Good moves up a right-angling somewhat licheny face. A tough section just past the 1st bolt requires thin moves on sharp holds. A second difficult section is at the last bolt, which can apparantly be passed by either: liebacking straight up, hand-traversing right, or moving up and left on sketchy flakes. Sustained climbing at the 5.10 grade the whole way, with a couple of harder cruxes.
Due to high lichen content, Wet Willies might be slick if wet.
Location
Start just left of the giant boulder leaning against the cliff.
This is the first route I have bombed. A better name might be "Wet Loose Lichen Nightmare" Maybe I just don't climb on shitty rock enough. There were loose timebombs all over this route. At the start I used a few giant flakes, after they moved I quickly decided not to use them (cleaned very easily while lowering and are now laying on the ground). In the middle the climbing isn't hard but you are well above your bolt on creaking handholds and licheny footholds. At the top the climbing again gets harder but the holds don't get anymore solid. I finished up the unknown quality flakes and remember it being mildly terrifying.
Hopefully the 20 minutes of cleaning my partner gave this route afterwards improved the quality slightly.
By Jason Halladay From: Los Alamos, NM Sep 18, 2007 rating: 5.11b/c
This route definitely has more moss and lichen on it than years past. Lots of moisture up there this year!
I noticed the freshly cleaned chunks at the base the other day! Thanks for doing that. There's a natural "distinction line" in my mind (hard to describe--not a crack per se) between decent rock on the right (the bolt line area) and really spooky rock on the left. I've always done my best to avoid the rock on the left and haven't had trouble with rock quality on this route. Near the top where the route appears to naturally go straight/left into the "unknown quality flakes" I've always clipped the last bolt, moved down just a bit and made thin frictiony moves right to better, more enjoyable rock (and big holds!). I was shown this way the first time I ever climbed it and never thought about going towards the unknown quality flakes straight/left. Try it, you might like it! :-)
RSS Feed
