Bath Rock Girdle Traverse

The Bath Rock Girdle Traverse. This climb is about as arbitrary as it gets. If you love traversing, and want to get in over a thousand feet of mostly safe climbing without needing anything other than shoes and chalk, then look no further!

The rules I made for myself during the first ascent were fairly simple:

 The floor is lava! Don’t touch the ground, and don’t go higher than 20 feet to avoid hard moves. There are flat spots that create natural resting places and stopping here does not invalidate the send as it is still part of the main rock. Touching dirt or other free standing rocks around the base of bath rock does count as dabbing and invalidates the send. This can get fairly tricky as many sequences involve edging on small holds inches of the ground. I did this climb counterclockwise and so all the info and beta on this page is for that direction. Clockwise still needs a first ascent ;)

West side: This side of bath rock has probably the best and most sustained climbing. The climbing is around 5.10+. When you get to the part underneath Gemini and Coffee and Cornflakes, you have to go up fairly high (around 20 feet) to stay on jugs. This is the highest you have to go on the whole traverse.

Southwest side + south corner: After the fun sustained climbing you have a bit of a break with the easiest climbing on the whole traverse. The rock here is so slabbed out that you basically walk the whole thing. The climbing gets a bit tricky again as you transition into the east side.

East side: This side is the hardest. After turning the south corner the climbing becomes more and more blank until you are on sustained techy slab climbing. In the middle of this slab there is a very blank section which is the crux of the whole traverse. The first section of the crux is a heady and technical Boulder problem 10 feet off the deck. The second section is another Boulder problem that involves using the holes left behind by a removed sign as monos. If those holes weren’t there this section would likely be impossible. Both Boulder problems are around v5/v6. The rest of the east side is wonderful and challenging climbing separated by sit down rests. There are probably a few v3 and v4 Boulder problems mixed in there.   Note: This side can become very easy by turning it into a solo and going 30-100 feet up to bypass the hard climbing. I experimented with this a little but found that staying low was more challenging and fun while obviously keeping it safer. 

North side/corner: This side is fun, varied, and still quite difficult. There are a few spots where climbing a bit higher makes things easier but more heady. In a few spots touching trees is completely unavoidable as they press up agains the rock. Just do your best. This climbing blends smoothly into the west side with a few hard moves getting over the fence. Hooray, you’re done! 

• I started and ended on the west side of bath rock just to the right of private Idaho (obvious 5.9 crack climb). Starting anywhere on bath rock should work as long as you make it back to the same spot. 

No protection required, although crash pads could be used to protect certain crux moves.