Home - Destinations - People - Partners - Forum - Photos - What's New
 ADVANCED
Whale Dome
Show routes:
Select route...
Dem Bones 
Moby Dick 
South Face 
Trojan, The 

South Face 

5.7+ X

   

FA: Kip Metzger and ?
Type: Trad
Consensus: 5.7+ [details]
Length: 5 pitches, 800 feet, Grade II
Season: Fall, Winter, Spring
Views: 919 page views

Submitted By: Jerry Cagle on Nov 2, 2003


Add Photo  Add Comment 

You and this route  |  Other Opinions (4)
Your todo list:
Your stars:
Your rating: -none- [change]
Your ticklist: [add new tick]
 Printer Friendly View

Mark about halfway up the first pitch.


Description 

Between Moby Dick and Dem Bones:

P1: Start by the Madrone tree just up from the _guard_ rock near the bottom of the Moby Dick gully. Follow the quasi-buttress, chicken-headed path to a good ledge and belay here on gear.

P2: Follow the chicken head highway till it runs out (breathe...) then run it out to a semi-hanging stance on very large chicken heads.

P3: Continue upward along the path of least resistance to another good ledge.

P4: Continue up the direct route on giant c-h's till they run out. Prepare for an extremely long run out heading for the dike composed of large knife-like plates then laterally to the left to the belay station (two bolts) on the last pitch of Moby Dick.

P5: Finish on the last pitch of Moby Dick


Protection 

Take slings for chicken head hiking and small to medium stoppers, tri-cams, and Aliens.



Photos of South Face Slideshow Add Photo
Bill starting the first pitch. Squeezing under the branch makes the first few feet harder.

Bill starting the first pitch. Squeezing under the...

Mark placing a low ball (his first piece) about 20 feet up the third pitch. A fall here will pendulum into the belayer.

Mark placing a low ball (his first piece) about 20...

Looking down the second pitch. The first belay is the top of the big flake just above mid photo. A 15 foot sling around the point of it serves as the anchor.

BETA PHOTO: Looking down the second pitch. The first belay is ...

A cool shot of Bill on the third pitch. If it wasn't for the 25 MPH winds it would have been a perfect day.

A cool shot of Bill on the third pitch. If it wasn...

Mark starting up the third pitch. It traverses right to ascend the steep chickenheads on the right side of the photo. Easy climbing but don't fall or you'll kill your belayer!

BETA PHOTO: Mark starting up the third pitch. It traverses rig...

Mark finishing up the 4th pitch. Easy runout climbing. As you can see by the large amount of slack I couldn't keep up with his climbing.

Mark finishing up the 4th pitch. Easy runout climb...


Comments on South Face Add Comment
Show which comments
By Steve Pulver
From: Tucson, AZ
Aug 26, 2004
rating: 5.7+ PG13

P4 can be done by traversing farther to the right instead of taking the direct route. This is slightly steeper but no scarey runouts; chickenheads can be used for protection.

By Eric Rhicard
Dec 30, 2008

Took all of my 70 meter rope to reach the belay ledge and fins at the end of pitch 3. It was a little hard to be sure we were on the route so we stuck to the easiest possible line. Pitch four we angled left on the plates then moved right on gator skin to a thin dike the quickly got bigger and a lot easier. Lots of fun unless you blow it, then you are dead!