BETA PHOTO: Wyatt Payne just reaching the nice hands section. ...
Description
This climb can be viewed as a major variation to Kor-Ingalls and features lots of wide climbing and a crux reminiscent of Poseiden Adventure on Lighthouse tower.
Start as for Kor-Ingals.
P1. Climb about 150' up KI. At this point, 20-30' of easy scrambling past a major rap anchor, KI continues to angle rightwards up the corner while Black Sun go straight up a wide crack system. From the point where the routes diverge, you will see a ledge about 80' upon the left side of the BS crack system.
P2. 5.8ish, 80'. Wide crack climbing with some face holds and a variety of gear. Belay on the ledge.
P3. 5.10, ~90'. Continue up the crack system. About 20' up you hit a difficult section that can eat up your big gear.This quicly turns into hands ands gets you to a stance at the base of the business, a 30' flare chimney with an offwidth crack in the back. If you've squandered your 4.5 Camalot already, go back down and get it, because it's the essential piece through this entire section. This section succumbs to left side in "can opener technique" -- squeeze chimney technique with the inside part of the body, knee/heel with the outside leg. A couple of face holds facilliate the process. The 4.5 can be easily walked along to maintain peace of mind. The crack widens and gets easier in the last ten feet. A 5 Camalot might protect this section which is too wide for the 4.5 and too flared for a decent Big Bro placement. At the top of the flare, tunnel behind a chockstone and stand up on a good belay ledge. The last few feet of the flare and the tunnel move can be avoided by going over the chockstone; this alternative looked harder and a lot hairier to me.
P4. 5.8 ~80'. Head up a fist crack for 15'. Squirm throughsome blocks and arrive at a stance (optional belay). BS continues straight up through more 5.8 wide or you can traverse right to the standard KI face finish.
Protection
We had1 each #1-#7 Rock.1 green and 1 yellow alienDouble set of cams from 1 to 4 Friend.1 each #4, 4.5 and 5 Camalot1 #3 Big BroThis rack was pretty good. However, you could get by without the 5 Camalot and the Big Bro and a 2nd 4.5 Camalot would be nice.
How tight is, #1, "tunneling" on P3, and #2, "squirming" on P4? I weigh around 180-190 and got rather stuck in the last pitch of Lightning Bolt Cracks, so I am afraid of death by starvation on some more obscure desert route.
Reply to Charles Vernon:Pitch 4 squirming is one size fits all.Pitch 3 tunneling is fairly tight. I removed the rack and deposited it on the other side of the hole before easily worming through with plenty of room to spare. This move reminded me of the exit move on Supersqueeze on Dome Rock in Boulder Canyon, but easier and less tight. I'm 5'7", 140 lbs; my partner on this climb is a couple of inches taller and a little beefier and he had no problem with this move either.
By J. Thompson From: denver, co Apr 26, 2009 rating: 5.9+
Just climbed this route and I thought it was a very high quality route and alot of fun to climb. Couple of things though...... I thought both pitch #2 and #4 were more like 5.9. They had short defined crux's @ 5.9 with the rest of the climbing checking in around 5.8. I Found the crux pitch to be more like 5.9+ and I thought the crux was with in the first 20 ft of the belay. The slot was not 5.10.
Pitch 2 was very easy for me (5.7) I found very few hand or fist jams on the entire rout. Mostly it uses chimney technique on the outside of crack systems. Pitch 3 was fairly easy (5.8) until the off width section. Holly cow! Momma! A BD #5 for the lower off width and a #6 for the upper off width would be nice. Get ready to shuffle gear out of the way or you won't make it through the squeeze chimney. retrieve your biggest cam for above the chock stone if you go left. don't even think about shorts or short sleeves for the off width. A worth wile route.
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