The Honeymoon is Over

The Honeymoon is Over is one of, if not the, most difficult routes on the Diamond. Although the Full Dunn-Westbay is technically rated higher (14- vs. 13c), the Honeymoon packs more of a punch (4 5.13 pitches) than the Full DW (1 pitch of 5.14-). I found the Honeymoon to be a generally harder day out mentally and physically than the DW, but the crux pitch of the DW is harder than any one pitch of the Honeymoon. This comparison highlights the complexity of rating multi-pitch free climbs with a single number.

The Honeymoon was established by Eric Doub in the 1990s, who worked the route for a number of years. Eventually, Eric passed the route off to a young Tommy Caldwell who fired it, practically onsight, in the summer of 2001. Tommy went up one day in early summer to attempt it and managed to free-climb the route through the crux 13c pitch with 1 fall until being forced to retreat due to wet rock. He came back in August and fired the whole route with no more prep in between attempts. Tommy's effort on the Honeymoon is one of the most impressive alpine free climbing ascents to-date given the extremely technical and difficult nature of the climbing and his almost on-sight ground-up style.

I did not have such good style and opted to rappel in over a couple of weekends....

Pitch breakdown:

Approach pitches: climb the first 2-3 pitches of Eroica, depending on how you break it down, to the base of the 11c stem corner on Eroica.

Pitch 1 (11c): climb the technical 11c stem corner of Eroica, and belay at a hanging belay at two bolts where Eroica traverses left.

Pitch 2 (13-): continue up the thin corner to a bolt below a small roof/overlap. Traverse right under the roof to a crack out left, and then punch it over the roof to a fixed hanging belay at 4 fixed stoppers (green Camalot backs up the belay).

Pitch 3 (13c): climb an ultra technical, thin RP seem with a 8 inch offset off the belay for 30 feet to easier climbing and some bolts. Follow the bolts to a small overlap and traverse right to a hand crack. Climb the handcrack up to a bolt out left on the face, and execute a difficult face boulder problem to a ledge stance.

Pitch 4 (13-): make difficult moves off the belay left to an undercling traverse, and follow this to a small corner. Climb the corner to a bolted overhanging boulder problem, followed by easier climbing to Table Ledge crack.

Pitch 5 (13-): traverse right to an obvious, hanging flake system with bolts. Lieback up the flake system past a couple of difficult sections to a bolted belay on a ledge.

Pitch 6 (12-): climb the dirty crack for ~130 feet to a small dihedral ~30 feet from the top of the wall. Execute a 12- boulder problem, clipping a fixed pin and a bolt, and then continue to the summit on easier climbing.

This is one route right of Eroica and shares the start with Eroica.

Double rack from a blue Alien to green Camalot, a single red Camalot, a yellow Camalot, and a double set of RPs.