Brass in Pocket

Brass in Pocket. This is a two pitch variation to La Llorona but is listed separately because it's well worth doing as a stand-alone. In addition to racking up with all your brass nuts, you'll need to muster every bit of your brashness for an amazing crux that features intricate, powerful, and spectacular movement on golden bullet-hard granite. There is a lot of smearing and delicate balancing in addition to straight up pulling on tiny crimps and tips locks with few rests. The hard pitch ranks up there with the best cracks in the state. Note: The 5.9 first pitch also makes a great alternate start to La Llorona and it is possible to belay on top of the P1 tower, climb 20 feet of Brass in Pocket, step right (5.10) to the start of P2 of La Llorona and continue on to the same set of anchors at the top of P2 of La Llorona.Pitch 1:

(5.9, 140 ft). Fun stemming in the corner is protected with nuts and cams to #3. The rock is a crumbly-looking pegmatite, but is more solid than it appears and climbs very well. There is an obvious tower/headwall at the top of the pitch. Exit this to the left at the top of the corner and climb 30 feet of poorly protected 5.5 to a glorious ledge on top of the tower. Belay off of gear. See the beta image to help ID the start and the tower.Pitch 2: (5.12b, 90 ft). Climb 15 feet of easy hands to the obvious right leaning crack. The crack increasingly steepens and gets harder until you pull onto a small ledge where it is possible to get an absolutely bomber medium nut and a no-hands rest. The next 15 feet is the crux; climb above the ledge and place a small nut off of a terrible crimp; this placement is good but it's really hard to seat the nut properly on the go. The nut is about a #3 brass off-set (best choice), but small aluminum nuts work too. More insecure fingers follow, protected by occasional cam placements, multiple (easier) cruxes, and more tiny nut placements. Just before the crack ends, look for a spot to place a small/medium nut sideways in a nice groove, then place a yellow Alien or C3 in a pocket up and to the right of the crack and face climb about 20ft up and right to the ledge and anchor, looking for more pockets that take gear. When placed properly, the gear on this pitch is plentiful, good, and is in good rock, however, it is often not obvious and can be challenging to both see and place. While it is not "R" when executed perfectly, it will almost certainly feel like it during an onsite go because of the difficulty of placing the micronuts well. The good news is that if you blow the tiny piece at the crux, the one at the ledge is excellent and the route is steep enough that you won't hit anything while you're airborne (this hypothesis has been well tested).  The pitch ends on the P2 La Llorona ledge. Kiss the two bolt anchor, bring up your partner, then continue on up the 5.11 pitch of La Llorona.

Walk the approach ledge until you are directly beneath the obtuse dihedral of La Llorona. The huge ponderosa that marks the base of La Llorona should be about 40 feet above you and off to your right. Scramble about 15 feet up to a shallow bowl in a big groove that has a crack on the left and a big gnarled tree on the right. Rack up here.

Doubles from purple C3 to #2. 1-#3 for P1. Set of small to medium nuts, set of brass offsets. Ten 2-foot runners.