Abracadaver

One of the finest routes in Arizona or anywhere. Every pitch is hard. Every pitch is different. The position of the route is incredible. An ascent of Abra is one you'll always remember.

The line of the route is all too obvious as you approach the rock. The route faces northish and remains comparatively cool. On the highest part of the wall two crack systems lead to either end of a small roof about 250' up. The right hand crack is mostly wide - Knead Me, a classic grunt. The left side is Abra.

Pitch 1: climb a funky crack / groove past a bolt to a belay on bolts. (5.10a)

Pitch 2: feed yourself to the offwidth above. Expect no mercy. Some large cams will make your life easier. The crack is about 6" or so and then narrows to fist size. Belay at a small stance where the crack pinches down to finger sized. (5.10)

Pitch 3: lieback for glory up the perfect crack to a roof. This gets harder as you go - the crux is the upper part of the crack. Traverse left, small cams, to the first real ledge of the climb. 5.11a.

Pitch 4: climb the face above. The fixed pin is gone so you'll need some small gear in a thin seam. Then make committing slab moves until holds appear. Then up a crack to a wonderful belay atop the "Friendly Flake". 5.10c. We did this in two pitches but Kerry indicates that one will do here.

Pitch 5: The guidebook gives a number of alternatives (left, up, and right). We took the left hand version: up a bolt, the back down and frictioning left (5.9) to a good crack that leads to the summit area.

At this point you've entered a world few ever visit. The summit area is vast and complex. We spent about an hour scouting around for the passage to the true summit. Eventually we found it - it's marked by a bolt and goes at 5.7. Unfortunately we were too lazy to go back for the rope so I haven't stood at the crest of the dome.

Descend by rapping the route on two ropes.

The pro is mostly natural - just a few bolts on the route. Bring small wires (maybe small cams nowadays) for the crux. I did the OW back in the days of tube chocks - I assume big cams are the ticket now.