Manticore Dihedral

Sustained thoughtful moves with a variety of techniques. Too bad it's not longer.

Extra benefits of this short route are to lead it up to near the Manticore Face tree anchor on the upper Tower Wall (from which several other routes can be Top-Roped). Or to lead it to enable less-strong following climbers to reach the bottom of the (much less difficult) Manticore Upper Arete route - by attaching an etrier / aid ladder to one or more pieces of protection, so they could climb the Dihedral with a lower requirement of strength and technique - (or the etrier could be placed on rappel).

Go straight up the dihedral to a ledge. Can then continue up to reach a tree-sling anchor (or to the top of the cliff), by using Manticore Upper Arete .

From the Manticore Face tree-sling anchor, could also top-rope Rock Romancer, Manticore Face, Red Knob Madara variation, and The Rossinator on the Tower Wall . From a nearby top anchor, could also Top-Rope the Picnics Arete and Picnics Dihedral routes, and perhaps with a directional the Rodeo Clown boulder problem.

. . . [ Manticore? | images ] . . .

warning: The rock on and around this route has not been climbed much yet, and much of the rock is still breakable and loose -- so the belayer and other people should stand far away from underneath the climber.

. . . (Lots of vegetation on this rock as of 2015. Be prepared when climbing to navigate around protruding trees and branches, and dealing with holds slippery with grass, lichen, moss, dirt).

Large open book with thin vertical cracks, in the right (east) end of the Tower Wall, about ten feet uphill around the corner from the obvious arete at the right end of the Tower Wall, and about ten feet downhill left from the Picnics Dihedral .

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Lead: Multiple vertical cracks take small cams and stoppers. One or two points for placing protection have strenuous stances.

Top-Rope: Top anchor can be set up with a static line from one (or two) trees -- might need to use two trees to handle the angle. Or control rope angle by using a sling from the Manticore Face tree anchor: twenty to thirty feet below the top of the cliff, about ten feet climber's left (west) from the arete (requires a low class 5 move to get from the top of the cliff down to this tree, so recommend using a rope to reach it).

Might need Trad directional protection to prevent a falling climber swinging toward climber's left (west).

The rock is high-friction, so think about how to minimize rope drag for Top-Roping. If belaying from the bottom, seems like having the belayer stand below right from the Manticore Dihedral helps reduce rope friction.