Desolation Row

An exciting and well protected route that epitomizes the adventure of climbing obscure trad routes at Smith. Start on easy climbing heading towards a somewhat unnecessary bolt. A brief section of fingers leads into a flare. Pick a shoulder to lead with and go for it, its very strenuous, slightly dirty, and very awkward. At the top of the chimney flare exit using the crack to the left. A very needed rest welcomes you here before the bolt protected lieback crux, great handholds with no feet here, but you'll hit a ledge soon. Above this bolt I saw a lot of loose blocks but it's not hard to avoid them. The anchors are pretty high, and there isn't much hard climbing getting to them. A 70M rope only reaches on rappel with all gear clean and no knots in the rope!

Between Juniper Face and the Reason to Be Arete, look for the chimney and a bolt low down.

Lots of slings! especially for the top. lots of yellow to red Metolius are nice, and a #3 Camalot size was nice for pulling the roof. A sling might be nicer than harness racking on this one.