Master EXT

Where once merely the student, an onsight secured will glory bring and shall the master finally you become. Because the extension is the sh!t. At best a VERY difficult send for the budding 5.11 climber. You send this, YOU are the sh!t.

Start at the chains and drift up a panel of ever steepening gray matter until it becomes a fight for invisible sidepulls, tight, disappearing gouttes d'eau, and mere suggestions for feet. Continue to an OK stance on not entirely terrible holds at a bulge, at which point the climb gets hard. Unpuzzle the bulge section, but bring your A game. The holds disappear, the feet get greasy. The weather turns, the earthquakes start, and then gravity doubles. Reminds me of that Layton Kor quote: “When we ran out of our bag of tricks, we reverted to that age-old technique of struggle.”

Once you finish the crux bizness, move up tenuous but lower-angled ground to the F'U clipping hold. (Didja read the finish correctly?) Clip in, realize you’re NOT the master today, and go chant in a cave or something for the next 30 years.

Middle of the wall--one of the lines that goes up the fat gray stripe right between the eyes. Keep walking down the upper ledges against the wall until you come to an oblong little rock patio area. If you have to suddenly use hands and class III step down to continue, then stop. Turn around and bow down. There is your master, her name on the rock.

The '25 Pánjika guide has no info on number of draws, and I wasn't counting--I was crying. Recommend at least a dozen more for the extension. The top has a connected, two-bolt anchor station with a single ring.

An 80m rope gets you back to the ground with some comfort. I don't think a 70 would cut it.

A quick word about extensions: Both guidebooks for Leonidio list them as separate climbs. I here honor that custom. 

I see on MP where alotta climbers in the American idiom neglect to list the opening section. Opting instead to post the full--usually much harder--line. I'm not down with that. In Europe extensions are put in not as the line proper but rather as a different climb altogether. One appealing to different climbers with different skill sets, different agendas. So? Different chains, different line. That's how I see it; that's how I list it.  

Either way, don't call 'em second pitches. They'll just think you've been dropped too many times without a helmet.