The Mutt and Jeff

The must do route on this wall, it ascends up the longest face on the Wedge and is a must do if you make the pilgrimage to this awesome area. It is a 5 pitch climb that has holds in all the right places with lots of friction required to make your way up the rock.

Pitch 1

• 5.7

Climb the flake aiming towards the two side by side bolts. Marvel at how unlikely it is that the 1/4 pinhead bolt will actually hold as you traverse into the crack to the right of the small roof. Climb up and follow the crack for about 25 feet until you notice a couple of horns and knobs to your left that lead into a small dihedral. Climb up a few feet to protect and then put your big boy pants on. Traverse the 20 feet left into the dihedral and then continue up to the crack until you reach some webbing. Sling out your placement that you place once you hit the dihedral or prepare for suicide inducing rope drag. Bring extra webbing and a #1 camalot to back up the anchor.

Pitch 2

• 5.8

Take the crack up and to the left of the cyclops eye passing through the crux at the roof. Continue up this crack until you reach a small ledge with two bolts for an anchor. Get yer offwidth face on for the next pitch!

Pitch 3

• 5.8

Continue up the crack following it as it widens as you go up. 5.9 crack to your left can help a bit by providing extra holds. Extra points for moans of agony as you scrape your body up the offwidth. Ends on a large chalkstone suspended 400 feet off the ground. Build an anchor here considering what will happen when this chalkstone releases plunging you into the abyss. Think about nothing else for the entire time you belay your second.

Pitch 4

• 5.7

Climb up from the chalkstone aiming for the chimney feature at the top. Can be a little runout but does take some gear. Really fun climbing, almost sandstone like features. Either build an anchor in the rat infested stank hole that is the chimney, or continue to the top if you feel like screaming at your belayer is more your forte.

Pitch 5

• 5.3/5.4

Get your slab runout face on! Really easy climbing it just has one placement in the 100 foot of climbing. Heels down and mantle your way on up until you reach the anchor bolts at the top. Marvel at the view! Contemplate how the hell you will get down!

The descent is possibly one of the scariest parts of this climb. Head north towards the mountains following the ridge. Crane your neck and you will see in the distance along a thin 3 foot knife edge a bunch of bolts. Your goal is to get to these. Stay roped in for this maneuver; it is a lot weirder than it looks. Poo yourself a little as you walk across the knife edge and look for a couple of placements along the way. Clip on in and breathe easy. A 70 meter rope will just BARELY make it to the ground if you are fat. If you are thin the last 5 feet of this rappel is going to suck. If you don't have one of them fancy 70 meter ropes then there are intermediate bolts for you use. Enjoy the 4 mile hike out!

The route is in a gorgeous valley about 4 miles down the trail from the trailhead. From the trailhead follow the trail until you climb a rather rough switchbacking section. Just make sure to stay left here and continue following the obvious trail. About 1/2 a mile before the end of the trail the wedge will come into view from a large meadow. This climb starts approx. in the middle and heads left at the large roof (Cyclops Eye) and then goes out of view. The base of the climb is at a large flake and you can see a singular bolts about 60 foot of the deck below a small roof. See above for descent info.

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View from the top.

Approach map

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Double rack of cams #.5-#3 and 1 #4. Bring all your big stuff for the 4th pitch or run it out. A single set of nuts is a handy thing to have as well.