NEW LIFE (5.11b 5P FA: Trevor Macdonald, Jim Martinello.)
A great route for which I could not find a topo, so here is what I would say. Thanks to Nick Elson for his input. The first 3 pitches are dry even in the rain. If you want to do only P1, 2 and 3 bring 2 60m ropes to rappel.
Rack— 2 camalots from .3 to #3, with extra .75 and #1. Nuts, long slings
Approach: (15-20 min) the route is to the immediate left of Tall Skinny People
Drive between 1 and 1.1 km from where the cement ends and gravel starts on the Mamquam. There is a small pile of stones near the road. The trailhead is past the Angel’s Crest trail.
Walk straight up, following occasional pink and blue flagging. After awhile, you will be on the right side of a white wash-out gully. Just past this, the left side of Zodiac Wall touches down (to your right).
At the corner where the Zodiac Wall meets the forest floor, there is a pink flag hanging. Gear up and leave your pack here. Follow a small ledge which initially descends a few feet, then rises up. Pass one fixed rope, go a bit further and pull up another fixed rope to a boulder at the base of a long white corner. Just to the right of this is the big chasm of Tall Skinny People. Here is a pic of P1.
The route is the corner just to the left of the wide chimney (Tall Skinny People). The pitch goes through the blocky pod, then up and slightly left. P1 ends at a small tree high in the middle of the white face. Just up and left is the layback crack to the 11c pitch.
Climb: P1 5.10a Climb the corner. At or just below the tree, step left into a crack on a ramp. Follow this up past a small tree to a good ledge and a gear belay. A very fine pitch.
P2 5.11b Climb the steep layback/jam crack above, twist through a short chimney, then do some wild stemming and a massive long reach left under the small roof (green Camalot). Belay off the cedar and/or gear. Wild and crazy, burly, but good gear.
P3 5.10c/d depending on your hand size. Fire up the v-slot. At its end, step up and right to a stance and a belay on gear. OR throw in a few long slings (on face and in last pieces at top of V-slot) and link to P4. Burly but good gear and rests.
P4 5.11b Traverse right from the top of the V-slot, doing delicate moves past two pins and some gear placements. Make a cruxy reach right around the arête and belay off two bolts. Tricky. FAs said this one is 10c...quite a sandbag at this grade, or maybe they just climb ridiculously hard, I dunno.
P5 5.10a/b Do a couple of grunty moves up and left of the belay, then step right into a crack. Move up, then make a massive up and sideways reach under the tree, and continue up until you get into the forest. Straightforward.
Descent: You have 3 options
a) If you only want to do P1 and 2, rap from slings on the cedar tree at the top of P2.
b) Walk along to climber’s left along the trail. Keep looking down to your left. When you see a yellow fixed line, descend to that. Hand-descend the fixed nylon line and keep walking to skier’s left (it’s pretty obvious). Drop through a slot, and at a chain you can setup up a rap or if you feel confident just carefully downlcimb through the treed gully. You will eventually find another fixed line to rappel, and at the end of this, walk off 20m to skier’s right back to your pack.
c) Head up and right onto Astro Ledge and do some of the routes there.
Can you make a printer friendly version? Thanks
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