Crown Molding

Crown Molding is a stout warmup for routes on the main December Wall. The initial corner is sustained and treacherous with small gear. A fun bolt-protected hand traverse leads to a bolt-protected ceiling. Above an easier but awkward, right-angling crack leads to the anchors.

Re-reading Gillett's description, we may have missed a final optional finger crack.

It looks like this climb has only been climbed a couple of times. The chain anchors were brand new with no sign of wear from pulling ropes.

From the anchors, you can toprope the first two thirds of Door Jamb, the 5.9 chimney to the right. Because of the rope angle, you get to avoid the upper part of the chimney, which looks like even less fun than the bottom. The slab to the left of the upper part of the chimney is climbable to the anchors at 10 something.

The easiest way to find this is to start down the descent trail from the

Life After James

area. Immediately, contour east below a short wall, over a shallow rise, to a shaded wall by a tall pine tree. The chimney in the left-facing corner is

Door Jamb

. The right-leaning, left-facing corner to the left of the chimney is Crown Molding. If approaching from below, look for the buttress to the right of

Life After James

and aim for some pine trees diagonally down and right of that. To the right of Crown Molding is a more prominent wall with lots of ribs and gullies.

I used a bunch of microcams and a nut or two, plus a #3/blue Camalot in the upper crack. There are several bolts along the hand traverse and one for the ceiling.