Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster is a tightly bolted, four pitch, sport route: 5.2, 5.9, 5.8+, and 5.7 or, respectively: 1 bolt, 10 bolts, 11 bolts, 10 bolts plus 5 double bolt rappel anchors. Forty 1/2" by 3" stainless 5-piece bolts total. There are four belays: First, the shelter ledge; second, the multi-use stance; third, Kozak's Belay, fourth the second rappel station; and fifth, the summit rings. It is a little harder than nearby Odysseus, 5.8, which requires cams and wires (yellow dots). It shares much of the second pitch and the "multi-use belay" with the more serious Highway to Helen 5.9+ (red dots). Cookie Monster merges with Scary Monsters for about 75 feet (green dots). For comparison, Cookie Monster is like a 400 foot Pine Valley Ranch route, about the same grade and bolt density as Ursa Minor (5.8+).

Pitch by pitch description

The multi-use 5.2 cave approach pitch works for Unknown Arete, Odysseus, Highway to Helen, and Cookie Monster. Even roped up, traversing the ledge from Four Eyes to the Baby Helen-Acid Rock col is more dangerous.

Pitch one, 5.2+, 1 bolt, Mussy hooks, 15 meters: This starts with a bouldery move off the pack stash zone. Solo up into the cave under the Mussy hooks, clip the bolt, and pull a 5.2 face move out of the cave, then climb ten feet up an easy corner to the exposed Mussy hooks. Clip the hooks for safe following, and continue to the comfortable "shelter ledge". Tie off a boulder to belay your follower. Some followers may prefer leaders to directly clip the two Mussy hooks so they can climb onto the safety of the sheltered belay, untie, and then pull their short bit of rope through the hooks and re-tie. Unclipping from the hooks is precarious. The uppermost belays are not visible in the image below. Also, the bolt count is underrepresented on the upper pitches.

Pitch two, 5.9, 10 bolts, rings, 30 meters. This starts with the crux face protected by five bolts. Continue past five more bolts, 5.3 on big holds, to the double ring perch at the "multi-use belay". Odysseus, Highway to Helen, and Cookie Monster have used this anchor station. Pitches two and three have also been combined on all three routes. Just left of all the bolts is a single bolt marking Odysseus and Highway .

Pitch three, 5.8+, 11 bolts, rings, 30meters. This starts by traversing right from the multi-use belay. Tan painted hangers on 1/2" stainless steel bolts blaze the way. A few inches left of the fifth bolt is Dave Kozak's original 1/4" Leeper buttonhead, the first original bolt on of pitch two of Scary Monsters. After 75 feet and six new bolts, stop on the tiny dike foothold, Kozak's Belay. Dave's second hand-drilled buttonhead is found just right of the new anchors. Leaving in the old bolts on Dave's huge runout is meant as a museum exhibit or time capsule. His support of Cookie Monster alterations helped paved the way for the easiest sport route up Acid Rock.

Pitch four, 5.7, maybe 10 bolts, 2 sets of rings, 36 meters. This climbs left off Kozak's Belay alongside a gorgeous water groove. Skip the fourth belay, and continue six more meters of 5.4, past one bolt, to the summit of Acid Rock. BTW, the original Charly Don't Surf team thought the black grooves and crystal studded faces looked as if acid had been poured over the whole dome.

Rappels

From the summit of Acid Rock, with double Fixe rings for anchors, the route can be descended in five rappels: 6 meters, 30 meters, 30 meters, 30 meters, and 20 meters. Skipping the first anchor is possible with a 70 meter rope, but it barely makes the next station (at the top of pitch three).  

From Goose Creek, hiking up to the base of Acid Rock is a 1,000 foot elevation gain. The most direct way to access Cookie Monster is up Helen's Gully. From the marked parking area, hike into the old Molly's Gulch campground, turn south at the ranch's power lines, go up and over some creekside granite, leave the horse trail at the tall-grass meadow, wade the creek, cross a bigger meadow, contour south up to another horse trail, and follow it south to the ranch entrance and fence.

Don't turn right to the Lost Valley Ranch. The bottom land is private, and wandering south could lead to the down-range end of the ranch's shooting range. Instead, turn left on another horse trail, hike past the House Sized Boulder (where the Fractured Fairytales path splits from the horse trail), pass a patch of poison ivy, and climb up a few hundred feet to the gentle saddle at the base of Helen's Gully.

From the horse trail saddle, climb a rugged path up the forested gully that defines the north side of Helen's Dome. There are a lot of routes passed under while climbing up Helen's Gully; Voodoo Ranger, Hokahey, and many more. The Helen's Gully climb ends at a scenic, flat, old campsite, close to the start of Roototop. There is a huge boulder-cave north of and conveniently close to the camp for shelter from rain. Heading towards the Baby Helen-Acid Rock col, this shelter cave is easy to enter but hard to climb out of with a pack on. The better branch of the "Campsite Cave" is about 100 feet below the campsite, back down the uppermost bit of Helen's Gully.  After rappelling Cookie Monster, the cave must be reversed to get back to Helen's Gully.

Once out of the cave, follow easy talus north towards the Baby Helen-Acid Rock notch. The hiking terrain ends at a nice flat spot for a pack, shoes, and trekking pole stash. It is easy to see the rappel hooks for Cookie Monster from the stash.

Acid Rock Walk-Off Route

Hikers from the Lost Valley Ranch use this route. From the summit, follow the south ridge of Acid Rock on a nice path, pass around or go through a window arch that overlooks the west face, and continue down the friendly slab-walking. After maybe 150 meters from the window, the slab-walking becomes more serious. Aim west to pick your way down to less serious terrain. A short way past the crux slab-walking, there is a post with two weathered trail markers for the ranch trail. It would be nice to just follow the trail down to the ranch, but that leads to trespassing. Instead, leave the trail, turn northwest, and follow orange tape through very rough brush, slabs, and boulders. The torture ends with a 100 foot climb up to the shelter cave camp. Helen's Gully is then followed back to the horse trails, creek crossing, and car.

15 quickdraws, rappel gear, and a 60 meter rope. Using a high contrast, bicolor rope makes pulling the rappels a lot easier because halfway marks are usually faded. One 0.5 cam could be useful both above the single bolt of pitch one and as a summit anchor on the summit of Lightning Bolts.