Honeycomb Chimney

This surprisingly good route goes up the left edge of the Community Pillar. The left margin of this prominent central feature on the north face of Magic Mountain is a dark chimney halfway up. This is the Honeycomb Chimney and is the main landmark of this route. Start at the far left side of the broad base of the buttress.

Pitch 1: A short pitch leads through some fragile rock and a chimney to a good belay ledge beneath a dark offwidth crack.

Pitch 2: Start up the wide crack, but exit right onto easy face climbing up solid varnished potholes. Move back to the crack and pull over a small bulge (5.7) to an easy chimney. (If you don't have a 60-meter rope, you should probably belay at the bulge.)

Pitch 3: Class 3 climbing leads up the broken gully to the base of a huge dark chimney.

Pitch 4: High quality climbing on the varnished honeycomb takes you to the top of the chimney. (5.7)

Pich 5: Climb up and slightly left to the constricted slot above you. A bit of fiddling with large cams in pockets gives some amount of protection for the squeeze moves (5.8) through the slot. Continue up and left on easy rock, belaying just above a small tunnel.

Pitch 6: Class 4 scrambling leads left and a little down for about 100 feet across a broken ledge system.

Pitch 7: Climb the spectacular corner (5.9) to a large ledge.

At this point you can descend by walking right (west) and joining the standard Community Pillar descent where it rappels from the pine tree. Alternatively, you can climb another pitch:

Pitch 8: Scramble up for 50 feet (class 3) over loose rock to the base of a small but clean corner. Go straight up the crack (5.7) and through the chimney in the giant split boulder to a belay on the summit ridge.

The descent from here does not involve any rappels, but it is not trivial (and probably not recommended in the darkness). Turn left (east), and work along the right (southern) side of the ridge, following a path of least resistance through the rocks and brush. Work your way up until almost at the true summit of Magic Mountain (a summit cairn is visible), then descend to the south. Hug the cliff face on your left until you finally emerge at the small saddle where the normal descent from Olive Oil starts. Follow the Olive Oil descent down the gully to the east until reaching the trail.

Standard rack up to 4.5 Camalot