Pearl Drops

Superb face climbing, thoughtful in places but always with good holds over clean rock, makes Pearl Drops 4 out of 5 stars. The hardest moves are right off the high ledge on the steep bulge. From there, interesting climbing continues through 4 more bolts. After the last bolt, a hard direct line with long fall potential can be taken to the anchor. Moving right, then up keeps the grade much more reasonable.

Pearl Drops is the obvious right bolt line, with the first bolt on a bulge. That bulge is accessed from a ledge on top of a lower face of somewhat poor rock.

To approach the Vogel's 1992 guide reads, "Start at the sharp flake to the right of Pearl Necklace." Our experience was the following:

• The most straight forward access to the starting ledge is via a small buttress right of the first bolt. A 5.0 scramble leads to a #1 Camalot placement with an easy step across to the top of the ledge (recommended).

• Climb the cleaner crack that starts a body length up the center of the lower face. We didn't attempt, so no gear recommendations.

5 bolts to a two bolt anchor with slings/fixes biners shared with

Pearl Necklace

. An optional finger sized piece can be found between bolt 1 and 2.