Sol

Thx everyone. cool! to clarify, i'm not talking about the pitches up to the pteradactyl bivy ledge. i'm talking the 3 slab pitches right off the aasgard talus that climb to the jingus approach ledges. check out the topo and you will understand. Depends on what grade V your comparing it too. It's a much longer day out than liberty crack. Backbone is 4+. Stacked with hard climbing: Loose and dirty 5th class soloing 1.Loose dirty 5.10 2.Long hard and grainy 5.11c 3.Short 5.9 4.Grainy and dirty 5.11- C2. 5.Move the belay up to the large ledge 5.8 6.Loose dirty 5.10 7.Wild and strenuous 5.11b 8.Long and dirty 5.10 C2 Then 1,800 ft. of 4th and 5th class. Wayne gave the first ascent V+/VI. I didn't want to downgrade it too much. I'd say though that we sent in IV+ time.

Trip: Dragontail - Dragons of Eden V 5.11+ A2 Date: 7/9/2008 Trip Report: Jens Holsten and I repeated Dragons of Eden on Dragontail on July 9th. We left the car at 4:20 and returned 20 hours later. The route is one of a kind. First ascentionest Wayne Wallace wasn't exagerrating when he said the headwall contained "el cap type illness." The only thing we could compare it to was the headwall of the Salathe. The climbing was splitter, steep, stout, and DIRTY! Hats off to Wallace and McGowan for their impressive 1989 first ascent. We threw down and free'd as much as we could given the dirty and lichenous conditions. The route is easy to find and begins with a loose and dirty 5.10 hand crack. Looking down from P1: When i read in the topo, "Butterballs to the Gripper," i thought, yeah right. But it's true. Sharp steep fingers, lead to pumpy thin hands and a perfect hands gripper finale. The fingers were grainy with a full-on layer of kitty litter in all directions. Jens took a couple times on lead, and i was just barely able to climb it clean on second. Cleaned up it would be one of the best pitches anywhere, 11c all day: This is a perfect route to haul a bag up: The crux pitch. Great 5.10 climbing leads to the top of the pillar, dirty insecure face climbing leads to thin fingers in a corner. This pitch was super dirty, even on second you couldn't free more than 2 or 3 moves without falling after your smears crumbled away. It will be sick when cleaned and free'd. Dirty, loose, and somewhat scary 5.10 climbing began The Great White Headwall: The second headwall pitch is tied with the butterballs pitch for best pitch on the route. Ridiculously exposed and overhanging crack climbing out both roofs. Jens had an impressive onsight of this one, and i followed clean too. The trail line says it all, 15+ ft out: The 11c/d last pitch was the dirtiest of the route and was so sketchy in its current state that is was climbed mostly on aid by us both. It must be a awesome finish when clean, topping out on a perfect ledge, just like long ledge on el cap. Jens on the headwall: Topping out: The NE buttress was scenic, dirty, and neverending. Two long simulblocks lead us to the finishing notch, and two raps got us down to aasgard. Overall, a great day out, and an awesome first climb with Jens. When cleaned and freed it will be an ultra-classic freeclimbing testpiece for the area. Gear Notes: We bought a triple set of cams and set and a half of nuts, and it wasn't enough! Bring: set of hybrids, double set from blue to red alien, 3-4 .5 camalots, 3-4 .75's, 3-4 #1's, 3 #2's, 2-3 #3's, and a single #4. Two ropes. Approach Notes: Topo is perfect, CLICK . We skipped the contrived first 3 pitches and used the jingus approach ledges. Route is easy to find.

looking over from gato negro I had a hard time imagining anything "stellar" coming from that part of the wall. nonetheless, it looks like a good adventure, thanks for the beta.

Steep Finger cracks it's actually not finger cracks. the 11c pitch starts out with some devious, thought provoking, 11a slab climbing. this moves into the well-protected crux: vertical face climbing which tackles a small bulge. then to finish you crank a wild traversing bulge to the belay. great pitch with 3 unique cruxes.

whoa! it sucks they rap-bolted it. brooks not my buddy, all i knew of the face was a pic from an old metolius catalog. it looks so good, steep and hard, with impeccable rock, and amazing position. defenitly a lame ass name. hopefully you've climbed it, to warrant such a rabid opinion.

that's what i'm learning

thanks everyone. i agree, LMS rocks! i'd love to buy some approach shoes from them, but they don't have my size, and i need them by wednesday.

any recommendations?

my wife lost her chalkbag on serpentine a couple of weeks ago. figured with all the traffic up there somebody may have found it. holler.

too bad i work on the weekends. holler at me midweek: mon, wed, thurs. sol

i talked to brooke sandahl at metolius. it's called der sportsmen, and it's rated 12a. he highly recommended it, and is sending me a topo. ill post up when it arrives.

well, thankgod i didn't find a partner and spend the day dodging thunderstorms. the wifey and i are heading to nason if anyone wants to join...

bump it up

hey, my partner fell through and i'm looking to go climb one of these three objectives tomorrow (thursday). as long as you are up for the grades, and can make it to leavenworth, let's go crush. sol 360-927-1997

nice, that route's classic.

good try. your not the first to fail up there. next time.

what's up with it? where, how hard, style?

serpentine. met ty and chris on the summit, fun times.

...to brighten your day.

Nice! Was the roof traverse fully dry? How about the roof on the next pitch (free crux)? Thanks.

thanks everyone.

thanks counterfeit, that's about all i was looking for. how were the bugs?

Wondering if anyone was able to check out conditions on the e face of liberty bell this weekend (liberty crack, freedom rider, etc.) things have melted out pretty well around l-town, but i'm just not feeling so optomistic about the rest of the range. thanks.