Brainless Conformants  5.11a

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Type:  Sport, 2 pitches, 155 feet Consensus:  5.10+ [details] FA:  9 26 04 New Route:  Yes Submitted By:  Boissal on Sep 4, 2007 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (6) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Description (2 cruxes, go up stuff, pull on things) 

Brainless Conformants is the 2nd pitch of Cause for Alarm, a sweet 10c that tackles a striking dihedral feature on the vertical S face of Tower 1. Be warned though, the second pitch is quite different in nature and might scare your pants off.

Begin (obviously) at the 3 bolt anchor at the top of CFA. A 4th bolt a foot up and right from the belay station will save you from a factor-2 fall on the anchor while you extricate yourself from the ledge, the bulge in your face pushing you back and the holds mysteriously refusing to appear where you want them. A few insecure big moves deposit you above the anchor on brittle rock. Tackle a strange technical crux to get into a lieback/undercling feature, pull above it and gingerly pick your way up the slab on fragile looking holds and the occasional questionable intrusion of black rock.
Even though the climbing is moderate, the exposure and rock quality make for a great tip-toeing experience (and we didn't break anything). Bolts everywhere save the day.

Lower off to the CFA anchors, manage your rope clusterfuck (multipitch spurt climbing what?), rap to the ground.

Location 

Approach Brainless Conformant by climbing Cause for Alarm. Tackling the whole thing in one long pitch seems feasible considering the amount of back cleaning you can do on P1 (hint: keep every 3rd draw). Expect rope drag and fear if you do it that way though.

Protection 

9 bolts to a 2 bolts chain anchor + whatever you need for P1 (12 draws, although 9 is fine too).