The Baron

This is a nice, long corner system on the right side of Baron's Estate. We climbed it on the way up to the Castle, because we figured we might as well. It's a fun and sustained finger and hand crack and was a nice bonus, considering the approach to the Castle.

1. Climb the shallow, right-facing corner at the right side of the base area. This is a good finger crack then ends at a big ledge with a tree that traverses left to the main dihedral system (this larger dihedral is what Hubbel calls the Baroness), 5.8+, 80 feet.

2. Traverse left into the larger corner and climb it to the top of the formation. This is a long, fun, and sustained pitch, 5.7+, 170 feet.

Information was taken from Peter Hubbel's guidebook. It has been a pretty long time since I climbed this, but I think this is a decent description. I know we just climbed it with our packs and stretched it as one long pitch with some simul-climbing, which made it feel a little harder but was also pretty sweet.

Approach the easiest way you can from the lake. Shoot for the right of two obvious right-facing corners. I remember the trees on the approach not always giving us the best view of either Baron's Estate or the Castle, so just follow your nose. Start in a shallow, right-facing corner, just right of the bigger of two right-facing corners on the face. Walk off or continue up to the Castle.

Standard rack to 3". Some doubles might be useful if you simul-climb and do it in one pitch, but it is hard to remember exactly.