While My Drill Gently Weeps

A great route for hot and sunny days due to it's northeast facing aspect and awesome 2nd pitch.  This is a great moderate line that brings you to the summit of Hootgoat Mountain and deserves more attention.

P1. 5.8 180'.  On the bottom left margin of the the northeast shoulder of Hootgoat, find a bolt line heading to a 4 inch crack.  Follow the bolt line to the crack and then trend slightly right following a line of bolts on the right side of the shoulder. Climb a steadily steepening slab to a stegosaurus fin like dike.  Follow the dike up to a bolt anchor.  Great pitch! 13 bolts

P2. 5.6 120' An amazingly unique pitch at the grade.  Follow triple stegosaurus fin like dikes up and around the shoulder to the left. Mostly very easy climbing with an occasional bolt to keep it safe.  Belay at a small tree or above the tree at a 3" crack.

P3. 3rd class 100' scramble up and left around some boulders and past some trees.  Move back right and up easy slabs to the end of a wide chimney on the left edge of the buttress.  Belay in the chimney

P4. 5.8 stem up the chimney and reach across to clip the first bolt.  A stout boulder problem gets you across the chimney and into a crack above the bolt.  Continue up the crack to friction and the summit.  

Rappel off bolt anchor to the east over a huge flake 100' to the pass between Muttonhead and Hootgoat.  Take care in reaching the bolt anchor from above.  

Hike up the descent trail from Sheepshead to the pass between Sheepshead and Muttonhead. Follow a sparsely cairned 3rd class scramble up the northeast shoulder of Muttonhead (which also serves as the descent from Muttonhead). scramble across the hidden forest just below Muttonhead's summit pinnacle to a pass separating Muttonhead from HootGoat. Directly above you is a 100' face that serves as the rap line from the summit of Hootgoat. Make your life easy by dropping your packs here (to pick up on the return trip) and heading down the gully for 15 minutes to the northeast to reach the bottom of the northeast buttress and the location of "While My Drill Gently Weeps".

Route is almost entirely bolted, 1-2 placements per pitch

1x #0.5-3

Optional: wires and 1x 0.2-0.4 for more options for the top of p3 belay.

~16 draws and slings

60m rope minimum