Crown Molding  5.9

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 80 feet Consensus:  5.9 [details] FA:  Bernard Gillett, Paul Bodnar 2006 Submitted By:  Ivan Rezucha on Mar 22, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (3) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

The second crux is the overhang.
Photo by Kenny Pa...

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Description 

Crown Molding is a stout warmup for routes on the main December Wall. The initial corner is sustained and treacherous with small gear. A fun bolt-protected hand traverse leads to a bolt-protected ceiling. Above an easier but awkward, right-angling crack leads to the anchors.

Re-reading Gillett's description, we may have missed a final optional finger crack.

It looks like this climb has only been climbed a couple of times. The chain anchors were brand new with no sign of wear from pulling ropes.

From the anchors, you can toprope the first two thirds of Door Jamb, the 5.9 chimney to the right. Because of the rope angle, you get to avoid the upper part of the chimney, which looks like even less fun than the bottom. The slab to the left of the upper part of the chimney is climbable to the anchors at 10 something.

Location 

The easiest way to find this is to start down the descent trail from the Life After James area. Immediately, contour east below a short wall, over a shallow rise, to a shaded wall by a tall pine tree. The chimney in the left facing corner is Door Jamb. The right leaning, left-facing corner to the left of the chimney is Crown Molding. If approaching from below, look for the buttress to the right of Life After James and aim for some pine trees diagonally down and right of that. To the right of Crown Molding is a more prominent wall with lots of ribs and gullys.

Protection 

I used a bunch of microcams and a nut or two, plus a #3/blue Camalot in the upper crack. There are several bolts along the hand traverse and one for the ceiling.

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The first crux is the initial corner, all the way ...