Free Friends

This is one of the premier routes on Chimney Rock. Steep, sustained, well protected crack climbing nearly all the way.

P1) starts in the left of two cracks. Vertical sustained liebacking right off the deck. About 15 feet up, and from a good stance, you cross into the right (dirty looking for a few more feet) crack. You’ll see the crack soon turns perfect hands through an overhang. After the bulge, easy face climbing takes you up to a very large ramp. The best belay is around the corner left via an airy step to a nice ledge. 5.9+?

P2) the money pitch. More steep liebacking just below the surfboard shaped roof. Fixed piece here as of 2017. Pull the roof via hero moves and get rewarded with 40+ feet of off width climbing via large flake. This thing will eat as many #4 Camalots as you can feed it. Pro can also be placed in cracks/flakes on the adjacent face. Belay just before (very small ledge) or just after the thin hands bulge that comes after the offwidth climbing is over. Missing the ramp could be devestating. After pulling the sharp, black ‘roof’, exit right onto the large ledge, though the handcrack appears to continue upwards. 5.10c

P3) Follow the ramp to the right until a large block. Above is a thin hand crack splitting yet another roof. The slab protecting this roof is pretty interesting. Thin hands through the roof turns to perfect hands in a corner. Above the hand crack, rock quality deteriorates, but gentle pulls on the larger blocks lead right to the summit.

5.8+?

This route is to the right of Cooper Hiser. It is easiest to locate the surfboard shaped roof 1/2 way up the route and follow it down to the base. Free Friends starts in the obvious crack at the base way below the roof, but doesn’t stay in it. (You could, but it’s a tougher variation to the 1st pitch). Free Friends moves over into the hand crack to the right 15 feet up.

Gear to #4 camalot or equivalent