Vital Phenomena

Vital Phenomena rises through a previously unclimbed 50 foot swath of stone between Sam's Swan Song and Ghostrider. The second pitch is downright classic for its style. It climbs mostly flawless rock, is very direct, sustained and is probably the longest of its difficulty on the cliff. The protection is in the style of routes like Benedictus and Fruit Cup Wall - the hardest moves are well protected but expect runouts on easier terrain. The first 40 feet of the pitch are shared with Hierophant Tower but where that route traverses right into a broken vegetated dike, Vital Phenomena makes a move left and continues for another 140ish feet of new terrain. The two bolts on Hierophant were replaced, the remainder of the bolts on this pitch are new and were placed on lead.

Pitch 1: The easy intro pitch that allows access to The Ghost, Ghostrider, VMC Direct, etc. 200' 5.7

Pitch 2: The one you came for. Directly up from the belay, left of the obvious arching crack of the Ghost/Ghostrider, pass a small roof on the left. Small gear that you have to work for takes you to rapidly improving rock quality. A couple of bolts in an obtuse corner leads you past the first crux and eventually a small stance. Span left into a right leaning splitter that leads to the upper headwall. Five bolts worth of cryptic, well featured face climbing leads past a small roof. From the stance above the roof move up and left to a great ledge and gear belay that is shared with Sam's. 185' 5.11

Pitch 3: Easy climbing left off the belay then back right gains a chossy gully ending at an excellent belay ledge shared with the Ghost/Ghostrider. 100' 5.6

Descent: Three 100 foot rappels on Ghostrider brings you back to the top of the buttress where you will need two ropes to get to the ground. Alternatively, top out on Ghostrider or Sam's.

Single rack from tiny to #2 Camalot. 3 green Camalots. RPs. Runners