Reckless Abandoned

This route is another new route at Sobo.

From Dreams of Light and Dreams Of Darkness, head up the hill to the west and through a small pass toward the rap that was described in otehr postings. On the S-facing wall there is a flake of rock at the bottom, with the left side crack (2-5", increasing upwards) terminating at the ground, just to the right of the end of a huge fallen tree.

Climb the left hand edge of the flake upwards to its end. head up past the flake on face moves, pulling the first crux (5.10, S+) at a 1/3-pad mono-digit pocket on the left. Continue up to gain what had appeared to be a horizontal, and instead was a 1/16" to 1/4" pencil edge of sharp rock below a small bulge. Finger traverse a few moves to the right on this and pull up to stand on it where it is wider (1.5 inch + a sloper foot). Rest, you need those fingers for the next crux.

The next "horizontal" you see is also just a little feature - there is no gear coming. Step left on little slopers to a small, sharp side-pull. This flexes a small amount, but I could not break it when I tried. Rather, I fell off trying. This is the 5.11c crux hold. The pro is non-existent (50' ground-fall potential). Should the hold ever break, the route will become easier, as the flake thickens further in. From the crux, step up high and reach hard [right] to a locker 3-finger full pad edge (tilted 45 deg.) Match on edge and pull another 5.11 move to reach up and left to a crimp. Tired? Too bad- one move move to go... CRANK on that crimp! The route ends at a broken ledge, just below and to the right of a small pine tree which is resident. There is ~65' of climbing, in all.

The rock aside of the crux hold is VERY solid, and the moves are great. I found that the route was substantially similar to, but substantially harder than, the climb "The Unlead"

I tentatively grade this climb 5.11c, but I did the route blasted tired and maybe someone else will unlock a better sequence. Should you successfully lead or TR this, your input (please Email me) would be appreciated.

The pro looks bad from the ground. Should it have been even close to as good as it looked, I would have had a "go for it" attitude on the on-Sight (no preview) FA attempt, but I did not.

In short, I viewed going any further as a free-solo crux, which would have been "reckless" of me. To make a long story short, I got to a good ledge and "abandoned" it. I climbed the remainder on a TR that was tossed to me.