Life During Wartime

We climbed the first pitch of this route the weekend The US started bombing Kabul. We finished it a year later. The name is from a talking heads song and seemed appropriate. The route is on a buttress about a half mile north of the small wooden outhouse along the Buckhorn Wash road. The buttress is in back from the road and has a huge pillar with an unknown route to the left of the pillar. Our route starts left of that on a very overhanging wall with a steep corner system starting about 130' off the ground. Pitch 1 "this ain't no party" starts at A2 nailing past two bolts into A3 beaks past another bolt, then two bolts move right avoiding the loose flake above. Continue on hooks up and right to a three bolt hanging belay. Pitch 2 "this ain't no disco" climbs the main overhanging dihedral system on beaks to a bolt where I removed a TV sized block. Then continues on beaks to a break in the corner system. (The outside edge of the dihedral is very sharp. Possibly rope cutting in the event of a fall). Move left of a rivet and bolt to rejoin the corner system. Easier but still very steep nailing leads to a short rivet ladder and continues up cracks past another rivet to an A2 crack to reach a two bolt belay on a small ledge. There are many large loose flakes above the belay (don't touch them). Pitch two is almost 70 meters long. The final pitch climbs cracks on the exposed arete to the left of all the loose stuff A2. A 5.8 mantle reaches the summit. We belayed from a crack in a short cliffband about 15 feet from the rim. To descend walk across the top of the pillar buttress, then walk down slabs into a small slot canyon. Go down the slot until it opens up and becomes a large dryfall. Skirt the dryfall to the left and continue down loose talus back to your car.

15 beaks, 2 big peckers, 8 blades, 3 LA's, 3 1/2" angles, 4 5/8" angles, 1 1/4" sawed off angle. Stoppers, small to medium cams, 1 #4 camalot, a selection of hooks. 70 meter ropes.