Ten Little Indians  5.11a R

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Type:  Trad, Alpine, 12 pitches, 1500 feet Consensus:  5.11a [details] FA:  Davis and Winkelman Submitted By:  Guy H. on Aug 18, 2012 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

The route....

(photo credit Jason Seaver)

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Description 

Ten Little Indians is great long outing on a remote wall. At 11 pitches long, it is more committing than the Diamond considering you would lose most of your rack if you bailed high on the route. Most of the climbing is in the 5.8 to easy 5.10 range, with only a few moderate runouts. The rock is not the same quality as Birds of Fire, but there are some great sections of climbing between your standard alpine crack and face climbing.

P1: (5.9-, 130 feet) From the left side of the rock tongue angle left through thin cracks to the base of the wide crack (8-12 inches). Climb this to a good ledge.

P2: (5.10R or 5.9-, 110 feet) The original P2 heads up the rightmost thin, RF dihedral. The pin is missing, so the first good gear is 20-25 feet up. A more sane option angles left to the ledge above.

P3: (5.10a, 100 feet) From the ledge shared with Cowboys and Indians, traverse straight left past a bolt and belay at the base of a RF dihedral. You can link P2/3 with a 70m if you avoid the original RF dihedral.

P4: (5.8+, 110 feet) Head up the obvious, RF corner and traverse left 50ft on a ledge to a right-facing flake system.

P5: (5.9R, 140 feet) This is probably the best on the route. Head up a cool system of flakes for about 90 feet and look for a passage to the left. There is a final crack system that leads to a two bolt anchor. The path we took to avoid a water streak did have a 20 foot runout on 5.9.

P6: (5.10b PG13, 150 feet) Head straight left past two bolts on thin and thought provoking face climbing. At the end of the traverse head straight up combining thin crack features. Belay on a ledge system up and left.

P7: (5.8R, 210 feet) Climb the RF dihedral and angle hard left to the exit crux pitch on Long ledge. There is some positive 5.5 climbing with 30-40 foot runouts.

P8: (5.11a, 50 feet) Climb the shallow, RF corner past an old pin. Traverse a horizontal crack system to the left and make crux moves up at the next pin, which can be backed up with good gear. The crux consists of huge moves between positive holds.

P9: (5.9, 120 feet) Traverse straight right on an angling crack system. As you near the end of a semi-detached flake, crank up to a belay stance.

P10: (5.9, 180 feet) There is a short, 5.9, RF dihedral to a long section of 5.6 alpine rock.

P11: (5.?, 180 feet) Find the easiest path to the top.

The best descent takes the ridge line to a gully on climber's left.

Location 

Ten Little Indians is best accessed by a traverse in from the right on a rock shelf and the base. Aim for the right side and traverse loose ledges to the base of the wide crack first pitch on the left.

Protection 

Single rack to #4 Friend, doubles to #1 or #2 Camalot, triples in the green to yellow Alien size, and one set of RPs and nuts.

Photos of Ten Little Indians Slideshow

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Beginning of the runout on the beautiful P5 of Ten...	Bert celebrating his 60th B-day after 40 years of ...	Bert following the crux pitch on Ten little Indian...
The beautiful ridge traverse to the descent!