Cro-Magnon aka The Tail

Shirtail Peak has two prominent aretes;

Tiger Balm

/

Gambit

on the left and

Giouco Piano

on the right. The

Mountaineer's Route

goes up the big dihedral in between. Three routes cross the "crux buttress" level with P2 of

Gambit

on the wall between

Gambit

and

Mountaineer's

;

The Throne

, Cro-Magnon and

Serrated Jam Crack

.

P1: Climb the slab midway between

Mountaineer's

and

Gambit

to a short dihedral/small roof (5.8) and up to a large tree with slings.

P2: Follow a short finger crack over a roof (5.8) and up the small left-facing dihedral above. Place gear as the crack in the dihedral ends and traverse one move right and then up thin cracks to a sloping ledge (crux.) Cro-Magnon takes the left (smaller) of the two cracks above the sloping ledge, the larger crack on the right is

Serrated Jam Crack

. Follow the thin crack (5.9) up to a short face. Climb the thin face (5.8?) up to the two-pin, one bolt anchor on The Throne. I clipped the last bolt on

The Throne

for gear here as the flakes seem pretty fragile.

A 60M rope should get you down to the tree with slings and another rap to the ground, or finish up to the top on

Gambit

or something else. Using a 50M rope left us with a little soloing to do between belays, not hard but exposed.

I really enjoyed this climb so I gave it three stars, I suspect others may only give it two, since it is only the second pitch that it outstanding. This route is fairly sustained, the pro is good but takes a little thought to place.

A word on loose rock: Shirtail has it! There were 5 parties on

Gambit

last Saturday, I got pegged in the head by a pebble and we saw a basketball size boulder crash on the slabs at the base from up high. This is not a good crag to get too popular, but it seems that the lure of

Gambit

is high.

Lots of wires and some small to medium cams