The Fall of Ascomycetes

I've uploaded a photo of the ground up route, which is super cool (photo taken by Taylor Krosbakken). The opening moves terminate at a good but dirty ledge, and involve a cool layback with great hands, okay protection, but tenuous, crumbly feet. After the ledge, the crux of the route punches above its weight class, though it is brief. Place a great offset nut in the flaring crack to the right prior to leaving the ledge, which would protect you from decking if you fall during the crux (climb is likely rated R/X if you don't have offsets). There is an optional small horizontal X4 high left which would provide additional security for the crux moves, but would take away a foot that you'll want later (I took the protection over the added foot during the lead. This section is the reason for the PG-13/R rating on the extension and does have groundfall potential if you blow it, the rest of the route protects beautifully). Make a large move right to a less than perfect right hand (start of the crux bouldery sequence), find whatever you can for feet (very sparse), and work your way into a less-restful-than-you'd-like dihedral. This is where the protection options widen. Work your way up the dihedral, placing protection wherever you feel inclined, to the base of the horizontal roof. Place pro in the roof (anywhere from X4's to a #2 C4 depending on location), pull the roof (less burly than it looks, style points if you cut feet at the end, one of the more unique moves at the head), find the happy dance jug, and merge into Fall of Acomycetes above the anchors. Take the obvious, fun finger crack to the top. The extension gets the same 5.11b grade in my mind as the original route, though it adds a lot of variety and requires you to bring your full crack climbing skills to the table. Due to the low crux, it warrants a PG13/R rating (R/X if you don't have offset nuts), and is recommended as a headpoint. I'm not claiming an FA due to the fact that the upper half has been established. Huge shoutout to Rick Kollath for the FA of the original Fall of Ascomycetes route, as well as Kurt Hager and Rob Pilaczynski, who identified the extension at a similar time as me (unknown to any of us). They put in a lot of effort and time to clean it, and they got the first TR ascent. I ended up leading it less than a week later. Jan 22, 2019