Cannabis Sportiva starts left of the Joint Venture corner on the West Buttress of Animal World, immediately right of a small roof 10 feet off the ground. Look high and see a short line of bolts up a steepening face near the top of the cliff.
From the ground, roll up easy cracks and ledges, then mantle a shelf at the start of the steeper climbing where bolts indicate the way. Blaze up interesting and sometimes reachy zig-zag moves on crystalline stone of increasing angle, where holds get bigger as you get higher, until a very positive horn is hit for the last clip. Grab a token puff of chalk, shake out and inhale for the big move. Fire up powerfully from the horn, or use a fingerlock that seems too paranoid for 11a, and grope for some high, blind slopers atop the face to clip the chains with an ear-to-ear grin.
A fun pitch, made slightly more enjoyable by sensible bolting; sure to provide a buzz.
Protection
Draws for six bolts and chain anchors. Small cams and one medium bong optional. Kindly bolted up high; the first forty feet (5.7-.8) has no fixed gear. The prudent leader might bring a couple small cams or a nut sack; abundant cracks below the bolted face should eat any gear up to a #1 Camalot. One 60 meter rope will bring you down from your high.
It's possible to heel-hook the horn to get some additional leverage while trying to pull the burly .11a move; Laura Black tried it on Saturday, 6/29/02, and it seemed to give her the extra bit of "oomph" weaklings like me need to pull harder moves. This is a thoroughly enjoyable climb, made more enjoyable by the steadily-increasing difficulty.
It might be just me, but it appears to me that the left bolt at the top of this route could probably stand to be replaced.
The horn that Jon mentioned seemed very out-of-place on this route. But I welcomed it with tired hands. A really cool route. The line more or less goes up the middle of the picture below. The bolts start right about where the sun is shining. Where the sun don't shine is the crack system. A few smaller cams or stoppers would take care of this pretty easily. Enjoy this climb it is one that about any intermediate climbe can do.
Starting the route proper just barely to the right of the roof seemed balancy and tricky, especially right off the deck. I'm sure you can walk up the gully further right.....enjoyable route with crack climber feel up high. I'm surprised how many bolts there are. The finger locks were bomber; felt like 10a at Eldo.
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Jul 18, 2003
The Rolofson guide says the last moves are 10b if you use the crack a few feet to the left or 11a if you don't. That may explain the difference in opinion as to the rating. It's pretty contrived NOT to use the crack on the left. Why not do it both ways? Climb the 10 crack, step back down, then climb it direct.
Kudos to Matt Robertson for a classic route description! I found 13 reeferences...
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Apr 20, 2007
Seemed like an appropriate route to climb on 4/20.
By Paul Hunnicutt From: Boulder, CO May 8, 2008 rating: 5.10d
ALERT: If you climb Joint Venture first to the bolted anchor and then traverse back left to 'Cannabis Sportiva', there is a big, TV-sized, loose block about 6' left of the anchor sitting on a ledge. It looks like a great hand jam behind it to make the traverse but - DO NOT PULL ON IT!! We would have thrown this to the ground, but were worried about it eventually rolling to the highway. It certainly needs to come off though.
I thought this was a 10ish route. Probably 10c or d even with the left crack. A few balancy moves followed by some beat your chest ape moves. The horn makes it just plain fun and the bolts are very well placed. Kudos to the bolter.
By Justin Cantrall From: Boulder, CO 3 days ago rating: 5.10c/d
The direct start right of the roof and left of the gully is spicy right off the deck. Fun though. I asked my belay for a spot and felt much better once I'd fired a 0.2 Camalot into a small pocket about ten feet up.
The moves from the last two bolts to the anchor are simply awesome. A grinner for sure. I hung on the last bolt after I bounced off and took a nice swing around... laughing the whole way.
"A hold doesn't have to be great... just good enough to make it to the next one."
Superfun route that gets harder as it goes. I don't know if it's an 11, but it's at least 10+. Definitely recommended if you're a 10/11 leader.
Animal World
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