Cowboy Bob's Chickenhead Delight  5.10

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Type:  Trad, 160 feet Consensus:  5.10b/c [details] FA:  Dave Jones, Hugh O'Neill and Beau Hayworth Submitted By:  Jason Halladay on Aug 16, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (7) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: The yellow dots show (most of) the route.

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Some rocks in this area are on private property. Property owner requests signed waiver. MORE INFO >>> The remainder are on US Forest Service land. A map detailing the public areas can be obtained from the ranger station en route to the rocks from the village of Tres Piedras. According to Jan Studebaker: "The property line runs from approximately the current east corner by the access gate in a straight line over the top of South Rock to the top middle of the Chicken Heads/Mosaic Wall mount, and from there west down the mount slope to the meadow just south of the Alley climbs. Some of the most popular routes are completely on private property. There are survey markers on the top of South rock (the mysterious aluminum stake stuck in the rock) and on top of the Mosaic rock (most of the time buried in water in a pot hole.)" A new online Tres Piedras Route Guide from LA Mountaineers has been updated with the latest access information, and should be read by all Tres Piedras climbers. Group climb leaders, and Climbing Directors (future or past) should take particular note. From the guide: Access Notes: Tres Piedras climbers should sign the waiver found on this page because the popular South Rock is mostly on private land, as is some of the access to the area. The landowner, requests a waiver, NO fires, no chalk and "please close any gates". In order to nurture greater landowner acceptance of climbers, participants of group climbs are requested to organize quick clean up activities before leaving the area; this should include the climbing area as well as the access roads (trip leaders could supply plastic grocery bags). Small parties should practice "leave no trace" principles. On August 19, 2009 the landowner stated: "Yes I still own the property, and yes I'd still like to have waivers on hand - even or perhaps especially from your organization. Only once in awhile do I have problems with climbers, mostly not picking up after themselves. My biggest gripe is that despite repeated requests, the climbers don't remove protection (edit: colored webbing, shiny hardware) from the climbing routes, which is both lazy and unattractive. Your organization could do me a big favor by doing a group climb and removing the crap that others have left on the various routes so that it is both a pristine part of the landscape, and so that each climber must figure out his own route without relying on the handiwork of others." This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

When looking up at the top of Middle Rock from the base of the south face one can't help but notice this steep, short face of awesome chicken heads. Cowboy Bob's Chicken Head Delight ascends straight up the face through some of the coolest chicken heads I've ever pulled down on. Unfortunately, the first half of the route is easy climbing before switching to the steep, featured climbing--you'll be wishing it was longer.

Start at the base of the south face on the far left side below the long, right-angling corner/overlap. Note that D. Jackson's book shows coming in from high up on the west rib but I think starting the climb from the base of the face gets you more climbing and one extra committing move to get established on the steep face initially.

Follow the long right-angling overlap (easy fourth class) up until you reach a super positive chalk-dusted flake below the chickenheads above. Get some pro at your feet here and then make a committing move to stand up onto the face. Tiny, tricky pro can be found here before a few balancy moves up to get into the very steep chicken head-infested face.

Trend right as you climb up through a few tricky sections between very positive chicken heads and flakes. A fixed nut (summer 2009) helps with the pro before finding a large chicken head to sling. Pull up onto what must be one of the bigger chicken heads in the state before making one last slabby move to easier ground and up to the top.

Location 

Start at the west end of the south face of Middle Rock. Look for the huge chicken head on the sky line...that's the destination.

Protection 

Pretty light rack...I placed a red link cam, a green C3, clipped the fixed nut, a yellow C3 and slung a couple of chicken heads. Small to medium nuts would also be beneficial.

Descent 

Walk off from the top. It looks like you might could go straight down west from the top of the route but we hiked east for a good bit and then headed down a level back west and continued west to basically the base of the Alien.