Battleship Direct 

An interesting climb. I really want to love it because of the location, view and fact that it's a multi-pitch trad route in northern NM but...the rock is...marginal. Pretty soft but protectable and climbable.
That said, I had fun and would do it again for the adventure.

The first pitch has a surprising amount of fixed stuff on it. A quarter inch B/H, a piton, a 3/8" B/H, another piton, a SMC bong piton and then another solid piton next to the webbing with locking biner on it. Then the second pitch...nothing fixed! Because we carried the #4 camalot, I found a good placement with it near the top of the second pitch.

I don't see how anyone could squeeze through that little hole near the top. Besides, the moves on the outside of the chimney/alcove are the best of the route!

Oh yeah, for the descent...carrying shoes up is a good idea. From the top of the climb follow the path on the top uphill and then on a good-looking trail left and down into a dry stream gully. The gully takes you back down to the picnic area. Takes about 15 minutes to hike down.

Did this today. In the opinion of all of our party, including one very experienced trad climber, the first pitch is emphatically higher than 5.6. The crux of the first pitch is getting around the flat face where the one modern bolted anchor is located--presumably that anchor was put there for a good reason. Or maybe we should have gone right instead of left?--there was one of those infamous old 1/4" bolts with sheetmetal hanger a little lower and to the right of that face.

We all squirmed through the hole at the top of the second pitch, making it overall easier than the first. (That hole is no harder to get through than some of the pinches in the guided "off-trail" tours at Carlsbad Caverns National Park that are open to the general public.)

Admission and warning: one of our followers didn't realize that the webbing was `fixed'. We draped it decoratively over a spire at the belay ledge, where it can be seen from the parking area and the start of the climb. It's seriously rotten (UV degraded), cut, and appears to have been gnawed on by rodents--in retrospect we should have carried it off to a trash bin, ditto other trash we found along the way (water bottle and sole of shoe).

Super fun!! Heads up!! Dont pull to hard on a lot of the first pitch and watch your feet. Loved all the old fixed gear. Tunneling wasnt hard, and makes for a gearless belay.

In a meeting that I had with the Forest Service at the time pf Jemez Rock publishing, they were "quite concerned about the viewscape" and were considering closing this area to climbers. We/I told them that this was a historical climb and that climbers didn't not disrupt the "viewscape", especially since it gets done so rarely. They were somewhat reluctant, but let it slide. Remember - we're "just another user group." The more thay have to manage us, the more reluctant they'll be to allow access, etc..

Moral of the story here is that we need to keep climber presence/visibility low. This is perhaps one of the most historic climbing routes in the Jemez Mountains, albeit not one of the best in "rock" quality. Fixed webbing might be an eyesore, so try to keep it to a minimum. The fixed gear is, for the most part, also historic. Leave it there for others to enjoy. Complaining about it won't help and stealing the old gear is wrong (pro around it if you need to). There's several variations, so have fun and LNT !