Bucky Blue

This route is great: beginner climbing, solid protection all over, fun moves over clean rock, and relatively straight-forward route-finding. To top it all, it is in the shade in the summer until after noon.

Pitch 1 (100 ft): Climb directly up to a small lichen-covered block next to a small (8 ft) juniper tree. Make a traverse move to the right (5.7) to above the tree. Continue along the crack in the slab above or in the corner to the left of it to a belay on a narrow ledge with a prominent prickly pear on the right.

Pitch 2 (120 ft): Go straight up to to a horizontal crack, traverse left using the crack for feet and continue up at a flake to an easy ground. Alternative way of going right is less straightforward but works also. Neither way is particularly protectable and both lead to an easy scramble above. Either climb the large, right-facing corner (5.7) and belay from above the point where it turns left, or take an easier crack system to the right of it, to gain a large ledge next to a huge dead juniper.

Pitch 3 (100 ft): Continue in the corner up through a nice layback section (5.6) to a ridge line. Belay from a gear anchor on the ridge.

This route follows varied features starting on the right-hand slab of Rabbit Ears Slabs. To find the route, look for a small trapezoid roof covered in bright green lichen, just left of a small juniper tree. The tree and roof are about 60 ft high above the bottom of the slab. The route than continues up a large right-facing corner left of a large juniper.

Rappel: you have the option of three raps on one 70m rope, or two raps on 60m ropes tied together. There is a two-bolt rap station at the top of the route. From there, a 70m rope rap almost reaches the big dead Juniper below, with just a few easy steps downward to reach it. From the big Dead Juniper, a double-60m rap reaches the ground at route start. A 70m rope rap gets you to another good bolted anchor, and a third rap from there places you at route start.

Walk-off: It is possible to scramble down on the other side of the ridge into a gully leading to the right. The gully is dirty at first, but soon becomes merely boulders and okay. When it turns into a slab, exit to the right and traverse the slab to the start of Bucky Blue.

The first juniper (60 ft high) is small and in poor shape and should not be used for protection or as an anchor. The route protects well with small to mid-sized pieces.