Dihedral

An interesting, easy, fun dihedral with good protection. Steep at the top, with some solid 5.6 exit moves (in the same vein as Car Camping with the Kids). Unfortunately the interesting dihedral part of the climb is only in the top section; the bottom one-third is mainly a blocky ledgy system with some loose-ish boulders. The climb would warrant two stars or more if it weren't for the bottom part. In general, it maybe best to situate the belayer slightly off to the right of the base of the route, out of the way of any possible rockfall from the ledges. This route is described and pictured by Beverly (2006:200-201) as Route #3. It appears to lie between routes #1 and #2 in the Chen/Wehner on-line guide. Jackson (2006) doesn't list any routes this far left on the crag (although he has a photo covering this area on page 186).

Near the far left (western) end of the south face of the Big E. The route ascends a prominent right-facing dihedral that ascends above a broken ledgy area. A landmark is the christmas-tree-shaped pinon tree growing about 15 feet above the ground, on the ledgy area, just to the left of the base of the dihedral. Even though we're on the south face of the Big E, this climb gets early afternoon shade thanks to the big left wall. Two large cholla are growing just left of the base of the route, and a fat claret cup is growing on the upper ledge just to the right of the route. So, throwing down a toprope could be problematic. If you need to drop the line from above, maybe move about 10 yards to the east, throw down a line to avoid a cactus collision, and then walk the top of your rope back to your anchor.

Single set of nuts and cams up to a BD #3. Maybe doubles of hands to small fists would be reassuring. A gear anchor can be built at the top, or sling the nearby junipers (only one tree is readily close by, though).