BETA PHOTO: I'm putting this up mainly because on at least two...
Description
A highly under-rated route, The Last Will Be First is one of my favorite 5.6's in the Gunks, and an excellent test-piece for the 5.6 leader. Pitch 1 features great, sustained, thoughtful face climbing above gear on clean rock, and pitch 2 has a fun overhang.
The route is a short ways left of High Exposure and Modern Times. The start is on an easy, low-angle face with some grassy ledges about 10-15 feet up.
P1: Climb up the easy lower rock to a crack. Follow the steepening crack to its top, then continue more or less straight up the clean face to an overhang below a left-facing corner. Pull the overhang and climb the corner to its top, where it is capped by another overhang. Escape right and continue up to a small ledge with the stump of a dead tree. Step right and climb easier rock to the GT ledge. 5.6 PG, 160 feet.
P2: Walk left about 20 feet to the first small left-facing corner. Climb the corner to a horizontal, then diagonal up and left to the notch in the overhang. Make some fun moves to pull to overhang, then continue up the slightly dirty corner about 10 feet before diagonaling up and right on easy, broken rock to the top. There is a bolt anchor here. The somewhat dirty nature of the top part of this pitch suggests that many skip it; however, the overhang is well worth it, and the harder moves are on clean rock. 5.6 PG, 70 feet.
Descent: Rappel from the bolt anchor back to the GT ledge (your ropes land directly at the start of P2, so be sure to call before you throw them). Walk 10 feet left on the GT ledge to another bolt anchor, where two 60m ropes will get you to the ground, or a single 50 meter rope will get you to a third bolted rap station. This a popular area of the cliff, so watch where you throw your ropes.
Protection
The gear is good the entire way, although not always immediately obvious. There are some committing moves above gear. Doubles in the smaller sizes can be helpful (pink tri-cam, 0.5 and 1.0 Friends).
Repeated High E and did Moonlight and The Last Shall Be First for the first time on Sunday. P1 is nice and long featuring consistent 5.6 climbing on clean rock with a number of interesting moves above gear. P2 is a little bit of a one trick pony with the moves over the overhang. Overall the exposure and position certainly don't rival Moonlight or High E. However the sheer number of quality moves on P1 make this climb deserving of 3 stars.
Indeed a great route and hard for the grade. Beware of the runout at the start of P2 and be aware that a second will have a difficult time regaining the rock (without lowering) if they fall on the P1 crux.
Also, you can descend with one 60M rope by rapping from the top of P2 to the GT ledge, then walking right (as you face the valley) to the rap station for CCK. A 60 barely makes it with some easy (Class III) downclimbing.
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