West Face

Depending on your level of comfort, you can scramble fairy high up the skirts of the west face, but it likely won’t change the location of Pitch 1 belay.

P1 (150 ft): Looking up, locate an obvious buttress in lower part of the face. Pitch 1 belay will be on top of it. Notice a horizontal shelf going left from the foot of the buttress. Head up the slabby terrain toward the left end of this shelf, climb up onto it, and traverse right to the base of the buttress. (Do not get seduced by the corner on the left. It’s about 5.10 and not protectable higher up.) Once all the way to the right, climb up into the left-facing corner and follow it. When there is an opening to the right on a steep and fractured rock, take it to a comfortable ledge. There should be a rap sling around one of the boulders, but a better anchor is in a crack which takes 0.4 to 0.5 cams.

P2 (100 ft): Looking up and to the left, you will see three green, lichen-covered, boulder-like projections one above the other. The route goes to the right of the first one, left of the second, and right of the third. The crux of the pitch is the slab below the first "boulder." To avoid stuck ropes, protecting is best done on the outside of the first boulder rather than in the corner to the right of it. Once past the third boulder, you should see a tree to your right.

P3 (170 ft): Go up the easy draw above you, left along a pair of parallel cracks/seams, right along a thin crack. The rest of the pitch heads left, mostly up easy slabs, all the way to where the head wall reaches the north face of Middle Rabbit Ear with the impressive Church Key clearly visible. You have arrived when you see a chest-high piton testifying that you are indeed on the old route.

P4 (80 ft): Start up the ridge line. After about 20 feet you encounter another piton. With your feet just barely above it, start to traverse right for a very short distance until you encounter a bulge on the outside of the crack you are following. Step up onto the bulge. (This awkward move is the crux of the route.) Directly above you will see a well-defined corner with some small bushes inside it. Go up the corner to its end, then exist up its steep right wall. Cross the gully you find yourself in and continue right to a good ledge.

P5 (90 ft:) Step up onto the slab on the right. Go up past another comfy ledge then sharply left all the way to a short, steep, right-facing corner. Go up the corner (takes #3) and then a bit right to a nice and shady belay spot.

P6 (80 ft): Traverse right on a trivial ledge. (Protect it anyway, to avoid having ropes stuck below it.) When you can, head up the slab to a third class terrain.

As you go up Rabbit Ears Canyon, eventually there will be a lesser gully that branches off to the left leading up towards the lowest rock on Middle Rabbit Ear. Follow an indistinct trail which goes up this gully or climbs next to it on its south side. Once on rocky terrain, head one gully over to the left an you'll be at the base of the West Face of the Middle Rabbit Ear.

A double rack, especially in small cams, with plenty of long runners to reduce rope drag. Aside from the two pitons, no fixed gear/anchors are found on this route.

There is a rap line down past Church Key. It starts with a sling on a tree near the summit. A single 70m rope will reach the Church Key Saddle. Scramble down the steep, west-side gully and down a hole to a ledge with a two-bolt rap anchor. Two rope rap (60m ropes okay) will reach a similar ledge with another anchor. A second two-rope rap will reach ground. Both rappels have a tendency to twist ropes on pull.

From the bottom of rappel, head UP east over a small saddle. Scramble down into the gully between Middle and North Rabbit Ears. Continue down until the rocky rib on the left disappears, then head left to the base of the West Face.