 of Zombieland or Double Tap, as all three share anchors.

To Descend: There are bolts with rap chains on top. Either do a double-rope rap to the ground or two single rope raps utilizing the anchors on top of pitch 1 of Zombieland. Alternatively, you can walk off after topping out by heading north and following the trail across the formation. You can get back down to the base using the trail through the scree field gully or you can take the trail back up to Storm Mountain if you parked there.

Gear

Mostly fingers to hand size pieces and one bolt. A double rack from #0.3 to #1 Camalot and a draw for the bolt will be fine. Stoppers are useful in several places. There are anchor bolts and rap chains at the top.

A huge thank you to Carl for his massive cleaning job!

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Another view of the Zombie Corners. Chalking Dead climbs the prominent corner at the top right.
[Hide Photo] Another view of the Zombie Corners. Chalking Dead climbs the prominent corner at the top right.
The route from the belay. Sorry about the butt shot.
[Hide Photo] The route from the belay. Sorry about the butt shot.
A view of the Zombie Corners, Salt Lake Slips
[Hide Photo] A view of the Zombie Corners, Salt Lake Slips

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

[Hide Comment] nice little crack, heads up for hornets flying out of the roof jugs! always good to see someone putting in the time to make new routes! Oct 7, 2012
ddriver
SLC
  5.8
[Hide Comment] Super fun position, fingerlocks all the way, worthwhile even if it is short. Four tcu's was plenty gear for this. Sep 30, 2013
Garret Nuzzo Jones
Salt Lake City, UT
  5.9-
[Hide Comment] Best climb at the slips. Gear is a little tricky, especially once you want to plug in pieces to your handholds at the crux. Didn't use anything larger than a .5 Camalot for the whole climb. Great rock quality where it counts. Oct 31, 2013
Sam Cannon
Salt Lake City, UT
  5.8-
[Hide Comment] Everything at the slips feels really, really soft. This is the easiest 5.9 I've ever led. Felt more like an easy 8 or a solid 7 - so don't be intimidated if you're not leading 5.9s on gear yet but feel good at 5.8. The pitch is, however, super fun. The gear is good. A yellow TCU protects the roof. Nov 9, 2013
ddriver
SLC
  5.8
[Hide Comment] This route description is actually for the left-facing dihedral at far right. There are no bolts. Mar 18, 2015
cdec
SLC, UT
  5.9
[Hide Comment] Indeed it is for the left facing corner on the far right.
The original bolt is still there and it protects getting to the roof.

I climbed Ziombie land, double tap and this on 8/15 and they are really fun and will only get better with more traffic.
Climb them! Aug 16, 2015
greggrylls
Salt Lake City
  5.8
[Hide Comment] Garret and Sam's descriptions are spot on. Climbed this today. I eyed this before when doing zombieland but thought gear looked bad and the corner looked dirty. I was wrong I didn't feel that the gear was particularly tricky. It can be very well protected with small cams to .5 and there are loads of bomber nuts placements. Both this and double tap are short but fun. Aug 22, 2017
greggrylls
Salt Lake City
  5.8
[Hide Comment] Did this again and still fun! Nuts are clutch near the roof, they don't block your handholds and so so bomber.

Maybe I gardened for some gear lower or just was feeling braver last time but I didn't find much gear lower down and ended up 15 or 20 feet up before I got something in. Gear is a little weird down low so take what you can get if a new leader. I think the bush and plants are just retaking the corner low on the route. Gardened and fixed it a bit Jun 27, 2018