Located on the West Face (Cracks of Surprise Wall) around the corner from the South Face of Surprising Crag. This is the first route left of the chimney (5.8+).
This would be a great route... if only it hadn't been bolted, and if only someone hadn't drilled a mono pocket in the crux. Why bolt a perfectly protectable crack?
The mono makes for an interesting balancy move out of the crack, and then head back up and into the crack.
As it stands, this is a 12a. Without the mono, it would be considerably harder.
Protection
6 bolts to a 2 bolt anchor, or you can probably trad lead this with pro up to 3 inches.
This mono is not man-made. Occasionally features like these are created when granite is formed and/or eroded. I've climbed this route and have looked for and have NOT found any signs of chipping. Look at the hueco on "American Beauty" next to this climb. It is NATURAL. I have seen these kinds of pockets on granite in many other areas, not chipped. Just because a route is at the Sport Park does not automatically mean that it is chipped or bad. There are some good routes up there.
This is a good route with one very bad jam in the crux.
I think that it would hard to protect the crux and the section above it getting to the good finger jam (where the difficulties let off). At this point your last piece would be below the horizontal seam that is before the crux. A fall here, on gear, would be interesting.
When I first climbed this route several years ago, I thought it was chipped as well, but after climbing a few more routes on the cliff, I highly doubt the two solution pockets in the upper part of the route were chipped. At the worst they might have been comfortized, but this section of Surprising Crag has several such pockets, nowhere near the cruxes of routes (you don't even have to use the crux "mono" mentioned above).
This is a nice route and would be an excellent, 3-star, pretty spicy trad lead. It would be an exciting, but relatively-safe mixed lead if one clips only the bolt at the crux.
People who are caught up in the Sport Park hysteria are missing out on a very nice crag in the west face of Surprising. There are several good 5.11-12 sport routes (not chipped) and some intimidating looking trad lines.
By Chris O'Connor From: Boulder, Co Sep 16, 2007 rating: 5.12a
I'm glad this route was bolted, because I would never want to lead it trad, and I have led other routes at this crag with trad gear.
RSS Feed
