Sol Asylum

Sol Asylum is directly across the gully from Exile and a great shady wall to hide from the sun. The climb varies from thin face to steep huecos to amazing alligator skin and finishes up an exposed pinnacle. This would get 3 stars, but it’s a little dirty.

The start is a little runout, but there is a small hole for a gray Alien (a small tri-cam might work better). Around 25’ up, the gear gets better and stays good until the finish, as long as you have enough. Head up steep rock with great huecos until a wide crack that takes a #5 Camalot. Continue up alligator skin jugs. The holds lead you to the right, about 25’, without gaining the slab at the top of the wall. Traverse up and right to a critical #3 placement. Start up a tufa-like feature, but quickly step right to get some small wires (#2 RP to #2 Wallnut). Then make crux moves back left onto a juggy arête. Pull the lip and belay. A #2 Camalot and #8 hex are great to have at the anchor. A short, easy 30’ pitch will lead you up the ridge to the anchor bolts at the summit.

Big thanks to Chris Taylor for discovering the line and suggesting a name. He originally planned to bolt it, but luckily for us, it turned out too easy for him and had lots of natural protection.

The route is on the North face of the Fiddlehead. It starts downhill to the East from the other routes ((Leprechaun Promenade, Lucky Charms aka Rip This Joint). You can approach from the West side off the Goose, or hike up the West side of the Fiddlehead, and drop down the gully to the East. The climb starts 10’ left of a giant boulder.

A standard rack, sort of.

I used: 2 #1s, 3 #2s, 2 #3s, lots of medium nuts and a couple small ones, a #2 tri-cam, a gray Alien, and a #5 Camalot.