The Big Arete  5.11

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Type:  Trad, 3 pitches, 300 feet Consensus:  5.11 [details] FA:  Big Arete~ Nathan Brown 2009 (rope solo) Original Tall Order (last pitch) ~ Doug Sword, Nathan Brown spring 2005 New Route:  Yes Season:  fall & spring are best, but it gets AM and late afternoon shade Submitted By:  nbrown on Jun 11, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (3) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: The red is the original "Tall Order". The green i...

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2013 Closure in effect MORE INFO >>> Effective January 2013, All areas between and including Tightrope and Bumblebee Buttress are closed due to local falcon population This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment 2013 Closures MORE INFO >>> Big Lost Cove Cliffs are closed to climbing due to the local falcon population This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

This is a direct route up the arete feature from the ground to the top. The exposed last pitch follows part of the older route "Tall Order", and is one of my personal all time favorites. An alternate pitch one is to climb "Help Mr Wizard" to the large ledge about 190' up.

P-1 5.11 Start underneath the arete of The "Big Corner", and below the left end of the block/ledge feature where "Armed Robbery" starts. Climb easy terrain to a short grungy chimney (extreme left side of "block") which leads to a 3 bolt line. Crank through this wild crux to better holds that eventually lead onto a pumpy 5.9ish face/arete. Continue up this to the large ledge about 170' up. Pro: #1 camelot down to #00 TCU's. Extra green & yellow alien sized pieces useful.

P-2 5.8 Move out right and pull an overlap to the vertical wall with a seam. Wander up and out onto the arete before moving back left to gain a nice ledge and a 2 bolt anchor. It is 190' down from here, not that you'd actually wanna go down...

P-3 5.10+? Move back over to the arete to gain a sloping ledge and a large block feature. Climb the left side of this feature to the short section of rotten rock that gains a small ledge atop the block. (Note: The original route comes in from the right and climbs the right side of this block). Clip bolt (pay attention to potential rope drag here) and start up into some of the best and most exposed climbing around. Keep your eyes peeled for a tricky shallow horizontal nut placement just above the last cruxy roof feature. This helps take the sting out of the funky mantel move, but is not neccessary and was not found originally during the FA. Continue up steep but more moderate climbing to the top.

Location 

Starts just around the corner from "Help Mr Wizard" and climbs the large arete left of the "Big Corner".

Protection 

Standard shortoff rack. Extra slings usefull on last pitch. Maybe an extra 2 inch piece as well.

Photos of The Big Arete Slideshow

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Bruce leading pitch 1. Photo credits got to Zacha...	Bruce high on pitch one. Photo credits go to Zach...	Bruce near the top of pitch 1. Photo taken by Zac...