Desperate Reality

First led by the legendary Jon Frank wearing cloth athletic tape over knee-length tube socks, since the stiff-soled high tops of the day didn’t work well for throwing foot jams over one’s head. Unless you can crank eight one-arm pull-ups and do alternating one-arm lockoffs on an inch-wide door jam (just a couple of Frank's remarkable feats of gymnastic strength), it’s highly recommended that you boot up for this one.

Step up onto a boulder at the start of the incredible splitter roof crack, take a deep breath, and go. Opening fist jams lead to bomber hands, a short section of fingerlocks (crux), and then back to hands before reaching the finishing holds. Exhale. -banks Banks 2016

Desperate Reality and El Corador are accessed by a unique 30-foot tall granite corridor that seemingly leads straight into the cliff. In the hottest months of the year, the air flowing through this narrow stone passageway feels like natural air conditioning, one of the many attractions at this climbing area. Find the entrance to the corridor by heading down and around the low-angled slab from which the previous two routes start.

Walk about thirty feet down the granite hallway until a break opens up on the right. Desperate Reality starts right at this opening and shoots straight out nearly horizontally until curving up and out of sight at the lip of the great roof. Despite starting so low to the ground, this climb still features incredible exposure because the ground slopes sharply downward below the climb. -banks Banks 2016

Cams to a #4 Friend. Two-bolt anchor with rap rings.