Pressure Drop  5.11a

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Type:  Trad, 1 pitch, 70 feet Consensus:  5.11a [details] FA:  K. Swedin and B. McDougall Submitted By:  Todd M. Miller on May 19, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (5) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Brad sending Pressure Drop.

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Description 

A beautiful finger/off fingers crack followed by a less beautiful, but still fun crack system. Start on the ledge below the obvious splitter. Reach up and place a piece to protect yourself and your belayer before starting. The crux comes in the middle part of the finger crack between the small pods and it protects very well.

The second half of the route isn't quite as classic as the first half, but is still good climbing and will only improve as it cleans up with more traffic.

After gaining the ledge at the top, move slightly left and make a few more moves to the tree anchor.

Location 

To find this route, hike the Upper Wall trail and follow the directions for the Zipper/Cheeks by turning right about 30 feet from the base of the Upper Wall and crossing the creek/boulders, picking up the trail on the other side. In a very short distance, this trail descends steeply and you will notice a small cliff (Coffee Achievers Cliff) ahead on the left side of the trail. Before getting to that cliff, look for a tree with 3 distinct trunks on the right side of the trail (there may or may not be a cairn there) and head downhill and right from that tree to the base of the route.

Protection 

The finger crack on the first half of the route eats up fingers to off fingers sized cams. You can also place hand sized pieces in the pods. The second half of the route will take a variety of different gear, generally up to 3". Anchor off of the tree and walk off.

It is also very easy to set up a toprope on this climb.