Tale of the Scorpion

 

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