Just right of

Free Fall

is this excellent, short, powerful route, characterized mainly by big moves off good jams and holds.  Pumpy climbing leads to a crux deadpoint/lunge at the 4th bolt.  A few delicate yet tricky slab moves keep you on your toes until the anchors. Tape may be useful on the index finger of the right hand.

Ripcord

Midway

Incline Club

Supernatural

Flashpoint

Free Fall

Moomin Papa's Little Adventure

Tomb of Sorrows

Disinclination

Strange Science

Start just right of

Strange Science

. What you see is what you get on this route: a steep, right-angling, finger crack to the arete, and easier climbing.  It is a good pitch.

Start in the same right-facing corner as Incline Club and Disinclination.

The start can be done with all gear or by clipping the first three bolts of Incline Club, until that climb peels right out onto the slab while Midway follows the crack straight up.  If an all-gear ascent is desired, it is possible to climb the right side of the arête, placing gear in cracks along the way.  Once the slab is reached, have a ball!

The gear is great and the position is airy.  The crack could use another 100 ascents, as there is some vegetation and loose rock, but nothing too annoying.  The starting arête or the last dihedral at the top may be the crux, otherwise, you will find easy, protectable 5.4 climbing along the crack. At the top of the crack, set up a belay among the huge boulders, rocks and trees on the flat upper ledge.

To descend, walk climber's right to the top of Incline Club. There is an easily accessible large ledge with two bolts and another set of bolts just below that is the anchor for Incline Club.  Rap to the ground.

What a fine route!  Sometimes its hard to appreciate a good moderate route because perhaps the thrill of victory on an often tried send is missing, and most of us fixate and dream of returning to see who we are only when a challenge is upon us.  With Incline Club, it is a pleasure instead to understand that why we climb is joy.

Start in a right-facing corner just uphill from Strange Science. Climb the corner, clipping two bolts, to the top of a pillar.  You now have a full view of the slab. Climb up and right to the top of the slab,  following a nice line of incut holds.

You can lower from a 2-bolt anchor on the face, or continue a little higher to a second 2-bolt anchor on a ledge and belay from here, if you want to bring your partner up to the top.  The upper anchor doesn't have rap rings; rap from the lower anchor or walk off to the right.

But three stars for a *moderate* sport route, I thought to myself?  Yeah; when you dream of high position on perfect holds and good protection, with plenty of challenge at arms reach, this one is worth going back to...more than twice.

Start just left of

Strange Science

on a platform below a huge boulder.

Climb a stepped face, go left to a corner, layback up to a ledge, and fire up a steep headwall.

Excellent climb with several hard moves.

Flashpoint climbs a right-facing dihedral on the left side of the big pillar at the top of the Incline Club/Disinclination slab.

Approach by climbing Disinclination, or one of the harder routes to the left (Supernatural, Strange Science, Free Fall, Ripcord).  Belay at a two-bolt anchor at the top of Disinclination.

Step around the arete to the left, clip the first bolt and make an awkward move left into the dihedral.  Clip the second bolt and make the crux move up to a good edge.  Continue easily past the third bolt to the anchor.  Lower back to the anchor atop Disinclination.

Descend from the anchor atop Disinclination via two rappels straight down; stop at the anchor atop Ripcord for the second rappel.  It might be possible to get off with one rappel with a 60m rope if you angle the rappel sharply uphill.

This seldom-climbed route is barely one star, and recommended only if you've climbed everything else and want to tick all the routes on the crag.

Do a few hard moves off the ground to reach the bottom of a finger crack that goes up the second half of the wall. At the base of the crack you can get a good medium nut and a purple TCU. The climbing eases significantly here. With a few bouldering pads, it'd be a good boulder problem.

Begin in the chimney right of the huge slab and the route Incline Club (aka Inclination).  Climb the chimney onto a chockstone. You can clip a bolt on the right wall to protect the start.  Step left and climb the right edge of the slab to anchors shared with Incline Club.

You can also climb directly up the arete; start just left of the chimney.  A steep headwall (5.8) leads to the lower-angle slab above.  This line meets up with the other start at the fourth bolt.

Start in a short right-facing corner, just uphill from Ripcord. This is the same start as for Incline Club (aka Inclination).

Climb the corner past 2 bolts to the huge slab above.  Angle left and follow bolts up the slab left of Midway crack.

Rossiter calls this 5.8, but it seemed easier.

I'll stick my neck out and give Strange Science three stars (at least by Boulder Canyon standards). The climb is pretty obvious as you hike up the faint trail to Avalon.  The route follows a line of small flakes up the center of a beautiful forty-foot high scooped face, a pleasingly natural and independent line.

The right arete,

Free Fall

, is bolted and (5.12a?) has a steep bouldery look, with a seam and closely-spaced bolts.

Right again is a steep, short face then a short, scruffy, easy dihedral (also bolted) leading to an expansive, low-angle slab above.

The climb starts off easy, past jugs and a couple bolts, then as the angle steepens, the reaches betwen the flakes get harder. The crux move, at the fourth bolt, is a powerful long reach problem, but after this there is no  let-up, but a pronounced pump as you struggle up  some more perplexing moves, with little for the feet, before you lurch onto the obvious easier ground up and right.

Though short, this has all I look for in a sport pitch,  a  Gritstone-like series of cool and sustained and yet  entirely logical moves, with no filler, which steadily  builds up to make for a great experience.

Description

Protection

Routes in Middle Wall