The Odyssey

This route is an Odyssey, and seems right on par for what a Sun Wall route should be. This is probably one of the easier routes on this wall to start out on.

P1: The Shull/Lambert topo shows a gradual rightward rising traverse to get to the crack. Don't do this. From the rack-up spot below Prey traverse straight right on a 3rd class slab until you are directly below the crack, then go straight up on eyebrows. You'll have to make a couple committing slab moves with gear at your feet, but you shouldn't hit the slab if you fall. If it seems dangerous, you're in the wrong spot.

P2: Climb the obvious and well protected crack. It takes lots of hand sized pieces. When the crack ends, exit to the right (a little spicey) to a bolted belay on a sloping ramp.

P3: Traverse left back to the crack from the belay. Do a hard high-step/layback to get back in the crack (harder for short folks)...this was a little scary with gear at your feet and a slab below. There are 2 hammered hexes in the crack you can use for pro once established in the crack. Clip a bolt then traverse left into the water groove. This is the crux if you're tall, I thought the move right at the start of the pitch (liebacking up to the crack) was harder than this section. Once in the water groove, climb up and then to the right to belay in an obvious scoop.

P4: Climb easy eyebrows on the right until the rope runs out. The topo calls this "5.9", but it's much easier. Maybe 5.6 or 5.7.

Rap down Prey with 2 ropes. At the top, look for two bolts to the left of the Odyssey near two dead trees. I can't remember if it was 2 or 3 raps...it seems like 2, but I could be wrong.

On the Sun Wall. Take the Sun Wall trail, branching left off of the Nose trail at the appropriate time. The trail will hit the wall at a large apron, go left through a tree tunnel up to a nice little ledge under the "raven's roost" that the hard route "Prey" climbs over. This is a nice spot to rack up, but we saw a timber rattler here once, and another large snake. Take note of where Prey is (locate a line of bolts) then Odyssey is the second water streak to the right with a long crack starting about 50' up.

Standard rack. I find extra .5's and .75's to be especially useful in the eyebrows, which there are a lot of on this route.