Hog Heaven

This route ascends the side of the prominent arete/fin feature that constitutes the thin north face of the Dakota Hogsback wall. It has great exposure and clean falls.

Ascend the finger, layback crack on good holds to the first bolt. If desired, leaders can use anything from a stickclip, a large nut (best), or a finger-size cam to protect the moves to the first bolt if desired, but the moves are around 5.6 and secure. After clipping the first bolt, immediately traverse climber’s right to an undercling and the edge of the prominent arete that constitutes the north face of the Dakota Hogsback formation. Clip the second bolt from this undercling. After this, ascend the edge of the arete clipping bolts as the appear on the climber’s left. The bolts were placed to the left of the climbing line in order to prevent massive rope drag. A climber can optionally clip an old, rusty piton between bolts 2 and 3, but a long runner is recommended to prevent heavy rope drag. At the top of the arete, traverse climber’s left to the final bolt, and clip the glue-in bolted anchor to finish. The final bolt prevents a following climber from impacting the face to climber’s left should they fall off after the second to last bolt.

Due to the nature of this route, do not toprope this route without the rope being clipped to the bolts. Otherwise, the climber will take a dangerous swing if they fall. This fact should seem fairly obvious.

This route is now the rightmost route on the east face of Dakota Hogsback. The climber ascends the lefthand side of the thin north face of the Dakota Hogsback formation clipping the bolts on the climber’s left. This route’s bolts are just left of the prominent, main arete/fin feature.

6 bolts to a 2 bolt, glue-in anchor with rap rings. Optional alpine draws in order to make moving around the prow more comfortable but they are by no means necessary and you will not have much rope drag if you just use sport draws. Note that the left anchor bolt has a spinning hanger, but it is still in good working condition. This route shares an anchor with the bolted route to climber’s left (Dakota Rightmost). Bring an optional alpine sling if you wish to clip the old, rusted piton between bolts 2 and 3.