By Bill Lawry From: New Mexico Apr 13, 2011
| Here is a link to the applicable page in Bob Kerry's guide: pages 208 & 209 Some other info ... P1: After locating the chimney formed by something like an enormous flake, head up an easy ~vertical crack to the left of the chimney followed by your choice of several ~horizontal cracks - somewhat runout. If you take the ~horizontal dyke-lined crack and then abandon it mid-way to climb through the tree, you will end at an ample ledge above the chimney. P2: Enjoyable and mostly straight-up climbing to a nice ledge. P3: Has a ~5.8 Off-Width (OW) section below the chimney. I have limited OW skills and found myself wishing for a 5 inch cam just above the bush and a 4 inch cam to walk up while struggling through the OW section; instead, I placed an iffy 4 inch cam just above the bush (beside an iffy tricam placement) and later made repeated semi-blind placements (yikes!) while walking up an inadequately-small 3 inch cam until better pro could be had. Maybe I was facing the wrong direction. P4 / P5: This is where you choose between the orginal route and Kerry's "current version". We did the original route in the photo staying a bit below the roof during the traverse using a few bolts along the way along with some nut placements. We also explored the start of Kerry's "current version" on pitch 4. I think the 70 foot reference is accurate and climbing up there shortly takes you past a small tree that is visible from the initial ramp (we didn't climb past that small tree). Based on views from higher up on the dome, it looks like the climbing above that small tree involves surmounting some spooky-looking detached refrigerator-sized boulders (not certain). |