The Godfather

Athough I gave this route 3 stars for overall quality, that is because it starts with the first two pitches of Arrowplane, which are good, but not outstanding IMHO. If Godfather were a stand alone route, it would easily merit four stars because the last two pitches are superb.

Pitch 1: Climb the first pitch of

Arrowplane

. Good beta I got for finding this pitch was to look for a shallow dihedral left of the prominent water streak. 5.8+ R; 180'.

Pitch 2: Climb the second pitch of

Arrowplane

. 5.9-; 150'.

Pitch 3: Start up the third pitch of

Arrowplane

. After the undercling, head up left to the prominent, right-facing dihedrals. Start up the rightmost dihedral, and then step into the left dihedral to its top. Step left again into cracks leading to a large ledge. 5.9+; 195'.

Pitch 4: Climb the crack to the right of the ledge, which peters out to face climbing protected by two bolts to a two bolt anchor (slightly sporty). 5.11a; 100'

Pitch 5: Climb the traversing tips crack (5.11a/b, good gear) to the continuous, flaring hand crack (solid 5.10). At its end, continue up to the overhangs. Climb the first, smaller overhang on its right side, hand traverse the second larger overhang to its left end, and then climb back right to the top of the wall (5.8+ R). 160'.

This route is on the sunny south face of Arrowhead. We looked for the arches that comprise

Ithaca

,

et al

, aiming for their lowest spot. After finding the shallow dihedral left of the prominent water streak that marks the first pitch of

Arrowplane

, the rest was easy.

An obvious landmark for the route is the "J Crack" of the last pitch. It is easy to spot, waaay up high on a golden granite shield of rock.

Descend the

South Ramp

.

Lots of wired stoppers, from RPs on up. Double cams from smallest through number 2 Camalots. One number 3 & one number 4 Camalot. QDs and a good number of long slings. I recommend a 70 meter rope given the length of some of the pitches.

Although this route has some R climbing on it, if you are competent for the crux pitches the runouts will feel PG-13. However, as always, exercise good judgment.