Piecrust Promise

Piecrust Promise, two-star 11a in Bozeman Rock Climbs (page 179 / route #201), is definitely worthy of the two stars it gets in the guidebook. HOWEVER, it is one of the more extreme sandbags I've encountered in Gallatin Canyon. Crux low on the route with 3 bolts, 5.11a, how bad could it be?? Well, I ended up feeling a bit like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy's football... should have known better, it's Gallatin Canyon!

The crux felt like maybe 11c, followed by lots of very sustained 5.10 with some 11a moves thrown in here and there. In the entire 70' pitch there are very few rests where you can shake out, and nothing close to hands-free.

Moreover, while I don't think I'd give it an R rating, it is still a somewhat serious undertaking due to the very sustained climbing with multiple tricky and fairly desperate gear placements above the bolt protected crux. I placed several clusters of two or more pieces because there were very few placements I felt great about. And even the crux felt serious because clipping the second bolt felt a bit desperate, and if you fell trying to make the clip there's a good change of hitting the ledge/giant flake that you stand on to make the first clip.

The bottom line is that this is a pretty cool route, but it would probably be rated 12- at least in the local gym. Consider top-roping rather than leading unless you're feeling really strong and confident.

This single pitch route is accessed from the top of the first pitch of Zig Zag and finishes on the top of the Spare Rib buttress, the downclimb-traverse to the base of the climb is a little weird, but is actually quite easy and straightforward and it's easy to protect if for the second. This route would be very easy to toprope from the top of the Spare Rib buttress.

Above the bolt-protect crux section, you want small cams and small wires and one red Camalot (or equivalent) which provides a critical placement about 15 or 20 feet from the top