PRINT: Rock Climb Whore House, Castle Valley

Whore House

5.11-, Trad, 450 ft (136 m), 5 pitches, Grade III,

Avg: 2.3 from 3 votes
FA: FA Sam Boyce, Mark Bowling June 2016; FFA Aaron Livingston, Wade Plafcan Oct 2016
Utah > Southeast Utah > Castle Valley > Convent

Access Issue: RAIN, WET ROCK and RAPTOR CLOSURES: The sandstone around Moab is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Also please ask and be aware of Raptor Closures in areas such as CAT WALL and RESERVOIR WALL in Indian Creek Details

WET ROCK: Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN MOAB during or after rain.

RAPTOR CLOSURES: please be aware of seasonal raptor closures. They occur annually in the spring.

Description

Varied and fun climbing. There are some zones of choss navigation.

P1 5.9 170ft Start up the twin hand cracks, climb up the corner through a number of small roofs, eventually reaching a short easy chimney leading to a huge ledge on the left. Good belay in a tips to off-fingers horizontal up and to the left.

P2 5.11- 110’ Some easy slab avoids some squeeze chimney weirdness, straight up an easy chimney to the base of a wide #6 splitter. Strenuous and steep wide crack (5.10 A0 or 5.11-) leads to a good fist crack/layback to a small alcove below a giant roof.

P3 5.10 30’ Short pitch, possible to link with P2 pending rope drag. Up the stem box with a .75 crack to protect and assist to the underside of the roof. Height dependent stem out and pull out of the roof. Fun!

P4 5.10 100’ The roof pitch. Up an easy hand crack to a small roof, stem to assist. Easy and splitter hand crack leads to the base of an intimidating roof. Easier than it looks, and with good gear. A couple rotten bands follow and you end up on a huge ledge. Boulder belay possible.

P5 5.8 50’ Short pitch to the summit, straight uphill a bit there is an obvious #4 crack with a roof/traverse. Climb the easy crack and traverse left to mantle, tree belay super far back from the ledge.

Descent: From the top out, scramble south (towards castleton) to the high point, scramble down to the rim when possible and find a huge cairn (50-100 yrds from high point). Descent to the ledge right below the cairn, the first station for choir boyz will be obvious, Easy single rope rappels straight down.

Location

Approach via the same road as for sister superior, about a mile up the wash there will be a sharp 90 degree right turn that can be spicy for smaller cars. Park right before this, follow the smaller side wash that converges at the apex of this sharp corner in the road (big cairn as of 6/30). Follow this wash for a short ways until it makes a sharp 90 degree right corner with another smaller wash continuing straight, follow this (another cairn as of 6/30). After a short distance up this even smaller wash break left to make for the ridge line taking care to avoid crypto. Once on the ridge line a faint trail will become evident. Follow the apex of the ridge all the way up to where you meet some cliff bands and the trail disappears. Go right up into the talus gully, and straight up the talus to the base, this bit kind of sucks, but its not too bad. Work your way near the base of choir boyz, obvious shallow left facing splitter corner. Rack up here and drop packs. Follow the base of the cliff over to the base of value of audacity. Work your way into the "tunnel" of a horizontal weakness that breaks left, crawl through and you will be at the base of west face dihedral. Continue left and crawl again. A couple more scramble moves will put you on a ledge at the base of the route. Unique and fun approach.

Protection

Single Rack .3 - 6; Doubles .5 - 6; Triple 3; Single set of nuts; Single 70M Rope

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Start of P1

Pitches 2,3, and 4

The base of VOA and the start of the crawl

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Sam Boyce
Changes with the seasons

5.11-

I pulled on my 6 on the fa of p2, just FYI (still needs a redpoint). The pitch can go at 5.9 ow a0 with a couple 6's, or 5.11 free. Also, the thin corner just to the left would likely go with a few knifeblades. Jul 22, 2016

Aaron Livingston
Ouray, CO

5.11-

Wade Plafcan and I did the (possible?) FFA of the route today. The crux OW is about 5.11-. Pretty wild climbing with a decent amount of choss navigation required. This thing is pretty good if you've climbed alot in Castle Valley and are looking for something new to scramble on. Surprisingly small amount of sand, wear your hard hat. Rack: (1 each) .3 and .4, (2 each) .5 - #2, (3) #3's, (2) #4's, (1) #5, (2) #6, Alpine Draws. Oct 27, 2016