Avg: 3.6 from 5
votes
This is a nice route up great limestone. The crux sections are in the first three pitches, and are well protected. The easier sections are very run out, so you should be comfortable with this, or should bring some cams and/or nuts between 0.4 and 1.
The pitch rating is as follows.
pitch 1:5.9.
pitch 2: 5.10a.
pitch 3: 5.10a/b. The crux pitch. Great fun climbing with lots of different styles from bolt to bolt
pitch 4: 5.9
pitch 5: 5.7 some runout. The next few pitches are a little monotonous on low angle rock. Slabby but straightfoward. The bolt spacing can be large, but the climbing isn't difficult. Stay to your left to avoid getting off-route
pitch 6: 5.7 some runout
pitch 7: 5.9 some runout slab. Stay to your left to avoid getting off-route.
pitch 8: 5.9 some runout slab
pitch 9: 5.9 some runout slab
pitch 10: 5.9 some runout slab
ptich 11: 5.6
pitch 12: 5.7
pitch 13: 5.6
pitch 14: 5.6
The descent is long. Follow the path to climbers left and work around the gendarme with the cross (or climb it... fun 5.10d).
Follow the path till it ends. Then scramble up the rock to find the continuation of the path. It is usually marked with cairns. Then follow the path down. When you get to the split in the path (30-45 minutes after the cairns) go left for the steeper trail down... this deposits you in the moraine behind the meadow, and involves a lots of descending on loose rock. This is not recommended in bad weather since it gets very slippery. Alternatively, you can go right to join the hikers trail down, which will deposit you back on the road. Apparently, it takes about 2 hours from the split.
Cross the stream from the main Solalex parking lot or from the restaurant parking lot. You will end up in a grassy meadow. Facing the wall, if you head to climbers far right in the meadow, you will see a large isolated rock. The trail to the climbs starts just behind the rock. Follow it up to the climbing area and head left till you reach remix, which is clearly painted on the rock.
Mainly quickdraws. 10 is plenty. The anchors are typically a bolt and a ring. A couple of cams between 0.4 and 1 will be useful in the runout sections, but aren't critical, since the runout is mainly easy climbing.
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![[[200115753]] climbing the airy roof traverse and bulge pulling pitch 10!!! A spectacularly fun pitch. Beware of rope drag!](https://mountainproject.com/assets/photos/climb/124654568_medium_1690365408.jpg?cache=1762472708)
Boulder, CO
The faster climber-specific descent is not recommended if you are really tired, in bad weather, or don't like exposed trails - especially if you are coming down at night!
After the lake, the path lead us along an exposed cliff edge to a short down-climb, followed by a loose shale section that you start down, then switch back across to a tree (here, one of our party missed the arrow sign to the left and headed straight down the shale towards a loose drop-off into the river). Getting to the tree, we headed down to where the path narrows to almost nothing above a perilous 50m drop, and decided to simply hike out the other way, taking almost 7 hours to hike out.
Case in point: start early so you don't do the descent at night. The hike is beautiful anyway! Aug 4, 2019
Lausanne, New England
We found many cracks that took gear nicely. While not included in the suggested rack, I found the black totem and #0.3 to be quite useful. Considering that only one pitch was less than 30 m with the others being substantially longer (in the 40+ m range). We found 14-16 draws (half being extendable alpine draws) were a comfortable amount for us to extend gear placements.
I can see how this route might feel like a sandbag if you are not used to jamming. Jul 24, 2023