River of Deceit

A long route put up during the summer of 2023, when Michal climbed four full length FAs on the Upper Town Wall (not even including the single pitches), including Uptown High Rise, the FFA of the Ave, and the FFA of Abraxas. This line follows the waterfall to the top. It seeps for the early part of the year, but is typically dry by late July or August or so. 

I remember the day Mike told me about this route earlier that summer and that it was already pretty much clean and just needed bolts and a send. I yelled at him that he was being dumb for hanging out with me then when he should be putting up that route instead. A few weeks later he told me that if I spent a couple days cleaning the top and bottom pitches he would put me on the FA, so I spent three days cleaning. In the end, I didn't put myself on the FA, because I am definitely not strong enough to climb this route in full, but I put a lot of work into it and am proud that my little contribution helped Mike and Kuba do it. And I got to photograph part of the FA.

The first pitch is a worthy project on its own and the 5.11 face up above is I believe one of the best single 5.11 pitches of sport climbing in Index and is very well protected. 

Note: Due to the length and windiness of some of the pitches, it is not suited to rappel above a certain point with a single rope.
Bring shoes and walk off down the Upper Town Wall trail to the left, which will bring you back to the junction for the Base of the UTW.

P1 (5.13b) - Climb up and left on easy terrain up the right side of the trapezoid then cut right onto the face and climb hard terrain on bubbly-featured rock to the top of Madsen’s Ledge. This is a very long and sustained pitch. Mike said it’s probably 5.13b.
You can see a video I took here: https://youtu.be/W5rNf6vs_88

P2 (5.13b) - Climb along dark corner on the right to a good ledge and belay on the right. This pitch is also very hard. Stick with it! The upper pitches are significantly easier.

P3 (5.11) - This pitch has some mind blowing face climbing. Follow a closely spaced line of bolts up and left through the dark waterfall-polished rock.

P4 (5.11) - Continue up the bolted face, heading up and left through a bulge to a bolted anchor on the right. This anchor doesn’t have chains to rappel.

P5 (5.10+) - Climb up and left to a rail past bolts then continue up the dark face past a few more bolts and some gear until you can work right to an arete then follow the arete to a bolted anchor.

From here, it's best to continue up a few feet to the top and walk off the Upper Town Wall trail to the left.

Start on the right side ramp of a large trapezoid block at the base of the Upper Wall. You should see the trapezoid block when you first meet the wall from the trail.

Standard Rack. The first pitch is very long and requires some smaller stuff - might be best to suss it out on TR first.
Bring shoes for the walk off.