The Aerialist climbs the crack and roof system in two excellent pitches.

P1: 5.10, all trad, 65 feet. The crack is brilliant. Enough said. Pro runs from a single large cam to protect the flaring start to 6-8 pieces for the crack. These run mostly 0.5 inch to 1.5 inch.

P2: 5.11, all bolts, 65 feet. Blast up on excellent rock to the roof above. Negotiate the roof on the right using sidepull slots. A tricky crux comes between bolts 2 and 3.

The Aerialist

Birds of Prey (approach)

Wings of Glory

Wings of Glory climbs on brilliant stone for two pitches. The moniker comes from a close encounter with the resident Golden Eagle that looked as big as a boxcar when he buzzed Mark and I near the top of King of the Mountain.

P1: 5.12, 90 feet, quickdraws only. Begin below the immaculate corner, and climb up through the dihedral to a perplexing block and hard layaway crux. Originally I was going to call the route Cubik's Rube for my persistent inability to solve this "cube" crux. This pitch becomes progressively more difficult until just below the anchor. It is excellent but hard.

P2: 5.11b/c, 60 feet, quickdraws only. Climb delicately past the large, scary looking block to a tricky, crimp crux. Finish on the bullet hard slab above. The climbing is continuous and needs some time and effort to locate the excellent holds that actually make up the climbing.

Birds of Prey is a two pitch approach route to the Eyrie Sector. The climbing was overall much better than suggested by examination from the ground and certainly could be climbed independently. Please check the description of the Eyrie Sector; there is an easy scramble from the top of P2 to gain the ledge system adjacent to the Eyrie Sector proper. It should not be too difficult to string both of the BOP pitches together, just use some slings to reduced rope drag higher up. To descend, rap the line to the trail or the base ledge.

P1, 65 feet, 5.11. Chase the bolts up a calf burning slab to a crux corner. Climbing on this pitch was much better than imagined from the ground. There is good rock throughout. Depending on how you do it, the crux could be either easy 5.11 or middle 5.11, but it seemed a lot easier on repeat.

P2, 70 feet, 5.10+. Chase more bolts to the streaked slab above. While it looks appealing to climb the slab directly, this is quite blank, and the corner on the right provides usable but slopy handholds. This last bit could also be done entirely left of the bolts if that is desirable. There is good rock throughout.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in The Eyrie Sector