Sword In The Stone is a cool new sport route on the First Tier of Avalon.  It climbs the face and knife-edge arete left of

Mists of Avalon

.

Start 25' left of

Mists of Avalon

, below some broken slabs with loose rock. Scramble up the slabs to a ledge below a small overhang.  Climb up and left past three bolts (cracked horizontal hold in here) and several small overhangs to a stance at the base of the arete.  Work up the knife-edge arete (crux) past three more bolts to a bulge. Clip a final bolt and cruise to the anchor.

Sword In The Stone

Marquis de Sade

Catch and Release

Slayer

Mists of Avalon

Tunnel of Love

[Redacted]

The Anti-Sport

Spare Rib

Body Count

The Sport Climber's Demise

Iron Maiden

Nice climbing with a little crux midway where it's wide and another pulling the lip of the upper (right) roof crack.  Face holds on the right wall over the lip. Very fun climbing. Reminds me of Vedauwoo.

This route is

The Anti-Sport

brother. Both have well-protected trad roofs!

Marquis de Sade is the fifth route from the left on the First Tier, right of Body Count. It is on the right side of the obvious near vertical face.  Follow the bolts up the face, and climb a short finger crack (crux) to the obvious roof above. Climb up to the right of the roof and then pull up and left to surmount the roof.  Try not to chimney off the block to the right.

The crux comes before the roof at a tricky finger lock with difficult feet.  May be more difficult for those with a short reach or poor crack technique.

This is the rightmost route on the First Tier of Avalon. Start about 20' right of Mists of Avalon. Climb up lower-angle rock past two bolts. Clip a bolt over the roof and then make a very hard sequence of moves past the roof. Clip a bolt and make a couple of cool, hard moves up the arete. Gain a stance and easier climbing leads to the anchor. Excellent climbing on good stone.

Slayer is the third route from the left on the First Tier, just right of

Iron Maiden

.  It starts by the large block at the base of the cliff.  Follow the bolt line up and to the right passing a bulge down low (crux) and continuing to surmount the obvious roof above.

Mists of Avalon is on the

First Tier

of Avalon. Cross the creek, hike the big talus to the lowest point of rock and walk left about 20' along the base on a dirt path to the first large tree. Above is a roof. The arete above the right side of the roof is bolted and is

Catch and Release

. Mists of Avalon climbs easy blocky rock right of a right facing-corner to the roof.

Climb easy rock past two bolts to a dirty ledge below an A-shaped notch in the roof. [Eds. there are some fractured holds here, beware.] Clip a bolt at the lip then stem through the roof with good hands. Make a really long clip and then swing right onto the face and semi-mantle a small ledge, or swing right first before clipping. The roof and getting established on the face is the crux. Pleasant and progressively easier climbing, with good clipping stances, leads to the anchors.

Tunnel of Love is the rightmost route on the upper level of the First Tier. Start at a right-angling crack leading to a chockstone tunnel through a roof.  Climb up through a podded handcrack that turns to a groove (crux).  Move left and up through the chockstone tunnel, then continue with the crack on the left wall after the tunnel.

There is a 2-bolt anchor about 100' up, but lowering through the tunnel may be strange, so it's probably easier to bring up your partner, then walkoff to the left, past Tarot Wall, and back down to the start.

This is one of the dirtier routes on the First Tier, but it has hard climbing to start (but not much fun for me) and easier but fun climbing at the top. In the middle it was dodging moss and bushes.

Sex Slave is the leftmost route on the upper level of the First Tier. It starts at a big tree 15 feet left of a large flat block embedded in the ground.

Getting past the initial irregular and flared finger crack is the crux. Place one or two finger-sized cams, clip the bolt, and get established on the face above. This felt hard to me. The jams for the most part aren't (jams), there are many mediocre holds to choose from, and it's strenuous. Hard to onsight if you climb at this level.

Climb easier dirty rock above past three more bolts until below the left edge of the roof. Optionally place a piece in the roof and make some fun 8ish moves left and into the left-facing corner above. The bigger (up to 2") cams go here. A couple more moves lead to the anchor.

The bolts on this route aren't strictly necessary, but neither are they a bolting of continuous cracks. There is good gear near the first bolt, but it would be strenuous to place, and if it failed you might be on the ground. Above that there is gear and/or it's easy, but the rock is a little funky.

Start up

Tunnel of Love

and go straight out the roof above. A good jam in the chockstone leads you out the hand crack, up to the jug on the right. Finish up the crack to pull the roof, and head up rejoining

Tunnel of Love

to the top anchors. You can also step left to

Marquis de Sade Anchors....

The roof is lots of fun, and I think it is pretty clean now. I went back after the FA and cleaned a bunch of junk out. Go enjoy!

This route is about 6' left of

Mists of Avalon

.

Start the climb in one of two ways:

1. Scramble up 25' of junky rock a few feet left of a pedestal to gain cleaner rock starting at the big ledge.

2. Start on

Mists of Avalon

, clipping 2 bolts if desired.  This is only 5.7, so it may be best not to create rope drag and just solo to that point and flick the rope over once on the ledge.

From the ledge, the fun begins.  The rock is solid from there as well, including the two chockstones in the crux.  Walk left over the ledge system to a split handcrack created where a few nice chockstones are trapped in a wide crack.  The jams through the roof here were quite good.

Place a a large TCU or small Friend overhead, just below the roof.  Get a jam in the crack at the back and crank up over the roof into a jam to the right of the chockstone, which is literally good enough to cut loose and dangle from, by one hand.  Move up on this to a jug on the top of the first chockstone, pass another chockstone, and then climb up the widening crack (hands to fist) to the top of the main buttress, just below a second roof.  Move up and right to reach the 2-bolt anchor on

Mists of Avalon

to lower off if you do not want to do the second pitch.  You can also belay here for a second pitch, or just continue onward.

To continue onward choose the original finish (left) though a squeeze chimney facing left, placing a very large cam and working up and into the crack, then out on footholds and back right to another anchor up top... or just right of that through the 5.10 4" crack and face moves on

The Anti-Sport

, leading to those same anchors. Although this pitch is only perhaps 30 feet, it packs its own punch, and follows a line discontinuous enough from that of the first pitch to merit some very long slings or being separated....

This route might have gotten two stars if it was clean at the bottom, but it wasn't, so it gets one.  Like

Mists of Avalon

, it is no destination, but maybe worthy if you are going to spend a day climbing other routes on Avalon.

Body Count is the fourth route from the left on the First Tier, just right of

Slayer

.  It is on the left side of the obvious near-vertical face.  Follow the bolts up the face to surmount the obvious roof above.  The crux is fun and technical slab climbing.

Iron Maiden is the second route from the left on the First Tier. Start 10' right of

Sex Slave

by a short, right-facing corner capped with a small roof. Climb the right-facing corner, step left around the little roof, and continue up the face past two more roofs to the top.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in First Tier