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Peak Mountain 3

Don't you want me baby

FA Win Cowger, Victoria McGruer, James Guilinger, March 2021
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

This route was singing out "Don't you want me baby" to me while I was gearing up to climb Mental Physics. I was surprised that I couldn't find any information about this 200ft crack in any of the guidebooks or Mountain Project, especially on such a popular rock as Lenticular Dome. I decided to give it a go for my first first-ascent.

The beginning of the climb starts on a low angle ramp below a small roof. You then gain a flared crack on the ramp's left side with some decent placements for protection. You pull a small move off the ramp into the flared crack onto low-angle terrain to a big ledge.

Once on the large ledge, you gain a second crack below a larger roof on the left. The protection near this large ledge is sparse, but the ledge is so large you can easily jump on it if you happened to pop off, which you wouldn't because it's 5.3 until the next piece of protection.

Climb below the large roof to the left and gain a more vertical crack. The route's main crux is gaining the crack here or traversing the slab, whichever technique you are less familiar with.

Above the vertical crack, the angle eases off a bit to 5.3 for the last 100 ft. This section is a self-protecting gully that you can't pop out of, but you can place gear wherever you please. This section does have some loose rock in the gully, so the leader should be careful not to kick anything out. Hopefully, the top of the climb will clean up a bit with time.

Build an anchor beyond the large boulder and cactus in cracks at the top. This was a rope stretcher for a 70 m, and a 60 m rope might need a little simul-climbing to get to the top or might need to pitch it out in two pitches. If doing it in two pitches, I would start the second pitch at the beginning of the steep crack section on the small ledge right after the traverse below the large roof. I just like long pitches, so I linked them.

Personally, if someone put rap rings and an anchor right before the gully section, I wouldn't be mad and could see people warming up on this for Mental Physics. Anyways, it is still a really long and fun climb that gets you safely to the top of Lenticular Dome, with one of the best views in Wonderland.

The protection is great throughout the route besides the 10 ft section above the ledge that I mentioned.

Who knows, maybe someone will claim the FA now that I have put it up; until then, it's ours.

Location

To the left of Unconscious Obscenity at the ramp with a large yucca at its base below a mini roof.

Protection

Double rack of cams to #3. Single rack of nuts. Some parties could probably get by with a single rack of nuts and cams. Totems and offsets are really nice in the flared sections.