Rising Moons

A fun climb for the grade.

Approach: Hike past the Lotta Balls Wall turnoff staying on the lower trail that skirts along the base of the hill and gradually gains elevation. Spot the distinctive, square-ish, black varnished wall to your left and up the hill from you as you are hiking (i.e the Romper Room area). Continue on the low trail for a little ways until you catch the turnoff that heads up the steep hill. Look for an obvious wide chimney,as you are heading up the hill. This is the start of the climb. (Note:Rising Moons is a couple hundred feet or so to the climber's right of the square-ish, black varnished wall which houses the routes Doobie Dance, Romper Room and Algae on Parade. An easy trail allows access to Rising Moons from the Romper Room area.)

Pitch 1: Climb up through the easy, beautiful, right leaning ,varnished chimney to a large ledge. Scramble over a couple of bushes to the base of a right facing corner in a nice, cozy alcove. No fixed anchors.

Pitch 2: Climb up the right facing corner, wandering out on the face at times. Nearing the top of the pillar, you will see bolted anchors.(140 feet)

Pitch 3: Climb up the wide crack (Not much pro unless you have wide gear but climbing easy)Crack exits onto a large ledge with rap anchors around a tree. (90 feet)

Rap with two ropes. Watch out for rope eating cracks/snags.

Rappel from tree to the bolted anchors on top of pitch two, then to the top of pitch one. From the top of pitch one ,walk off to the climber's left. Easy, short downclimbing gets you to the base quickly.

************ BETTER DESCENT ROUTE **********A better descent option avoids the rope-snag potential and can be done with a single rope. From the top of the route, scramble left (east) about 30 yards to a small pine tree on a good ledge. Rappel from the pine to another rap station on a bushy ledge on the eastern side of the descent gully. From the bottom of this rap, easy scrambling leads to the base.

Standard rack. Note;If you're not comfortable with "running out" a 5.4/5.5, then you may want to bring a couple of bigger pieces for pitch 3.