Tale of the Scorpion
12/13-16/2025
Hike up the drainage towards the wall. Take a left at a carin and fight through the bushes until you get to a faint trail that leads to a ridge. Follow this up to the cliff. Once at the cliff, head up a ramp to the right with some questionable fixed ropes. Once on the ledge walk right to its right side. Climb a 40’ 5.5 corner past a fixed line. Tree anchor at the top. Bushwhack up to the cliff above where you’ll find a bunch of bolts that start 20’ up. This is apparently a 5.9 A3 alternative first pitch. Climb this or leave your haul bags here and head right another 100’ to the easier free climbing start.
Pitch 1: 5.9 70m
Climb low angle terrain up and left through bushes aiming for a cleaner wide chimney. Climb the chimney to its top with great gear inside the chimney. At your first opportunity, exit left onto a ledge with more bushes. Fight your way through the bushes trending down and left past a thin friction move. At 70 meters, your find yourself in a niche with a smooth wall above, but a crack trending up and left into another chimney. The niche sits directly above the bolt ladder start. Gear belay.
P2: 40 meters 5.9
Climb the left trending crack past another tree aiming for a cleaner wide chimney. Shed some gear and make a tight squeeze deep in the chimney. Once through the squeeze, the chimney continues, eventually ending on a small stance with 2x rusty 5/16 bolts. You can back up the belay with hand sized gear.
P3: 5.8 30m
Continue up the broken cracks to a tree belay on the bottom right edge of Rubicon.
This tree on top of pitch 3 is the top anchor for the haul/bail line. It’s about 100m down to where you left your haul bags on the ledge. There is a bolted belay about halfway down.
Hike left around a rock bulge and then up to the head wall above. Follow the wall left through lots of holly bushes until you get to a great obvious bivy site. The start of Tale of the Scorpion starts about 100 yards farther left.
P4: 5.8 A3 35m
Free climb up the right side of the flake then start aiding. Beaks, hooks and the random bolt brings you to a bolted belay at a small ledge.
P5: A3 15m
Climb up the seam above to a hanging bolted anchor. This pitch is easily linked with pitch 4.
P6: A3+ 40m
A few bolts off the belay leads to sustained nailing. Belay at a Sloping stance with bolts.
P7: A2+ 30m
Climb up into the off width/chimney above. Awkward aiding up a thin seam with beaks and thin cams and stoppers leads to the belay.
P8: A3 35m
Climb up through the roof. Then follow the leaning crack with pins and cams.
P9: A2+ 40m
Follow the crack past 5 bolts/drilled pins.
P10: A2+ 30m
Follow the crack using lots of good cams.
P11: A2 35m
Thin cams and nailing leads to hooks and bolts.
P12: C2 35m
Up and right on hooks and bolts. No gear on this pitch.
P13: C2 30m
Hooks and bolts up and right to an anchor just below the lip of the summit. No gear on this pitch.
P14: easy 5th 15m
Mantel off the anchor onto a slab above. Climb easy slab up to a couple small trees for the belay.
There are great bivy spots is a small forest on the summit.
Descent:
Walk south along the edge of the top of the streaked wall. Find the path of least resistance down the broad ridge towards the museum. We did a 30m rap down a steep slab off a big tree with an anchor. From here continue down and to the east. Look for fixed lines to lead the way. A 35m rap then a 15m rap lead to an exposed ledge. Follow this east to a bolted anchor. Rappel 65m to a ledge. Head SE to above the saddle. Rap off a tree 35m into the gulley. Apparently you can head north back to your approach drainage but we headed south towards the museum. There is one more 35m rappel off a tree in the gulley. Once you pop out the bottom of the gulley head down and left to avoid a cliff farther down.
Gear:
3x 000-#2
2x #3
1x #4
2 sets of hooks (BD Grappling Hooks are very helpful in the holes)
Beaks- a few #1, a few more #2, heavy on the #3
Assortment of LAs, angles, sawed off angles
Spectre
