TR: East Face Chianti Spire

[telemarker]

Kyle Flick and I climbed the Rebel Yell route of Chianti. Getting a late start around 8am from the road, we turned our minds off and started the slog up to Burgundy Col for the next three hours. We reached the base of Chianti in about 3.5 hours, from where the entire route can be clearly seen.

 

We roped up at the base and Kyle fired off the first pitch of 5.8. I got the next pitch, the first taste of off-width surmounted by stemming. Doing laps on Damnation Crack came in handy, as it was a combination of layback, stemming and chimney. I ran the rope out the full 200 feet to a nice belay. Kyle completed the blind step-around move to the base of the wide crack. The last two crack pitches resemble the last two pitches of outer space, only shorter but more burly and intimidating, considering the crack widens to 4 inches. The first part of pitch 5 is a nice, solid 2 inch crack, alternating between thin hands, to fingers with great pro. The second part widens to 4 inches quickly, but a flake off the right side of the crack helps upward movement, but it's still necessary to stuff your arms and feet into the crack to make any upward progress. Unlike outer space, the rock on either side of the crack is featureless, save for that flake. It's a grunt, but solid and clean, with a #4 and 4.5 camalots protecting it just nicely. This pitch ends on a tiny ledge resembling library ledge, but a bit smaller. There's a bolt and piton fixed for the belay. Kyle finished the 7th pitch, which starts out at 4.5 inches for 40 feet, followed by ledges and blocks, of climbing to 5.8. The summit block is a kick. We took turns straddliing the summit, completed our rebel yells and did four double rope raps back down the route. A stuck 3.5 camalot (my bad!) was the only blemish on the day. We were back to the car by 8pm to do the car slog back to We-snatchee. All told, a great route I'd do again in a second!