Soaring

In the Poorperson's guide, this climb is given the coveted 'E' rating for the highest quality climbs on the Tower. In other words, 5 stars on a 5 star scale. I only climbed the first pitch, but that was all I needed to see.

Begin on the NE face around to the left from the staging area for New Wave and Broken Tree. Look for a line of modern bolts just left of a mossy trough. The 1st pitch follows the bolts to a belay stance below a small roof. Though rated 5.9, it climbs much harder since nearly all of the holds on this pitch seem on the verge of breaking. Without a doubt the worst pitch I've yet to climb at the Tower. Even my second took a pass on this one. A good exercise in climbing lightly on loose stuff, I guess.

From the belay, the 2nd pitch looks like a short dihedral affair to the top of a pillar. Rock quality looks sub-par to say the least. The 2nd pitch can be easily linked with the first if you are so inclined to proceed.

What attracted me to this climb was the 3rd pitch. "A must for aspiring Tower stemmers," the guide says. Well, if that involves stemming through bushes, then no thanks. Lots of vegetation from top to bottom, with a particularly menacing looking bush at two-thirds height. If you go up there, definitely look out for that one.

I post the route here only to warn others about the quality discrepancy. I don't think anyone has been up there for many, many years. I don't know, maybe with regular traffic this would be the classic that the guide claims it to be.

Which brings me to the question, are there any climbs worth doing on this section of the Tower? Everything in this area looked like it had been reclaimed by crack flora.

QDs for the first pitch. A garden trowel and machette for the third pitch.