Bowling to Biscuits
5.10d YDS 6b+ French 21 Ewbanks VII+ UIAA 21 ZA E3 5b British
Avg: 2.4 from 18 votes
Type: | Trad, 130 ft (39 m), 2 pitches |
FA: | Jon Nelson and Dave Toler (Dec 1980) |
Page Views: | 2,724 total · 18/month |
Shared By: | Jon Nelson on Nov 20, 2011 |
Admins: | Jon Nelson, Micah Klesick, Zachary Winters |
Description
P1: 5.10a. Climb a short crack on a pedestal, about 30' left of Peanuts. At the top of the pedestal, layback up and right to the face holds (takes a good wired stopper or brass nut: #5 BD nut is perfect). The face climbing (~5.8) has two bolts, and ends on a ledge below a hand-crack in a shallow corner. Climb the crack (~10a) and do a few traverse moves left to a two-bolt chained anchor below the roof.
Older guidebooks erroneously showed the flaring corner just below p2 as the first pitch. Now that corner is clean, so it makes an alternative first pitch (in summer and fall, anyway--it tends to stay wet in winter & spring). Some folks now start on it, then veer right about 20' up to join the standard p1 described above.
P2: 5.10d. Go over the roof on the right side, grabbing solid flakes and jamming (~10a). Enter the corner (see photo) and follow the corner to a ledge and 3-bolt belay. The crux is the pumpy jams soon after pulling the roof. The crack widens at the top. The top ledge is very comfortable.
Pitch 2 is the money pitch. Clean, slightly curvy, and colorful rock. Sustained corner jamming. It also tends to be drier than nearby routes, even in a light rain.
A double rope (150') reaches the ground. With a single rope, you can rap to the anchor at the top of the first pitch, but it may require a little swinging to be able to grab the chains. From this anchor, a single 60-m rope will reach the ground.
History
In 2012, Derek Pearson cleaned off the (much better) direct start, and then later he, Nicola Masciandaro, and I repeated the route. Now both pitches are very clean. The vine maples at the start of p2 left on their own (rotted and fallen out), and Nicola probably did the first non-tree-aided ascent of the pitch, giving the route it's present name.
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