Romancing the Stone

This obscure route lies on the Northwest Face of Cardinal Pinnacle inbetween the classics Crack Kingdom and Cardinal Sin. The route has consistently good rock, great climbing and feels like a step up in seriousness compared to the standard fare of the cliff.

1. Climb the first pitch of the West Face route and and traverse left to the base of Crack Kingdom (10a).

2. Climb wide crack to a flare (10b), and belay above in a loose gully below the crux pitch of Romancing the Stone, the fairly obvious finger crack/flake system.

3.The crux: an excellent and very sustained 5.11 pitch. From a stance in the gully, traverse right to the crack system. Continue to a fixed rp, clip it and do the crux to a good stance and new ASCA bolt (11c). Continue up more 5.11 until it is possible to place more tiny wires in a seam and do a leftward hand traverse to a poor stance where you will belay. The belay is semi-hanging and involves .5 or .75 camalots.

4. Another unique pitch featuring finger lock pods every four feet. Bring your nutcraft. This pitch will require the smallest gear you have and protects mostly with tiny brass and a cool head. Start on the right side of the belay. Climb up to a fixed pin and bust a tricky crux above yet more tiny wires (11a). Run it out about 15 feet to clip the only bolt on the pitch. From this stance, a seam is barely visible rising up and right from the bolt, occasionally opening into pods that you can cram small wires or cams and also makes for good finger locks. Continue confidently up the seam as a pod is never far away. The rest of the pitch remains 10+. The gear on this pitch felt adequate but never inspiring. With a 70 meter rope, easy link into the final 5.8 hand crack and belay at a stance at the top of the Cardinal with .3 camalot sized pieces. An easy traverse right gets you to the standard rappels.

No protection rating is mentioned in any of the local climbing literature. This route feels at least PG13 or maybe even R on the 3rd and 4th pitches.

Tiny brass wires to #4 camalot. Emphasis on tiny brass and small/finger size cams. One bolt on pitch 3 and one bolt on pitch 4.