Off The Cuff

The first pitch, as described in the Rossiter guide, is fun and worth doing if you have a few minutes. It is only about 30 feet of climbing (fingers- to hands-sized crack that can be jammed or done as a lieback).

The second pitch is not recommended. As descibed in the guidebook, you climb a 10 inch crack behind a flake. I got into the offwidth, threw a sling around the top of the flake (the only real protection at this point), made a few offwidth moves, and swung my body to the outside of the flake. As my body was making the swing, the top several feet of the flake tilted away from the wall with me and then thudded back into place. There is a tiny (non visible) fracture through the flake. I nearly pitched off the climb while being clipped to a 500 lb. rock!! My belayer said that the top of the flake tilted so far away from the rock that she didn't understand why it went back into place. We have decided that the only reason it did, was because the momentum of my body was moving back into the wall when it tilted.

Basically, don't do the second pitch until this flake falls.

Standard Eldo rack.