Dairyland- South Nesakwatch spire

[bennygroundh20]

I took a trip up to the Nesakwatch Spires this weekend with a partner and climbed "Dairyland-5.11a"

First things first, theres a bit of information out there about this climb on different blogs and so on, grades being described as 5.10d and as 5.11a. My partner and I found the difficulty of this route to be around the 5.10+ range but we felt 5.11a to be a bit of a stretch. We approached from approximately 750m before the Rexford trail head as a washout stopped our 4x4 Ford pickup. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to an amazing Bivy rock in the basin below the Nesakwatch spires from the truck, and there was still plenty of snow around to melt for water.

Pitch 1 5.9 -Starts at in the Middle of the South Face by working your way up a superb 5.9 Hand crack, topping out at a good stance after 10 meters or so of rambling after the technical climbing ends. (50m)

Pitch 2- 5.8 -follows broken ground mostly low 5th around Left from a prow from the belay, ramble up and left for 45M or so to reach a belay stance below a small chimney (the only substandard pitch of climbing on the route)

Pitch 3- 5.10a -Start up a short Chimney and climb trending up and left into a right facing corner. Stem and crank up finger locks up the corners to where you can exit right to a small perch and find a good gear belay. 5.10-

Pitch 5- 5.10+ The supposed Crux of the route follows the Right facing corners directly above the belay and climbs through superb rock and fine movement. after topping out from the difficult climbing trend up and left to a small perch beside a Pine tree below the Impeccable and unmistakable splitter on the summit headwall. (Small gear is handy for this pitch Green alien, .3 BD)

Pitch 5- 5.10b/c Climb the spectacular splitter from hands to fingers in Fine position high on the face, be sure to bring gear from #4 BD down to small sizes, this crack can eat up #1's and 2's. Exit the finger crack at a small alcove at its terminus-Awesome!!! this pitch seems to be the real crux, but would be easily aided.

This route was well beyond my expectations for quality and cleanliness, Pitch 1 off the ground gives very high quality granite crack climbing and the route slowly amps up in difficulty throughout. The position high on the South face of Nesakwatch spire is phenomenal and the climbing and rock throughout is mind blowing.

Get on it.