White Lines

Originally covered in white granitic rime, this one stayed in my head for a long, long time. Tyler Phillips helped me aid the first half and the line out right, which makes for excellent steep aid climbing. We broke a lot of holds, took some huge whippers, blew out some blocks and destroyed a few pitons. In the end, adding a few bolts seemed prudent.

Many partners helped me clean this with varying degrees of enthusiasm for getting dust in their eyes, nose and lungs. Mike Perkins had the best beta which he can't remember.

This is a fun line with very clean falls and bomber gear. Super huge jugs for most of it with two cruxes at the end that feel v4-ish.

About the grade: No one really cares. Just remember that everything is easier when you don't have to hang the gear. Everything is harder on the onsite burn. Clipping pre-placed gear on your second burn might make you feel better about yourself and downgrade it. Have fun with that.

This climbs the steep crack system through the roofs directly above Gateway Drugs and Straight to Rehab. It's also about 50 feet to the right of the roof pitch of Death of a Monarch.

When I first started doing this line, the granite was legitimately suspect and I had to use far more cams that you might need now. If you're intimidated by steep gear protected climbing, bring doubles of fingers to .75, 1 red and 1 yellow camalot, long runners for the transition left and 3-4 quickdraws for the bolts.

You'll need a lot less once now that it's cleaner and/or once you get it wired. You

can

place a couple of finger sized cams after the middle bolt to protect the moves up and left

but I had these pop on me several time

s

and stopped using them. Maybe that was before more modern cams or maybe the crack there was a little too shallow back then?

I removed the knifeblade piton and added a bolt 7/24/13. The piton had been in place for about 4 years and although it was hard to get out the blade was super rusted. Even though it's under a roof, a waterfall to the right soaks everything when it rains.

Rappel: The best way to rap down from the top of both Heisenberg and White Lines is to go off the top of the last two bolts on either climb (ie off the two fixed draws of Heisenberg). It's pretty simple but takes a few steps.

1. Have the last climber clean the gear up to the last bolts.

2. Lower that person down to the anchor of Gateway Drugs/Straight to Rehab, have them schlepp in and

stay tied in to the rope

.

3. Gather your belongings from the base of White Lines/Heisenberg and get ready to rap your end of the line.

4. The still-tied-in climber at Gateway Drugs anchor acts as ballast as the other climber raps a single down to join them.

5. One 35m rap to the ground.

6. Think about taking a lap on Gateway Drugs or Straight to Rehab because they are also super fun.