BETA PHOTO: Serpentine Crack (5.8), Mosaic Rock, Tres Piedras,...
Description
This route ascends the obvious sinuous crack near the center of the south-facing side of the Mosaic Rock. The crack starts out as sort of a deeply recessed off-width, but it narrows down to a usable size soon enough. Climb the crack, as well as the studded, platey face left of the crack, using the cleft for protection. Fun scrambly moves take you out of the top of the crack to a nice ledge on the left at ca. 105 feet (where, as Jackson notes, "a controversial set of shiny fixed anchors has recently appeared"). If you plan to bail off at this point and not finish the climb, a single 60m rope rappel will take you down to just about 5 feet above the ground, where you land on the gently sloping rock apron, so watch the rope ends! Above the ledge, you're out of the crack; a short face takes you to a horizontal seam that you can use to traverse right and then up onto easier ground -- some people have finished Chicken Heads this way also. If you intend to climb the entire Serpentine Crack route (and not bail at the bolted anchor), it's not worth the time to split it into two pitches at the anchor; if you do it that way the second pitch is short and anticlimatic. Better to do the whole thing as one pitch, but it will be a rope-stretcher with a 60m.
This route is described and illustrated by Foley (2005:78-79) and Jackson (2006:67-68). Does anyone know if this route is the same as the two pitch climb named "Thin at the Top" in the old-school guide? The descriptions and location are similar, but the top of Serpentine Crack doesn't really have the "lead-outs and interesting protection" that are mentioned in the Thin at the Top description, does it?
Location
The usual approach from the parking lot to the south side of Mosaic Rock puts you in the vicinity of Chicken Heads, as seen in this Photo; walk right (east) over the boulders at the base for about 75 more feet to this crack; if you start climbing up the hill around the southeast side of the rock you're too far.
Protection
Standard TP set of cams and nuts. Build a gear anchor anywhere you like on the top of the formation (I'd recommend at least going above the prominent grassy ledge to the next good available spot before anchoring). Walk off the top to the east. Although you can rap off the fixed anchors at mid-route with a 60m rope, you probably can't toprope the crack off of those bolts, because the rope ends are just above the ground, and the base of the climb is a good ways off to the right of the anchors' plumb line (maybe you could TR with a 70m rope, though).
I left this climb rated at 5.8 to preserve the previous guide books' ratings, but I feel that it is actually a 5.7. I had a lot harder time on Chicken Heads than on Serpentine Crack, actually. Too bad that the author of a page can't alter their own rating opinion without changing the actual route title description. We'll see what the consensus ratings show....
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