Vilde Chaya - I’ll eat you up

This climb provides varied climbing on the Wild Things wall - stemming, jugs, dynamic moves, steep crimps and positive edges - a contrast from the pure crimps of its neighbours to the left. 

The climb is described in two short pitches, because of rope drag on the delicate upper section, but can also be strung into one long pitch (45m, 150 feet). 

P1 (5.8, 2 bolts + gear, 25m) - the Vilde Chaya pitch

Head up a low angle slab with a 1” crack for 5m to a stance with a right facing corner on your left and big detached flake on your right.

Climb the right facing corner (5.8, or easier if you risk using the hollow sounding, detached flake on your right). A bolt avoids needing to put protection behind the flake. A second bolt protects the exit from the corner onto good jugs and 0.5-2” cracks for gear.

Continue up to another right facing corner and mantle onto the block above to gain the 6” ledge that rises to the left towards Where the Wild Things are. Follow this ledge 10’ left to a gear belay in a crack just left of the first bolt of the 2nd pitch.

The belay will take a variety of gear (#10 stopper, #1 camalot, 0.4 camalot works well if you want to take just the necessities).

[ P2 Variation: From the top of P1, you can easily traverse left onto the upper section of Where the Wild Things Are. That upper section is 5.8, allowing for a 5.8 path to the main “Belly Button” ledge. Link these two sections together in one long 45m pitch (strung together the line is relatively straight, and rope drag isn't bad) or climb them as two short pitches. ]

P2: (5.11-, 6 bolts, sport, 20m) - I’ll eat you up pitch

The second pitch begins with a dynamic move past the first bolt to a finger “jug” (everything is relative). Clip the second bolt, hold your breath, then follow thin edges to a small ledge. Sharpen your fingernails here then claw your way up desperate face climbing on small crimps and crystals past 4 more bolts to a fixed belay that is equipped for rappel.

Pay attention to the potential of a decking on the small ledge after the first bolt (push off if you fall... it'll be fine). You can escape left (see variation) if this pitch isn’t to your liking.

History: the climb was equipped pre-pandemic by Matt and Charlie Beard, with Charlie’s climbing preferences, abilities, and style in mind. Charlie was repatriated to England, and the team schemed to reunite to finish the task. A red ribbon hung weathered on the first bolt while Matt grew increasingly uneasy that he would be left to solve the sequences of pitch two on his own - the difficulty being beyond his normal comfort zone. 

Then the pandemic hit.  Matt, residing north of the longest unprotected and fully closed border on the planet, could relax for a while: Potter Mountain remained strictly off limits. 

Matt’s brain grew fat and he wore holes in the elbows of his tweed jackets faster than the rubber on his climbing shoes. Choreographing the moves seemed as unlikely to him as finding a modified theory of gravity that might allow a crafting of Newton’s constant for more fly-time on the first move.

The world renewed. He bought patches for his jacket elbows and resoled his tightest climbing shoes with X-edge rubber. Every little advantage counts in the absence of a loop-hole in gravity. Miraculously, old and new friends volunteered to belay patiently, providing conversation and laughter while he stumbled and fell - and it became fun. he enjoyed being their marionette, dangling from the top-rope, while they suggested robotic variations. 

He tried to persuade his stronger climbing pals to put him out of his misery, but they declined to send the route. He hung a hang-board above his desk and began taking zoom calls from the bouldering gym. Slowly, his hands grew into the weathered claws of a crow and his brain a little leaner.

Eventually, gravity did seem to let up just a little, and he began falling just once on each lead attempt. And finally! the red ribbon came down. 

(The rating is just a guess… Matt’s X-edge probably isn’t as gnarly as he thinks, so it could be easier, especially if you’re better at sussing out the moves).

“Vilde chaya” is Yiddish and translates to "wild animal" but it often is used (somewhat) lovingly to describe a wild child and was made mainstream by Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" children's book.

Descent:

• rappel from the bolted anchor with double ropes or a single 70m rope
• Or walk over to “Little Max” and rappel with a 50m single rope from its bolted rappel anchor and then the slung tree on the 3rd class ledge.

Start about 50’ right of “Where the Wild things are” in the Shangri-La area, 50’ left of "Positive Latitude". You’ll see a right facing corner about 15’ up with 2 bolts.

See Adirondack Rock Guidebook photo showing a 3rd class line that crosses Wild Things and leads up to Stop making sense. This route starts 10-20’ to the RIGHT of this 3rd class ledge.