Thurmond/Levine  5.11 R

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Type:  Trad, Alpine, 4 pitches, 470 feet FA:  Jim Thurmond rope solo New Route:  Yes Submitted By:  Anonymous Coward on Jul 30, 2002 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

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Description 

It's not the NORTH SIDE OF CHIEFSHEAD. It's the South Face of Chiefshead. I'd like to call it Thurmond's Wall, if there are no objections. The Southface has a cool wall that I fell in love with while staring at it from the east face of Mt. Alice. It has a little gendarme just left of center 50'? The first route I did is on the lower right side of the wall. A small roof of the ground leading into a right-facing dihedral. The crack system is pretty much straight up for 2 pitches. There is a nice belay under a spectacular roof, vibrant with most of the colors in a rainbow. These cracks are a sprt (sic) climbers dream if they are looking for splitter 5.14 and up roof cracks. Plus, there is this big sloping ledge under the roof that makes bailing a snap. I aided several of the sickest free cracks I have ever seen, just because leap-frogging Friends through those colors was irresistable. But the free route goes straight over the belay. DANGER!!! Large stone!! is loose above the belay. As you step out over the belay to get through the roof, you want to stand on it. DON'T! It's easy to avoid. Just be careful PLEASE. Who knows? Maybe it fell? The last pitch is kind of a spire. Easy climbing up its south face leads to a pointed to out (sic). Walk down east through the scree slopes. I give it 3 stars, because it is so remote. It's south-facing. The views are out-of-hand gorgeous, and you can spend the whole day naked, because nobody ever goes there. Plus, the big horn herd hangs out here. You can bivy at Mt. Alice, but not here. Check with the Rangers about the rules to this area. It's a little piece of Eldo in the park. Jim Thurmond.

Protection 

Pitch 1 has a fixed pin protecting roof moves into a right facing dihedral. Fixed anchors Pitch 2 has a bolt protecting a small traverse right into another crack system. Fixed anchors at all belays.