Another Classic Gene Larson route.  Put in before the Bosch ban from the ground up.  There is a really devious stance at the bulge that Gene drilled the bolt from (he is pretty darn strong).Follow the 4 Bolts on the North East Face up and over the bulge on small crimpy holds.  Great protection and really fun climbing.

Just Doing Our Thing

Seashell Chimney

Jim's Dilemma

Just When it Get's a Little Tougher

A Necessary Evil

This route is the rightmost bolted route on the south side of the Seashell. Unfortunatly Paul Muehl and Bob Archbold felt the need to chop the original bolts. I drilled this route from free stances with some falls. I broke my last 1/4" drill bit on the last hole. I was forced to drill out the hole I had started with a 3/8" drill. The 3/8" bit kept binding. I had drilled the hole once almost. After fighting with the redrill process I decided to stand in a sling on the bolt below to finish the hole. This was justification for the chopping in Muehl and Archbold's minds. The next year Archbold returned and replaced the route while hanging on hooks.....Very logical Bob. There is a mystery bolt up and to the right from the last piton (the route goes direct).

Climb the chimney (protects with WIDE cams), then step right at the top of the chimney before making one or two easy face moves to reach the summit ridge.  Rappel from good anchors on the summit.

Although there are a couple of good jams to be had, I wouldn't really call this a crack climb. The wide bottom section can be easily overcome with basic chimney techniques. The crux comes near the top where the angle steepens and the crack is so small and flaring that it becomes fairly useless. There are decent face holds to the left.

On the Southwest side you will find a crack.  The route stays to the left of the crack following the 4 bolts up and left.  The climbing is thin face climbing with bolts in all the right places.

This small spire has 3 good bolted routes in the 5.10 to 5.12 range.  Two of them are Gene Larson routes.

Description

Protection

Routes in Seashell