Ramses

I thought this was a great route, hard and sustained, but with rests between the hard sections. Good gear, but takes some work. Rope drag is a serious issue. I used a 70m rope folded in half as a double rope and still had lots of drag at the end. Use double ropes AND long slings, and watch for the rope running through cracks, especially at the top of the initial dihedral.

Start: Ramses is on the Isis buttress in what some people call the Book Binding area at the left of The Book. From George's Tree, walk left to a big recessed area at the back of which is Book of the Dead. On the right side of this recess are the very good crack climbs of Sports Pages, Road Kill, Living Dead, Dead Boy and Dead Boy Direct. On the left of this recess is the Isis buttress. Isis (10a) is the huge right facing corner. (From right to left) Ramses, King Tut, and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing climb the outside face of the buttress. Start Ramses from the top of a block left of the Isis diherdal below the right edge of the buttress.

The climb: Climb easy cracks to a right facing corner left of the huge Isis right facing corner. Climb the corner using a surprising great layback crack to its top and a ceiling. Climb the ceiling at about 5.9 or so. Watch that your rope doesn't drag through the crack at the lip. I ran my right rope up this corner and didn't clip the left rope until I moved left. And then I didn't clip the right rope until after the final crux. If you're climbing on double 9s you may not want to do this, because you will be climbing on a single 9 most of the time.

Move left to a shallow right facing corner. You can step left out of this corner for a rest and to see the controversial King Tut bolt. You probably don't want to clip the bolt because of rope drag, unless you use a double length sling. Make a few moves up the corner to a ceiling and a huge bucket. Getting over this ceiling seemed like the technical crux to me, although Rossiter calls it only 10a. Up and down, maybe 20 times. Very frustrating to have such a big hold and not be able to step up onto it.

Continue up to another ceiling. The actual crux may be here, moving up into a left facing corner to reach a jug. You can hook a good sling on the jug. I really struggled here to get gear from a stem, but I missed a good sit-on-the-horn rest. There is a good green Alien that is hard to see, underneath on the right.

The traverse right beneath the 4th roof looks hard and intimidating, but as soon as you step off the bucket onto the slab it's over. Climb a short right facing corner to the final ceiling. It looks logical to turn this ceiling on the left, but it's hard. Instead climb the final roof on the right onto the arete. There are usually fixed slings below this final ceiling for the hard routes on the right facing wall. Rope drag is serious at this point. Hopefully you haven't clipped your left rope into anything recently and you can swing it left over the last couple of roofs. Climb up a bit, place a directional medium cam and hike left to the bolt anchors of King Tut.

A 70m rope folded in two just barely reaches the anchors with the belayer up a ways on top of a block.

Descent:A 70m reaches the ground from the bolts. According to the King Tut description you can rap with a 60m if you rap around the corner to the west (climber's left).

3 or 4 sets small cams. I used almost all of 3 sets of Aliens from blue to red and a set of small offset Friends. Singles or doubles above that to gold Camalot. Full set of micronuts, single set of regular nuts. There are good horns to sling at the second and third ceilings. Double ropes highly recommended and lots of long slings. 20 slings total including a few draws. If using a 60m rope see description for descent.