Ghosts of the Past

Originally rated 5.8 R in the Kerry guidebook, this is now a safe and wonderful route that is little-travelled.

There were definitely sections where the climbing seemed much harder than 5.8 (but what else is new in the Stronghold!).

Pitch 1: Climb a fairly vertical bolted face with good features up higher. Surmount these jugs and make a run on easier terrain toward the bolted anchors up slightly left. 90 ft 5.9/9+

Pitch 2: Consistent slab moves continue to take you in a left-angling direction. The crux comes at a bolt in the middle of a brown, super-polished waterstreak: very slippery and lacks any reassuring handholds on the smooth, white dike just above the bolt. Continue angling left, placing pro in intermittent crack opportunities as they appear. Head for a huge ledge. Traverse this ledge left around a corner and belay on beefy rap anchors. Perhaps 180 ft 5.9

Pitch 3: Climb straight up from the anchor via a curving, small crack, then commit to the steep slab face to a bolt. Enter the crux: harder (but well protected) slab moves take you up and right from the bolt to a large crack. Continue up the crack to another steep bolted face. More hard moves that don't let up angle up right on the face to a bolted anchor. 80-90ish ft 5.10a/b

Pitch 4: Climb a cruxy, steep move directly off the belay up the bolted face. A short run of alternating easy slab, hard slab, easy slab leads to 5.8/8+ crack climbing (somewhat exfoliating and dirty due to lack of traffic). After 30ish feet, look for a bolt line up the face right. The face offers more consistent, thought-provoking steep slab moves to the last bolted anchor at the summit. 130ish ft 5.10a

Descent:

4 Rappels nearly straight down with a full 70m rope (tie knots!).  The first rappel can be shortened using using the summit anchors of We Expect You. See Tanya's guidebook for details.

This route provides a most excellent outing with lots of sustained climbing and little to no company on the busy Sheepshead side.

One 70 m rope

10-12 draws: bring a mixture of extendable alpine draws and short sporties

Single rack up to #3 Cam. A selection of micro-cams are useful to protect the start of pitch 3.