Crack Up  5.9+

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 60 feet Consensus:  5.9+ [details] FA:  D. Chelton, B. Culp, 1973 Submitted By:  Tony B on May 21, 2003 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (12) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: Crack Up and White Trash. Crack Up climbs the ove...

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Description 

Like Momentum Operator, this route would be more popular if it were: A) cleaner B) on Castle Rock, just 50 meters away.

Approach Broken Rock by parking at Castle Rock and going to the Country Club Crack area. Walk across the little bridge to Broken Rock and go then 50 feet up the hill to the right. You will see an obvious pair of super-steep twin cracks that reach a bomb-bay chimney and then another hand crack with a a 2-bolt anchor above (Momentum Operator, 5.11a). Perhaps 10 meters further up the hill is a severely left-leaning undercling flake/dihedral with a wide-hands crack running under it for its length of 40' until it goes vertical. This route, called 'Crack Up' is fairly obvious. What is less obvious is just how much guano you will encounter along the way--if you are easily offended by guano, don't bother climbing this line. After a few ascents of it, lead and follow, my rope had a faint guano odor. My second took a lot of hangs and got the rope pulled up into the crack, so a solid team might not have such a bad problem.

Climb the obvious cracks with wide hands and thin fists jams, protecting the solid rock with cams for a ways. There are a few stiff moves, but good rests via stems come frequently. There are more rests on good hands for those with no micro-biotic concerns, but I preferred to ignore the crap-covered holds. After about 50' of climbing the line hits a ledge and presents several options. You can place a directional and traverse left past bushes to the anchors on Momentum Operator to belay and rap, or you can continue upward on some cracks, or scramble uphill to a downclimb by going hard right. There are several good belay anchors for any option. The rock is great and solid, the climb could get 2 stars if it were not for the poo on it.

Protection 

A standard rack including double cams in the 2"-3.5" range.

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Jenny Schillinger follows 'Crack Up (5.9+)' at Bro...