Excellent route!! tons of fun mostly easy climbing, an awesome summit, and a bit of bush whacking to complete this Zion adventure.

3 parts worth mentioning:

- pitch 2 has decent holds but often deep, and its in almost a chimney at times, it really sucks for the 2nd if they have a pack, try to go light and fast, we averaged 30 mins per pitch on the first go with out trying to hard.

- The physical crux for us was the start of pitch 5, thruth fest small roof with bad feet unless you can stem very well. the pro is only ok there

- Mental crux was the last pitch, solid 5.9 moves with what i felt was almost pg-13 pro. I had to ooze in and out of a chimney to get some sort of pro, i guess you could take a large big bro or something...

The summit at the bridge mountain arch (aka Crawford arch) is all worth it!!

Take Back The Rainbow

Bonsai Slab

Qi Wah Wah

Salty Dog Arete

Junk in the Trunk

Ghetto Booty

Baby Wipe Slab

I'm No Sports Climber

Crimson King

The Larsen-Farr

The Farsen-Larr (extension to The Larsen-Farr)

Gunswinger

Tribute

Smashmouth

Suppository

Better Safe than Sorry

The Greatest and Best Pitch In The World

The Larson-Farr is a classic, beautiful Creek-style #1 C4 splitter, however, the splitter continues past the chains through two roofs.  I went and pushed the line to its logical endpoint above the 2nd roof.  Its sweet to lead the whole thing (Larson-Farr and Farson-Larr) as one big pitch.

After climbing the Larson-Farr, start with a laser-cut section of .75 C4s right off the chains, then climb up under the first roof on some face holds and get a full no-hands rest.  Pull the thin hands roof (with good feet on the wall), and continue up a vertical handcrack to the 2nd roof.  The 2nd roof starts #1 C4s and widens to a #4 C4 before grabbing jugs.  The anchors are immediately past the second roof.  Two big bomber bolts with chain and coldshuts.

The best way to do the line is to just climb both pitches as one single long pitch.  The rack isn't that huge, and ropedrag can be managed pretty well.  Two ropes will get you down easy and allow for TRing.

Apparently you can TR with a single 80m, though I have not done it myself.

A single 70 will not reach to the ground, but you could get yourself back to the mid-way anchor, clip in, pull, re-thread, and continue lowering from there.  Makes it much harder to TR however.  If your second wants to TR, then consider bringing them up to the midway anchor - its a comfy ledge to belay on.

The line is a bit sandy, but all loose rock has been trundled, and it will clean up nicely with some ascents.

Approach from the left- sneak behind the bushwhack.

P1.. Short fist crack (no more t-bones in the book)

P2.. Dynamic belay necessary if you fall off the opening moves 4 bolts and gear

P3.. Traverse right, pull overhang. 2nd half of the pitch is an easy runout slab. Stick to the arête on your left if uncomfortable

Rappel the route with a single 60m rope

Put up on lead, rope soloing. Fun climb!

Jam and stem up a short crack and top out at a yucca next to the rap anchor. This is a great first lead with good stances and plenty of pro possibilities.

Fun climbing past some huecos and 4 bolts leads to a short crack. The anchor is on the same ledge as that of Crimson King and Gunswinger.

Pitch 1 starts with about 20 feet of a nice hand crack in a small left facing dihedral but then transitions into a wide groove extending straight up past large huecos on the right for another 60 feet.  Features on the face provide opportunities for a variety of moves through the crux as the groove narrows and steepens before squeezing through a notch.  Look for two bolted hangers with  rap rings above a comfy blocky shelf up and to the right after the notch.  Pitch 2 goes right a little and up following another crack system to the base of a beautiful dark brown block which offers the choice of going straight up a crack for a 5.9 variation or drifting right to follow the slanting crack with good holds and protection and leads to a small ledge with two more bolted hangers and rap rings.  This anchor is at the top of Barely Legal.

Located around the corner from the previous routes, this line heads up the featured and low angled slab, passing two horizontal cracks then two bolts. Dirty cracks, friable rock, and slightly spacy bolts make this not ideal for a beginning leader. With traffic the route could clean up to become a decent excursion.

Once over the top, keep heading straight to arrive at the anchor for the wide crack "Suppository". Rappel.

11/4/18 - Pair of rap bolts on mantle top.

Climb pockets and edges past the first couple of bolts. Find gear placements between runnouts. You'll encounter a right leaning crack that you'll pull past in order to get to the next face with two more bolts.

A nice route up some beautiful rock.  Thin moves & gear lead up a nice crack.  Up high some thin moves remain in lighter colored rock.  Good fun.

A few hundred yards past Smashmouth is a beautiful Creek style splitter underneath a couple roofs.  A great route, especially if you like #1 C4s.

Start in an easy fist crack for 20 feet, then pull into the perfect #1 C4 splitter.  Jam #1s until the crack widens to #2s right below the small ledge and clip the nice looking anchor.

If you have the psyche and the gear, either bring your partner up and do the Farson-Larr (pitch 2), or even better get a full no hands rest at the Larson-Farr anchors and then push on to the top of the Farson-Larr in a single ~40m pitch.

This corner crack starts out as tips and widens to hands. It's even got some footholds! Around the corner to the left are the anchors for Crimson King and Salty Dog Arete.

This route is worth doing - a less exposed, overbolted sister to The Greatest and Best.  Especially if it's windy, do this route instead of Greatest and Best.

If you're comfortable on 10- sport, you can bring fewer draws and skip bolts since they are so close together, but make sure you save a couple draws for the last two bolts as they get more spaced up at the top, and it's a bit ledgy.

Tribute starts off the ledge above Salty Dog, Crimson King, and Gunswinger.  Belay at the left side of the ledge (the anchor for Salty Dog).  The book erroneously says go right from the top of Crimson King, but this is definitely wrong.

p1: From the top of Salty Dog, head LEFT up easy terrain and clip a hidden bolt, then pull the steep bulge past a couple more bolts to an anchor at a stance.  Pumpy 10c.  Short.  Maybe 40'

p2: Climb a FULL 35m pitch to the top of the tower.  Lots of jugs and edges, and you grab the sharp fin/arete here and there. 10a.  Cool pitch.  The anchors on top are kinda strange - crazy long chains.

Rapping the route can be a bit tricky.  Instead it's best to do:

1) a short 40' rap from the top of the tower down to a nice anchor that's the top of the sport climb to the left of Tribute.

2) From there do a 33m rap to the big ledge.

3) Walk back to a tree and find the rap station to rap down the easy slab to the ground (25m).

Worthwhile route, well set up with modern anchors, can be climbed and descended with one 60m rope.

P1. 5.11a, Short, stout tight hands leads to easier climbing.

P2. 5.10c, Tricky bolted face leads to easier hand/ finger crack.

P3. 5.10b, Beautiful fingers and hands supplemented with plentiful face holds.

P4. 5.11a, More of the same, with short crux at the end protected by bristler.

Note either pitch 2&3 or 3&4 could easily be linked (recommended)

This route ascends a chimney in a left facing corner and tops out to drop ins. Fun beginner off width.

Begin in a small alcove 20' or so right of "Gunswinger". A short steep section brings you to a ledge and then 40' of low angle hand crack. If continuing belay from a tree above the crack. If stopping here (for 1 pitch of 5.8), head left up a small slab with a bolt to the "Gunswinger" anchor and rap.

Pitch 2: Move up and right to the base of a large right facing corner. (A little loose)

Pitch 3: Climb the corner then move right out the roof. (5.10+) It is also possible to continue up the finger crack in the corner at 5.11. Reach a ledge and a bolted anchor.

Pitch 4: Work up and left to a flake with a hand crack and follow it to a small ledge on the arete. Belay here or continue to the top of the tower.

To descend: 4 rappels with a single 60m down the northwest face of the tower.

Haters gonna hate, flamers gonna flame, trolls gonna troll.  Apparently some people are too thick to get the reference - its a song title.  Its not the literal best pitch in the whole world; that would be the Salathe headwall, done as a single pitch.  Don't be dickfaces and give it zero star ratings when you haven't climbed it and you just got a cactus up your butt over the name.

While its not the literal best pitch in the whole world, it is, however, very unique and very fun.  Bring lots of shoulder-length slings and doubles.  For bonus fun, you can lead Salty Dog Arete and link into the Greatest and Best and do the entire thing as a 68m pitch.  Recommend skipping gear and bolts as much as you can if you attempt this, however, as the rope drag will kill you if you use regular draws and don't skip.

Can get down easily with a single rope by rapping off to climbers left, 3 raps to the ground.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in The Confluence