Attack of the Arc'gucci Clones 5.11 six pitch

[highlinestu]

hello all

i'll start with the back story to this route, about 3 years ago i established a high line going from the opal wall to the very top of the apron side, spending some time up there on the opal side rigging the line i noticed the wall on the apron side had great route potential, I did not return until this early spring, i had been doing a ton of development in a new (secret) bouldering area with two other people and eventually got bored with it and wanted something different at which point i set to work cleaning the line for a few weeks in the rain, after it was dry enough to give it a better cleaning it was ready to go, that was almost 2 months ago. i went up to do the route on 4 different occasions with different people each time having to bail due to either the wetness or my partners being unable to get up the pitches, so today i broke out my self belay device and went for the ascent by myself and presto! "Attack Of The Arc'Gucci Clones" is complete!


Approach: Approach as for Rock on, when at the start of rock on follow trail left towards opal wall and up, passing the start of the opal, the climb is visible now. continue up the gully following faint trail on the opal side until you reach the base of the climb, can't miss it!

Gear: you will need cams up to 4.5" with doubles of 0.75"-1". Bring 1 or 2 alpine draws 5-6 quick draws. I did not use any nuts but bring some if you like.

The Climb: All anchors are Fixed. mix trad and bolted route up near vertical rock with some small over hung sections, the first half of the route requires a lot from the upper body, with the second half demanding technical feet and strong fingers, the line weaves back and forth packing in a lot of climbing, i think its a pretty dang rad route!

Pitch #1 5.10 Start up slab by arete until it is possible to move right into a near horizontal power layback, climb this until you gain the lip and follow the crack back left and up to the anchor.

Pitch #2 5.10 continue following crack up and slightly left to two opposing pancake flakes which climb beautifully straight up, one these flakes die out climb up and right gaining a very cool exposed no hands rest near the first bolt, move directly right to a wild move to gain some more sweet pancake flakes (shorties may have to jump) climb the flakes straight up until they die out and clip the second bolt, gain the small foot ledge up and right to clip the anchors.

Pitch #3 5.11 Reach up to clip a bolt to the left of the anchors, then climb down and left to gain the corner, climb this straight up till its end and clip a bolt, make some crispy/balancey slab moves past two more bolts to gain the stunning corner system climb this up to where it turns completely horizontal, make the transition and traverse left with some wicked undercling moves, follow easy terrain up and left to a tough move to gain the big tree and the tree ledge, continue straight up to anchors.

Pitch #4 5.11 slightly right of the anchor boulder up to a ledge and a bolt, boulder again straight up to gain a lay back crack system which will take you to the lip of the roof, turn the lip with awesome moves, then great face climbing will take you up to a tiny ledge and the second bolt, make some hard moves to gain the third bolt and up and left to anchors.

Pitch #5 5.11+ climb left clip a bolt and boulder straight up to gain micro crimps then left to gain easier ground, climb straight up to a dead end at a roof, gain a crimp rail over the lip clip a bolt and traverse left on tiny holds and horrible feet (Campus anyone?) once at the end of the crimper rail make a throw for a awesome hueco and clip a bolt. continue up and left to anchor

Pitch #6 5.9 walk left on tiny ledge and clip and bolt then climb straight up then right following the easiest way to the anchor and top of climb! you top out right where the trail from the apron to the upper climbs i.e. buttress/ultimate everything comes close to the gully's lip. either continue up to other climbs or you can rap down the route

Descent: 4 30m raps get you the ground. off the top do a 30m rap to the top of the 4th pitch the a 30m rap to the tree ledge, walk right on the tree ledge over a cool side walk like chunk of rock to a fixed anchor by a large tree, do another 30m rap to the top of the 3rd pitch, and a final 30m rap to the ground, WARNING!!!! all raps are near the maximum length TIE THE ENDS OF YOUR ROPES

FA Stu Smith (self belay) July 8th 2014

huge thanks to my friend Ryan Cormack who was instrumental in the apron-opal high line hauling back breaking loads up the apron with me, and to my partners who i convinced to hike up and belay me on attempts Amanda Shpeley, King Can Al, Ryan Cormack, Charles Rutledge

Pitch 1,2 pitch 3 is barely visible
Pitch 3 steeper then it looks here, its near veritical start of pitch four
Crux section of pitch five
top out anchors
Apron-opal highline gap
carrying 4 ropes a full rack to #5 camolot, hammer, brushes and a bunch of other stuff down the gully is heaaavvvy, and this little mutt didn't help at all!

[AmandaShale]

Nice work Stu!
So much easier when it's properly cleaned eh?

[Moos]

We climbed the first three pitches of this on sunday, and then unfortunately had to bail. Great job on the cleaning! The few bolts we encountered were all perfectly placed and the climbing was very enjoyable. I seriously recommend taking a #5 BD (as suggested above), we placed ours on each of the three pitches. Compared to most climbs on the Chief this route gets a ton of shade, making it ideal for the current hot weather.

Thanks for all the hard work! I will have to go back sometime soon to do the full climb.

[highlinestu]

Moos glad you enjoyed the first half of it! How bout the second and 3rd pitch!? Glad you took the #5 the first time I freed the second pitch I didn't have it and found myself rather terrified. Make sure you go back, the 4th and 5th pitches are not ones to be missed!

Cheers stu

[Moos]

The pancake flakes on pitch 2 were extremely fun. I thought the traverse at the top was hard, especially for shorter people, but my ladyfriend at 5'4'' had no trouble leading the pitch. She did have a hard time with the slab crux on pitch 3, which I climbed using my sheer tallness. It's not an easy move, but well protected by the bolt and straightforward to aid through. The roof traverse is excellent. I had a fair bit of rope drag on the third pitch, make sure to save some draws for after the roof.

[tobyfk]

There was at least one ascent today and another team hot on our heels, so perhaps someone will post a review of the full route. I will just say that "WARNING!!!! all raps are near the maximum length TIE THE ENDS OF YOUR ROPES" is an understatement. Actually two of the raps are significantly longer than 30m .... bring a 70m rope if you plan to rappel.

[highlinestu]

cool to hear you did it, regarding the rappel i have rappelled the route well over ten times with a 60m rope making it to all anchors safely with tied ends. perhaps the anchors and moved

[Peter]

We did most of the route the other day. It's good, hard in warm conditions, but the rap anchors really need to be done properly. Hangers with a quicklink are not ideal for the rope. I believe another party tried to update them with a single point type system with the gear they had at the time , but it still needs to be fixed. I have hangers with fixe rings and/or belay stns if someone wants to swap them out.

[TravisMcC]

I can confirm that the topo incorrectly states that you can rappel the route with a 60m. The first rappel from the top is probably possible, but it'll be close. The final rappel to the ground definitely will not reach. The middle two rappels are fine with a 60m.

It is a cool line with varied and fun moves.

I've had a couple short freinds climb this route and the general consensus is that the bolting and the grading is for tall people. A few of the clips were out of reach (from otherwise great stances) and they were forced to clip mid-sequence in the cruxes. The crux pitch is especially dicey if you're short when you go to clip the first bolt before the crux, apparently. Just a heads up if you're on the smaller side...

[evenstevens]

Just my worthless 2 cents after climbing this route.

******DO NOT RAPPEL WITH A 60M ROPE! USE A 70**********

First and last rappels will be way too close for comfort. Some rope manufacturers cut 60m ropes as 65ms, maybe that is what happened? I have a brand new 70 and the first and last raps were close with it!

Overall, if it gets a ton more traffic or a bit more cleaning it would be a 2 out of 5 star route. I would say its about 70% clean. There are quite a few loose blocks and some hollow bits waiting to be cleaned with a small crow bar. Also a cedar tree that is used off of the start of p4 is just about out of there, and needs to be removed. Also I would bring a wrench, as there were quite a few loose nuts on the route, including the crux p 5 hanger which was just about to fall off when I clipped it!

There is some fun climbing on it, p3 after the slab crux, and p.4 are worthwhile. All of the cruxes are bolted face/slab sections. I would also agree that if you are short, clipping the bolt at the start of the crux on p5 would be really really hard. I am tall with really long arms and found it a bit spicy and reachy to get that thing clipped. I also thought p 5 was a sandbag at 11+ but I haven't been climbing a ton in the last month (there was a bail biner on it).

Sorry for the criticism, but its nice to find some info on the forum's and I couldn't gauge the opinions of whether this route was worthwhile or not. I appreciate a ton the work first ascensionists do, as I love to go try new routes. To be honest this isn't high on my recommended list, sorry!

FYI, the rappels are some what set up, but temporary as two are single strand webbing/sling with single point tie-offs.