Sidetrack 

Really nice route another Sundance gem. The crack on the second pitch is wide and sustained. The last pitch of 5.9 is awesome, bring a minimum of a 3.5 Camalot and be ready to walk the dog........

Jesse missed Sidetrack's primo pitch by joining Mainliner.Pitch #5 goes up a thin crack in blackish rock(5.9) to the bottom of an inverted "V" roof. Step into this from the left(5.8)then over the roof crack. IMHO Sundance's best 5.9.

Have to agree with Scott--the final 5.9 pitch is one of the best on Lumpy, and the real meat of the route--lots of awesome, steep and varied climbing on this pitch. The climbing is quite reasonable; the whole pitch seems easier than the 5.9 section on pitch two. Don't bail into Mainliner.

We combined pitches 1&2, as well as 3&4, which worked very well (minimal drag, good belays) with a 60 meter rope and a standard rack--I highly recommend doing it this way. (we had nothing larger than a #3 Camalot, which worked fine, though 3.5 and 4 would get used on the standard pitch 3). This route is, IMO, as good as Mainliner, and only a little harder--the first pitch is pretty runout at 5.8, though.

Pitch #1 as described is a poor choice, better to climb the thin left arching crack a few steps west ,but still east of GRAPEVINE.When the crack ends faceclimb right on black incut holds to the belay.This is beautiful 5.8 and 9 climbing, protectable the whole way with small wires and tcu's.For what its worth D.Snivley and I did a variation to Pitch#2.Move out left and mantle up some large flakes then work up for pro in the regular line. Move out left and just before reaching GRAPEVINE jam an excellent 5.9+/10-, left facing red, dihedral that soon bends back to the normal route.

Just did this route over the weekend and I'm amazed that it isn't as popular as Mainliner. The full route is excellent. Kimball's comment about the start is the way to go. Rossiter has almost no description of this route but the topo is good. We used that and descriptions from two other books and it all worked out very well. Every pitch has good climbing on it. I thought pitch 4 was a bit harder than 6. The crack in pitch 5 is absolutely stellar. Just at the end of the crack there is a mini roof. After the roof the climb goes way left to get gear and holds then comes back right to enter the A roof from the left. It goes well but you'll need to extend the pieces at the end of the crack so avoid too much drag. The stemming in the roof was amazing and looks really hard but it was all there. As good as Mainliner IMHO.

Better than Mainliner -- just as high quality but more sustained. Must do on Sundance. Pitch 5 is gorgeous and wild.

Climbed the first three pitches with Mike Alkaitis yesterday, then the next three pitches of Mainliner. I agree with Kimball's suggestion on the first pitch - start to the left. I would give this pitch an s rating. The combination with Mainliner provides six consistent pitches at the 5.8+/5.9 standard with splitter rock and excellent stances.

We climbed the route this past weekend following the suggestion by Charles to combine the 1st four pitches into two pitches. This is definitely the way to climb this beauty. The final 5.9 pitch is one awesome lead!! I also thought this climb was better and more sustained than Mainliner-- IMHO :o)

Best 9 on Sundance. Best 9 at Lumpy. Gillett's guide describes the same (excellent) start as Scott Kimball above. It's good small pro (RPs, a blue TCU) but at some easy points you're standing above your last placement and not seeing your next placement but the good holds lead to good gear.

I was [wondering] if anyone knows the name of the beautiful left facing, over hanging dihedral that can be done as a variation to the last pitch on climbers right. It was amazing climbing but it felt like it was rarely done. Thanks. - Will Butler

Absolute agree on the 5th pitch - one of the nicest cracks you can imagine. We belayed at the top of the crack - short traverse left to a little, airy, very exposed perch, and worked up through the roof as a 6th pitch. The anchors here were a bit thin but ok (several small wires), but great position!

Wonderful route! You can bear off above the roof, or continue up and slightly right to top out (recommended).

I think I did the correct start but the only gear I saw was about 15ft up. I was planning on linking the first 3 pitches so I opted to skip it. Wouldn't have done much good anyways, since I got nothin' 'til about 60ft where I got 2 small wires. If you don't like really run out face climbing, I would definitely take the crack to the left.

Between the small roof at the end of the hand crack on P5, and the final 5.9 roof, you don't need to go left. You can go straight up through the seams and broken crack systems at 5.8+R (not as hard as the short traverse on the face below the handcrack P5). The last piece of gear I was able to get was 5 or 6 ft over the lip of the small roof. I gunned for the top of the face and a solid #0.4 Camalot. This section is fun but committing. If you get through the 5.8 runout at the bottom without problems, this isn't all that much harder.

Fun route! Definitely more sustained than Mainliner... and the last roof is really fun with GREAT PRO! Don't bail onto Mainliner!!

P5 is awesome! Go straight up for the hot stuff.

Pitches 1 and 2 link very easily with a 60m rope - a good way to go. As someone noted, the first pitch is spicy. I took the thin, left-arching crack that others mention, then cut back right to the first belay stance along a prominent edge. The runouts aren't crazy, but many of the moves are on rounded edges/smears and you can't place gear everywhere you'd like it. It gets more positive as you get higher. While pitch 5 is a pretty amazing section of climbing, with an unflared crack(!), all in all, my vote goes to Mainliner as the better route.

Did the clean straight up small crack section on P5 below the slot, got in 3 small nuts, even so the last move was pretty scary, hardest move of whole route. Combining 1,2,3 w/70m just makes it to a ledge.

Someone should modify the description of this route to remove any suggestion to connect into Mainliner. Pitch 5 of SideTrack is the crux, the best pitch, and the main reason to do the route in the first place. Avoiding it by connecting with Mainliner seems like the strangest idea....
BTW, I think that one of the best 5.9 lines you can do on Sundance is to link the FIRST 3 pitches of Mainliner, followed by p5 of Sidetrack!

All pitches are sustained and awesome. We linked 1-2 and 3-4 with a 60m. All the gear is there.