I recently caught a whipper off this pitch. And a week later I whipped off, myself. Consequently, I've ended up bailing off this pitch twice now in the last month. It is truly awesome climbing, but we did clean off some big loose stuff. It is just too tuff for my lead head right now. Seems pretty "9+" for sure, in the 1974 Sandias sense of the term, IYKWIM.

The crack through the roof is not to be missed. And while the traverse right that follows is dicey it soon leads to a pair of first rate pitches of unparalleled exposure....

I witnessed one of these whippers, then a big block falling not too long after that? So my partner and I bailed below Torreon and climbed Tarantula.

This is a route for the solid 5.10 leader. There have been several epics on this thing. The traverse up high is funky, and the exit ridge is easy, but very loose. The hand crack is sweet, but the swifts live there now, and they don't like visitors.

Yeah, sorry about cutting that toaster-sized block loose. But I was on a tenuous stance and there was no way to keep that thing attached to the wall. It came loose the instant I touched it, so my only option was to scream "ROCK" a few times and let it go. Luckily my belayer was off to the side.
We also yanked off a dinner-plate flake the first time I was on that pitch. Otherwise it seems pretty solid up to there. And "R".

Editorial: It's unfortunate that that new bolted line crosses the leftward traverse on P1. It's reeaallly tempting to clip those suckers. The first time I didn't, and it was 'full value'; the second time I did, for expedience's sake.

For the record, the FA party of Wizard of Odd gave us permission to add the bolts Chris mentioned. Obviously you don't need to clip them if you are concerned with doing some "true" version of Wizard of Odd. If you did clip them then it is odd to say they should not be there.

Chris,

Eric and I, the FA party of Wizard of Air, give you permission to clip the bolts we placed with the blessing of the Wizard of Odd first ascentionist ;)

Sorry you feel they intrude on your experience, but I did not hear a complaint about the pin we fixed at the beginning of the route. That makes a sketchy section with ledge-fall potential much better.

Glad to see anybody getting out into the Sandias and climbing the routes, both old and new.

Cheers,

W

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

This shit's rich!

Thanks guys!

Back to work I go...

JA