Chicane

Kevin Worrall and Drew Aldredge were the first to imagine this project on the arete hanging over the Irie Headwall. Kevin put in a couple exploratory bolts, but ultimately it was abandoned, laying dormant for over 10 years! Come 2026, it would be Ben May that would bring the vision to life, bolting the curvy, overhung line that would become ‘Chicane’. 

Starting off the blocky ledge at the base of the Irie Headwall, continue up and slightly left on good, featured slab, aiming towards the corner where a horizontal crack above meets the large right facing corner that is the Irie Corner (3rd pitch of Sanitarium).

Follow this corner/seam up and trending right, encountering a low crux that can be done several ways. Where this seam meets an obvious horizontal crack, catch a shake, and enter the chicane. Pronounced “shih-cane”, the route resembles chicanes in a racetrack, in which drivers rapidly move through ‘S’ shaped turns.

Make a very large span left into the seam to begin a powerful traverse, continuing to the arete. From here, pull bouldery, thin moves up the overhung, exposed arete until reaching a small but good rail where you can clip the last draw before exiting. At the point of the arete, exit up and left on small side pulls, making one last move before the chains above a good standing ledge, about 1’x4’.

Extension Project/rope drag beta: 

If you continue past the point of the arete, the extension is something for sure harder, and will terminate at anchors up and right (+2 bolts probably).

There is also a bolted lead-in extension to do the full arete, which would make this quite possibly the hardest sport route in the county. The bolt at the sharp rest hold after doing the traverse is for this extension, so skip this when doing Chicane to manage rope drag.

Down and right from the boulder block summit, you’ll see a small trail to get on the cliff side of the rocks, where you’ll see rap rings to get down from the highest point of the formation.

Make two rappels, first aiming for rings down and left, to ultimately reach a blocky, large ledge where you can stand and untie easily. The route starts here, at the base of the Irie Headwall, and works into the Irie Corner until joining the large overhung arete to climber’s left.

10 bolts, bolt+biner anchor.