PRINT: Rock Climb West Pole Direct Finish, Seneca Rocks

West Pole Direct Finish

5.8, Trad, 50 ft (15 m),

Avg: 3.1 from 19 votes
FA: Joe Ebner, Dennis Grabnegger, and John Markwell (from Barnes, 2nd ed)
W Virginia > Seneca Rocks > S Peak - W Face > S Peak W Face (Main A…

Description

Left-facing finger crack arches into a sustained fist and off-width crack. Loose block about half-way up that would be a great hold. Move right onto a balancy position to avoid (the hands are good, just find them),then back into the crack. Even the topout is fun!

Location

From the West Pole belay/rappel rings look up at the crack and right facing corner. Or look 20 ft left from Conn's West rap tree.

Protection

Standard Seneca rack plus a few larger pieces (1-2 BD #4s) for the off-width sections. Takes good gear including hexes.

After your party is up, you can belay them over the top of the fin and down the scramble (4th class) or the direct down climb to thr summit notch.

Note: you can use the rap anchor at the base of the pitch to build a belay, but on busy days, please just look left to thr crack and the build an easy gear anchor to keep folks moving off the summit.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Andy Moss
Portland, OR

5.8

This is a really fun lead with some nice corner stemming and jamming to get you to the top. If you just climbed West Pole and the grade's scaring you away, don't let it. This is the same grade or easier, and not entirely a different style (no real hero moves, though). I graded it 5.8 only because that's what I think West Pole ought to come in at.

There's loose rock here and there, especially at the top, where you really need to be careful where you step and what you pull on. Otherwise, though, great route! Nice way to top out. Sep 27, 2016

Henry AB

I don't think a #4 is necessary. There is enough other gear.

Also, I don't think this pitch is harder than the rest of West Pole. 5.8 for both routes would probably be consistent with other Seneca grading. Apr 17, 2017

Eunny Jang
Washington D.C.

All I do on MP is leave small person beta, haha. But! If I had known the “fist and offwidth” of this route would mean “stacks, chicken wings, and thrutchy thigh jams through spiderwebs and dirt” I might have thought twice before hopping on it in the sun. Enough face/arete holds and feet…mostly…to avoid too much offwidth trickery except at the very top, which is a mandatory grovel if you can’t reach the jugs. The anchor situation is pretty weird in a no-man’s-land of leaning flakes and detached blocks; I slung a solid horn and redirected gear in better rock far away, belayed from a seat atop the flake, and put my follower on a munter for the easy downclimb to the base of the summit scramble.

There are a couple seriously scary loose blocks on this route; I sometimes think rock quality issues at Seneca are over exaggerated but there are a couple bits I was really scared would fall out just from my tapping. Be careful up there!! Aug 23, 2021