Alignment of the Misaligned

This line may draw your attention with the glint of light off the lone bolt sitting above a crack on the right end of the Lower Twin Owls. In Rossiter's guide, it is listed as a variation to Second Thoughts, 5.10a, with a more direct finish, hence the name. There is an obvious crack system behind a dead tree just to the right, which can be liebacked. There are more lines to play on here (

One of Life's Little Problems

& its 5.8 variation,

Black Lichen Streak

, Second Thoughts,

Sunset Arete

, and

Thin Crack

) on a sunny, windless, late fall or winter day.

Find this line by hiking up the Lower Twin Owls trail to nadir of the Lower Twin Owls buttress (where

Tilted Mitten

starts). Continue up & R on a trail until you come to a large RFD is described as an alcove in the Gillett guides. It is probably 400 ft up and R.

Fire up this deceptively-demanding crack which goes halfway up this short buttress just L of a dead tree (which lies 60 ft R of the large RFD). This crack is awkward to start and requires jamming off a sausage-sized L index finger jam and R hand gaston to pinches above. The difficulty eases until you can clip the bolt above. Here you have choices of desperate, steep slabbing directly above with a crux above the bolt (rated 10+ but felt 11b) or perhaps moving right (Second Thoughts, 5.10a) on feldspar knobs to a shallow slot up and right. Belay at a tree. 60 ft. Currently, there is no rappel anchor.

You can also reach this tree by climbing the start to

One of Life's Little Problems

(to #4 Camalot) and then traverse right (#2 Camalot) to the tree.

Wires, small cams, 1 QD, very sticky rubber.