Air Voyage

If you're looking for the full-body workout, you could do worse than venture up Air Voyage. The route is most notorious for a 60-foot-long section of offwidth on the 10th pitch that is rated 5.12-. All of the hard climbing on this route is, in fact, wide.

Overall, the climbing is rather strenuous but nothing special for the first 7 pitches. Then things change. The next 5 pitches are interesting and/or hard. There is no reason to bring anything larger than a #4 Camalot until the crux offwidth pitch, so leave these in the pack until then. The follower (with the pack) will hate his/her lot in life for much of the climb.

I was unable to actually free the crux offwidth when I recently did this climb with George Lowe. I had led this pitch free with relative ease; however, in 1991 with Clean Dan Grandusky and then again in 1992 with Tom Dickey. I'm interested in hearing how folks have fared on this thing.

Descend the Cruise Gully, and hike down all of the way around the nose of the North Chasm View Wall and then around a buttress where the wall comes closest to the river. You will then begin hiking up for a few hundred feet where you will see a bushy, right-leaning ramp on your right. Ascend the 4th-class ramp for about 300 feet to its top. You're at the right spot to rope up when you see a lot of orange-colored lichen on a face with a finger crack running through it.

P1. Traverse a bit right and then climb up some mixed face and crack to a good ledge about 130 feet above the start. The crux (5.9+) is a hand crack towards the end of the pitch.

P2. Work up and left (5.8) for about 60 feet to a small ledge at the base of a right-facing dihedral.

P3. Climb a full-length pitch up the dihedral (strenuous 5.9) to its top. The top is a large, boulder and cobble strewn ledge. Two old, 1/4-inch bolts can be anchored to but camming anchors can be found to the climber's left of the bolts.

P4. Work up and a bit right on 4th-class terrain for about 60 feet to the base of a contorted crack. Climb the crack (5.8) for about 60 feet to a good stance (save a #4 Camalot for the belay).

P5. Continue up the crack for about 35 feet then traverse straight left to gain access to an obvious right-facing corner system. Continue up the corner for about 60 feet (5.10, wide) to a good ledge behind a flake.

P6. Continue up the corner (strenuous 5.9+, 3-4 inch) to a hanging belay. There is enough rope to get to a decent ledge 45 feet higher, but, chances are, you've already used up any gear larger than a number one Camalot.

P7. Continue up the corner for 45 feet past a roof (5.10) to a good ledge.

P8. This is the best (and second-hardest) pitch on the climb. Climb up the right-facing corner for about 60 feet (5.10 wide), then work left along a thin crack (5.11-) to a 3-4-inch crack near an arête. Climb the strenuous crack past an offwidth section (5.11b/c) to a large ledge.

P9. Traverse straight left along the ledge (5.8), which thins and requires some balance moves in order to gain access to an even larger ledge directly below the obvious crux offwidth.

P10. This is the defining pitch of Air Voyage. The 60 feet of 6 - 8- inch wide crack is not all that scary-looking. It's just vertical and is an obvious left-side-in offwidth. When I did this in 1991 and 1992, there was a fixed tube chock about 20 feet up, and I remember just going for that tube chock and then running it out (maybe with one larger cam in between) until a #4 Camalot could be placed about 60 feet up. More recently, armed with the biggest camming devices available (but with more weight, age, and less intestinal fortitude) I mostly aided the beast using a #6 Camalot (which will fit the entire way up), a #5 and #4.5 Camalot (which fit here and there), and a couple of Big Bros. It isn't pretty, but it really isn't all that hard to aid. You can elect to finish this pitch all of the way up the now 4 - 5-inch-crack or make a hanging belay using #4 Camalots just above the offwidth section (wired nuts and/or a 1/2-1-inch cams will also fit here). I've done it both ways, and, for this description, I have elected to break up the pitch into two. The reason you might want to do the hanging belay is that you can use the #4.5 and #5 Camalots in the crack above. By the way, the fixed tube chock is no longer there, nor are the fixed wires at the top of the offwidth (indicated in Derek Hersey's topo, attached)

P11. Follow the straight in 4 - 5-inch crack (5.10, strenuous) to its end and then traverse right under the roof (5.10) to a very exposed hanging belay. The last part of the traverse is a stomach crawl.

P12. Climb a 3-4-inch crack for about 50 feet (5.10+) then move right under a roof (5.8). This is the semi-famous Womb Fight section, so named because you crawl on your belly to gain the other side of the roof. There is a large ledge that awaits you immediately after the belly crawl.

P13. Walk up the right-leaning ramp for about 40 feet and then ascend the broken face with cracks (5.9) to the top.