Free Spirit

A wonderful slanting dihedral that yields a variation on the lower half of Wandering Spirit.

This route is mainly defined by the obvious dihedral to the right of the crux pitches of Wandering Spirit.  Your first goal is to get to the base of this dihedral.

We began at a low angle slab that gave access to a series of corners connecting benches.  The second bench gave us a long traverse into the dihedral.  Take care in these initial corners.  Most of the rock was clean and solid, but the second corner was loose and dropped a rock that trapped my finger while on lead- it was a struggle to free my hand again.

Two rope lengths put us in the middle of the traverse to the dihedral.  There are potentially three ways into the dihedral, and we took the middle way up a chimney.  There is a huge, hidden crack in the main wall as you step into the chimney that makes this an easy proposition, even if you have no chimney technique.

A little further is the crux.  All the holds seem to be on the overhanging left wall, while the slabby right wall is smooth.  We found plenty of pro through here, and with a well-placed hip or shoulder you can find many "rests".  Pull through a gap in the overhang on big, juggy holds.

We belayed here just above the overhang, where we could get our feet under us, to avoid rope drag.  The upper part of the dihedral eases off, except for the exit moves at the top.  Exit left and you are in the slabby terrain that is next to the crux of Wandering Spirit.  Continue up to the ramp system to top out.

From the lowest point of Spiderweb Wall, walk up and right to the slabby start.

Standard rack, nuts and small cams to big cams.