Putterman Drops the Soap

p1. Start with three pitons to gain the obvious splitter. All clean aid above here. This crack becomes a left-facing flare 70 feet higher (strenuous, even just aiding) which dumps you out onto a slab; scuttle up ten feet then left to a ledge and belay (#6 Camalot) in right-facing corner (A1+, 5.7, 110').

p2. Up the easy groove above the belay to a ledge under car-size triangular roof. Up the right side, continue up wide crack/flare above (5.9) till it ends. Wander up and left to summit (A1, 5.9, 100').

This is the obvious direttissima line, dropping down the south face like a dropped, umm, thing. About 80 feet left of the start of the regular route.

gear:

Tomahawks: 3 (small/med)

Cams: 1-2 each yellow Alien to 2.25 inches. 2-3 each 2.5”- largest Camalot.

Valley Giant: 1

No nuts.

Descent. There’s no existing fixed anchor on summit. We left an Alien, just west of the summit and rappelled with two 70m ropes to ground. Ropes were hard to pull from ground. Perhaps better, if slower, is to reverse the regular route and use the descent anchors for the that route when they show up.