This is an adventurous route that follows the most obvious, diagonal splitter on the wall.

P1. (10+, 110 feet) Start on the right side of a pillar, and work your way up and slightly right to a splitter hand crack in a corner. 3 bolts and a couple #1 camalots protect the moves through the funky roofs.  Make sure to put a sling on the second bolt or face crippling drag from the downward facing flake.  Belay at a bolted stance above the second roof.

(Note:  this pitch was originally done without any bolts, but was retro'd by the FA party in 2020 to make it safer.  The 3rd bolt in the roof is next to a #2 camalot placement, but the rock didn't inspire confidence so we added a this bolt.)

P2, (9, 165 feet) This is an airy pitch that begins by climbing the crack above the belay until reaching a small, half dead tree. Place good gear and traverse left around the corner (spicy). Carefully pull around another roof and continue following the arete and various crack systems. Towards the top of the wall, angle right and belay at a bush ledge where it is possible to scramble the remaining way.

Descent: From the top, rap 85 feet off the back side of the Rough Neck Wall via an obvious large tree and descend a scree field until it is possible to loop right to your packs.

Donuts and Nicotine

Thread the Needle

Guillotine

Key to the V Door

Tool Pusher

Rig Builder

Ruffian Arete

The Derrickman

Iliad

Original Roughneck

Tic-Tac-Toe

Exfoliation Station

Roughneck Odyssey

Chop Suey Slab

This is a great techy route with lots of exposure and cerebral climbing. It starts on Roughneck Odyssey but breaks right just before the blue-collar climbing starts (below bolt 4) and climbs the steep wall via the double corners. At the point where Roughneck Odyssey becomes a chimney, make a funky move to gain the dark colored corner. It’s all bolts (11) from here. Follow the corner to its top, step left then back right, and pull the bulge on great holds to a semi-precarious stance. Step up then transition left into the tan corner. Follow this to the steep(er), right-facing corner and a few more crux moves to gain an anchor up and left. This was equipped with lower-off, steel, capture biners.

Note: you need a 70 meter rope to lower back to the start!, but you can lower onto the boulders along the base, uphill from the start, with a 60 meter! Do not attempt to lower all the way back down with a 60 meter -- have your partner TR and clean.

Thread the Needle is a super fun sport route up the South face of the Roughneck. With a light rack, it can be combined with the upper pitches of

Exfoliation Station

for a fun 4 pitch adventure. The first two pitches can be easily linked.

P1. Start at the far left of the South face buttress near large fir trees climbing past 7 bolts to a 2 bolt anchor. Staying left of the bolt line can make the climbing a few letter grades harder, but monkeying up the large flake on the right is easy fun, 70', 5.10a.

P2. Continue up the wall

Threading the Needle

between

Exfoliation Station

and

Key to the V Door

, 11 bolts to 2 bolt anchor, 5.10c.

Rap route, or continue up

Exfoliation Station

.

Guillotine is one of the better routes at the crag! Start atop the apex of the cliff’s base on a flat rock (The “Chopping Block”).

P1. Climb the bolted, slabby face on cool smears and edges past a small overlap and into a triangular, stemming corner. At this point, the route does a 180 and becomes a perfect hand/fist crack through the roof and the headwall above. Belay at a shared anchor on the ledge. There’s a bolt at the lip to keep the rope out of the crack (and so we don’t tempt fate by putting gear into the flake). The flake flexes on the bottom but would not come off with even the largest of crowbars. I use it to chimney on. Gear: cannot recall # of bolts -- maybe 10?. For the crack, it is nice to have one # 1, two #2s, and two #3s.

P2. Continue up the moderate corner on gear to an anchor at the beginning of the 3rd Class finish, ~ 5.7.

This is a slabby, mixed, second pitch to

Rig Builder

or

Tool Pusher

. It climbs the face and the arete left of

Thread the Needle

. Start up past 4 bolts to slightly runout face connecting discontinuous cracks above. Finish at the 2nd pitch anchor for

Thread the Needle

.

Start on the slab just right of

Donuts and Nicotine

, climbing technical face up and left to a stand up move at the underling in a block. Clip high, and traverse up and right along the upside down staircase to a crux at the lip. Continue up past 3 more bolts (not over yet!) and up easier face to anchors.

Start up left of

Exfoliation Station

climbing technical face up and left to a stand up move at the underling in a block. Clip high, and traverse up and right along the upside down staircase to a crux at the lip. Continue up past 3 more bolts (not over yet!) and up easier face to anchors.

If this route started on the ground, it would be a 4 star classic. The Ruffian Arete tackles the obvious arete between

The Derrickman

and Original Roughneck. Start up

Thread the Needle

, Original Roughneck, or Under the Boardwalk until it is possible to move right and clip the first bolt left of the arete. Work up both sides of the arete until passing a roof, then move right up the slab to the anchor.

The Derreckman is a tough two pitch route up the far right corner before the South face, directly left of the Ruffian arete. There are multiple options to start, but if you want to link into one pitch, it's best to start with P1 of

Thread the Needle

. Otherwise cruise up the Original Roughneck flake start, the direct start to the right, or the Boardwalk. Continue up the steepening corner to a pod (optional belay with 0.75-1). Continue up challenging finger crack to an easier stretch then up to the roofs. Stretch up from the tooth, and clip the first bolt, then lieback up overlaps to crux moves at the lip and another bolt. Continue up to a large upper roof. Place a #3 if you brought it or run it put on easier terrain up the left face of the roof past a final bolt to 2 bolt anchor on the prow.

Rap off the other side down to P1 of

Thread the Needle

or to the ground with 2 ropes. This will improve with traffic.

Original Roughneck is a route I climbed in 2013 that had seen a prior FA. There was a two pin anchor at 100', and it appears the route finished there based on cleaning.

Start up the paper thin, right-facing flake behind a fir tree. Climb up and right connecting into a double crack system that is climbed to a roof. Pull the roof on the left, and continue up thin crack moves to the

Ruffian Arete

anchor (.10+, 110').

You can continue up to the top in 1 or 2 more pitches. P2 pulls the small roof at the anchor on the right. Climb up to a bolt at the roof, and pull through to belay 30' above (.10-), or continue up another 50' to the upper anchor (5.8).

Rap the route.

The first pitch has fun, discontinuous cracks to a corner to a bolted arete to a bolted anchor with hooks at 90' and is about 5.9 but a little heads up. The second pitch is lower angle then steep (probably 10a) with some loose rock and a bit of routefinding. It is possible to traverse to the 3rd pitch anchor on

Original Roughneck

or step over the pillar and walk off the back (may be snowy in winter). The first pitch maybe 3-star, and the 2nd pitch is probably 1-star.

Exfoliation Station is one of the main crack weaknesses up the south face, and packs a punch on it's second pitch.  It was first climbed ground up with some aid, and a direct entry to the second pitch was cleaned and bolted with Barry Gay Winter 2021.

P1. Climb the original start up splitter on right face past a few blocks, and work back left to a roof and a thrutchy corner. Pull up and right to a bolted belay for

Thread the Needle

, 75' 5.10 b/c.

P2. Continue up corner above to two bolts pulling the roof and corner above. Continue into the fun, bombay corner, and at the roof climb left to the bolted

TTN's

P2 anchor, 100', 5.11b/c.

P3. Pull into the elephant's trunk off the anchor and up into a fun, hanging hand crack to the right. Continue past a rap anchor, and belay on a ledge at the base of the upper wall, 65', 5.9.

P4. There are several options to choose from here. My favorite goes straight up the splitter finger crack and up overlaps past a bolt to a 2 bolt anchor, 90' 5.10-.

Rap the route.

P1 requires a very diverse set of “blue collar” type climbing skills! Climb the shallow, left-facing corner marked by 3 grey bolts and a small pine. At the end of the corner, continue into a nice flake, protected by small to medium cams, which leads to the arching chimney thing at a (4th) bolt (

Iliad

moves onto the right wall just below this bolt

). Make weird chimney-like moves past this to gain a stemming dihedral and a couple more bolts. Pull up and onto a ramp of sorts, and continue past a bolt and gear to where it’s possible to step left onto the face. A small TCU and #2 Camalot are good here. Crank a small overlap, and climb the face and crux roof above on 3 more bolts to an anchor on the ramp/ledge.

P2. Climb the short hand crack to the top (right side) of the Guillotine feature, then go up an easy (~5.6) chimney/groove to an anchor. This basically the top, or at least the top of any 5th Cass climbing. You can continue up another 50' or so of busy 4th Class to gain the summit.

This is another fun route on generally superb rock. It's the left hand bolted line of the lower two slab routes. It

was bolted generously (and with beefy 12mm bolts) for those leaders pushing the grade.

Climb the short, left-facing corner to gain the slab up and right. Continue up and leftward along the bolt line, passing some interesting corner changing moves, to a few thin crux sections below the anchor (black chain).

We've been on the fence about a 2nd pitch but will probably explore that more this season.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Main Wall