American Flesh Dance (Combination of The Flesh plus American Ghost Dance)

Description general: This route is an amalgam of two older routes on Black Velvet wall combined into a less difficult line. The route described here avoids the first 5.12 a pitch of American Ghostdance and combines the easier pitches of both routes into a more moderate grade of 5.10b/c. The route offers an alternate to the extremely crowded routes directly to the right (Prince of Darkness, Dreams of Wild Turkeys). The upper pitch (s) of the route are bold but not in the league of boldness of Rock Warrior.

Pitch description:

Pitch 1 – 5.9 130 feet: Climb the first pitch of Refried brains to the chains – a beautiful crack line. At the top of this pitch either belay or continue up the next pitch to its belay. Pitch 2 – 5.10a/b 70 feet: Step right under the small roof and turn it on the right. Climb the crack and face past a bolt to a curving ledge. Put in your own belay here with some small to medium camming units. Pitch 3 – 5.10a/b 180 feet: Move to the right, place gear in the small left facing corner then move easily across the face to the right to join the second pitch of American Ghostdance at the 3rd bolt. Clip the bolt, climb the thin varnish (crux) to another bolt then go straight up on easier terrain with natural protection past a few small plants all the way to the big ledge to the right of the large right facing corner. No established belay exists here so you will need to build your own. Pitch 4 – 5.10 120 feet: From the ledge you can see a bolt about 30 feet up and slightly right – climb carefully but easily to this bolt. Follow the well spaced bolt line that curves out right then back left to the belay passing a total of 5 (6?) bolts. No natural gear is available except a wire near the first bolt. This is classic, exposed, spicy Black Velvet Wall climbing. Unfortunately all the bolts are rusty ¼ inch original gear. The belay is also old bolts that we backed up with two good wired stoppers. Pitch 5 etc– Appears to be more of the same as pitch 4. (We chose to climb left into Refried brains so we could rappel safely.)

Approach – Walk into the Black Velvet wall, traverse left along the wall under the huge boulder to the crack that marks the start of Refried brains. The route takes the first pitch of Refried brains and then wanders up the wall to the right of that route. Descent – Climb all the way to the top and walk off or traverse left to Refried brains and rappel off (2 ropes).

Single set of cams to 3 inches including some microcams and wires.