BETA PHOTO: Cat Scratch Fever on the Brownstone Wall. The sha...
Description
The broad reddish face to the right of Black Dagger is split by an obvious crack. Climb up and right to the right side of a prominent overhang. The second pitch starts by the far right edge of the roof at a crack. Climb up until an easy traverse left leads to the main crack system. Follow this for a few pitches to slabs at the top of the wall. The upper overhangs pose no serious difficulties. Descend by walking south (left) and scrambing down through the Gunsight Notch.
Routefinding note: on the second pitch there is a bolt some distance above the roof. It is probably easier to skip this bolt and make the leftward traverse a bit lower on good face holds.
Anthony Anagnostou and I replaced the first pitch anchor on 3/24/06. The new bolts are both stainless 5-pieces, one 1/2" x 2.75" and one 3/8" x 2.25". We didn't replace the bolt on pitch 2, since one friend had done the route and not even seen it, and Larry said the bolt was off-route as far as the easiest line. Greg
Climbed CSF today. The first pitch is nifty, although a little serious feeling through the crux. The second pitch is great. The Urioste guide says to belay at 150', but there is a plush horizontal with a great stance at around 175'. Don't stop early!
I never saw the bolt on p2.
For some reason (i didnt do my online research and we mindlessly and likely incorrectly followed the red book beta..) we thought we had to traverse right on the easier slabby climbing under the upper headwall, and ended up with a belay anchor under an improbable-looking crack that looked burly. so we tried even further right.. (we didn't look at the route from the ground).
Anyways, on the right side of the headwall is a 4th (?) class gully with a varnished chimney entrance. And the 'route' that steps left onto the face/crack there is an unimpressive 5.6ish thing that i wish i hadn't done.
The route eats nuts. I'd bring a single set of cams and a double set of nuts and tons of runners. I appreciated the #4 C4 at the beginning of p2, (old #3.5 camalot would be fine too).
This route is easily done in 4 pitches, with a final 100' scramble to the summit.
Pitch 1: Climb to the bolts (thanks Greg!)
Pitch 2: Climb to the good horizontal ledge cutting through the wall (180')
Pitch 3: Climb to just below the big roof. 180'
Pitch 4: Climb to the top. 180'
This is the best way, i think, as it utilizes all of the best stances- i wouldnt have wanted to belay at the two we skipped- in fact, they didnt even seem like obvious belay stances!
Good route, though- not as much fun as Black Dagger, but pretty cruiser and if you're fast you could do this and Black Dagger pretty easily...
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