[Hide Comment] I submitted the above route because it deserves some traffic as it is totally classic and never gets done, while poor Ruby's gets overworked every decent weekend. The dirty little secret is that Christmas Tree is probably just as difficult or even harder than Ruby's (of course, so are a lot of 5.12s in the Creek...shhh!) I replaced the anchor and moved it down a little off of a rope eating ledge, so it's slightly shorter than the book suggests (it only eliminated a bit of 5.8 sandy groveling). This route will be easier the smaller your digits are. Good luck - gun for the handjams next to the anchor- oops, I've already said too much... Jan 15, 2008

[Hide Comment] Hey Chris ,thanks for lowering that anchor. One of the most dramatic climbing moments i've witnessed was a friend of mine onsighting this beast. He was resting his shoulder on that first big block of choss when it broke. He fell and ripped about 5 tcu's before a green alien held. He probably fell about 50 feet and technically blew the onsight.. So although the crack appears to not change size it actually gets a little bigger as you go, so i suggest about 7 blue tcus followed by 7 green aliens, they are just a tad bigger.Props to anyone leading this route. Feb 22, 2008

[Hide Comment] I agree that the crack gets a little bigger. The little blue camalots pick up the slack quite well, too. Jul 8, 2009

[Hide Comment] Looks sick! Smaller fingers would definately help on this one....very continuous Oct 22, 2011

[Hide Comment] 80m rope makes it down. Nov 8, 2018

[Hide Comment] One of the best pitches I've done at Indian Creek. It took me nearly 4 months of projecting to send it. I find it much harder than Ruby's and as hard or harder than quite a few 5.13- routes at the creek. And I have slightly smaller than average finger tips...

The upper corner past the slopy ledge does, indeed, get wider as you climb. What cams fit depends on temps. During winter months the crack is slightly larger than during the months from spring to early fall (or whenever it doesn't freeze regularly). In winter I place 3-5 Green Alien/BD .3 Z4 sizes (the Z4s get smaller than the .3C4s) in the 1st half of the upper corner AND 3-5 BD .3C4s in the 2nd half of the upper corner.

My first time trying The Tree was in early Oct 2023. It was so hot that we had to limit tries to morning hours before the sun hit it. I placed 6-7 Blue Metolius in the upper corner and 3-5 TIGHT BD .3C4s. The Tree was waaay harder to climb while the crack was that size. So, the secret beta is to climb it during the winter months!

My send rack: 1x Red C3, 6x Blue Metolius, 4x .BD .3Z4s (larger range than C4s both fully shut and open), 3x BD .3C4s, 4x Yellow Metolius, 1x BD Green C4.

But that's a heavily-wittled down rack from many many lead attempts.

A good onsight Rack is outlined in one of the beta photos I uploaded.

Finally, in my opinion, the anchor could be moved down a body length and half. Just so you can clip the chains with your feet at the top of the upper corner. The climbing past the upper corner is on very soft and sandy rock and it only detracts from the insanely good climbing below. 3 days ago