From Generic Crack, walk about 60' to the left. There you will see a huge flake in a left-facing corner. This flake forms a tips-crack on the right, and a finger-to-hand crack on the left side. A double chain anchor is 35' off the ground, just above the top of the flake. A single bolt and ring are above the right hand side, to serve as a directional to protect the fingertips varaition (5.11+, TR)
P1: Climb to the top of this flake (5.9) fromt he left, with good protection and simple, but powerful moves.
P2: Climb up the corner, in agreat and solid tight-hands crack. This starts as a 2-2.5" crack for a bit, the eases up to really good hands for a few moves. After a few more moves, the climb drastically changes its nature. The corner becomes softer rock (but still safe) and turns into a "double-inset" up above. This is like having 2 aretes facing nose-to-nose with 12" in between and a chunk of rock some distance behind. The fun part may be the shenanigans you pull to achieve one no-hands rest after another, by heal-toe, knee-bar, or other odd modes, using the hollow area back in the corner for these positions. Once past the steepest part of the rock, smaller cams are more useful than large ones (1-1.5"). No OW gear is necessary.
A beginning leader may likely find the distance between a few of the pieces disconcerting when combined with the odd positions of theis route, and as a result will tunnel back in to chimney the moves. That's no fun, so let it all hang out and enjoy it!!!
Protection
A wide assortment of gear. The bottom pitch (35') protects well on a single set of cams. The second pitch (80') requires plenty of gear from 3" to 3.5" (Blue Camalots are good) Up above the overhang, where the crack appears widest, narrow gear, 1" to 1.5" can be used in a hidden-from-view crack. No O.W. gear is necessary. The upper pitch is soft roack and is flaring in spots and will produce some odd body position. Although the grade is moderate overall, I'd loathe to recomend this to a beginning leader.
Enjoyable route, note that the first pitch can be led at 5.8 or so. From there chains allow an easy rap off, or better yet, TR the 5.11d thin flake just right of it.
the second pitch of this route is of very high quality. tony describes it well. a nice double crack (hands) to a fun off-width, this pitch is not to be missed. i plugged a #4 in the left side of the offwidth but a little seam to the right (small gear) continues to the chains. solid variety.
By Danny Inman From: Westminster Apr 25, 2005 rating: 5.10a
This is a really fun route. The second pitch is great-a little sandy towards the top. I felt just fine with gear upto 2" in the off-width section.
It seems that Pitch 1, the 5.8-5.9 varied fingers/hands crack on the left side of the flake, is listed on Battle of the Bulge Buttress as the "Warm-Up" route 5.8+...correct me if I'm wrong?
By 5.10b4me From: Alhambra, California Oct 3, 2007
Donnelly Canyon
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