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Peak Mountain 3

Mr. President

FA Layton Kor and Steve Komito, November, 1963
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

Named [Mr.] President, so the story goes, for its "devious" nature. Kor had a way with route names. Pitch two is superb, with a crux which feels more like something in Eldo than Lumpy. This was devious enough it required two visits for me to figure out. A great climb, worth the effort!

This route is on the far [left] of Turnkorner [Buttress], and starts up a wide-looking chimney.

P1. This chimney, though stemmable and only 5.9, is is still very awkward (being partly a blind flare), and not easy to protect. Best have your partner lead this.

P2. Pitch two is the business. Start up an innocent crack, which steepens up and then blanks out. Above, out of reach, the crack opens up and gets easy again, but meanwhile. . . . Not sure how much I should say about the crux. Ahem, well, the solution is not to keep throwing yourself at the blind section of crack right in front of you. I will say that. And the moves, once you commit, are strenuous and hard to reverse. Anyway, you reach welcome jugs after a few powerful moves (or next weekend for me), and steep 5.9 climbing gains easier (though exposed) ground, and a nice ledge.

P3. After this, the climb changes character and reverts to more regular Lumpy style. One more 5.9 pitch follows a crack system up. Wander to the saddle from here. Come to think of it, we may have rapped from the nice ledge back to the start of pitch two, then to the ground. Funny how I still remember the crux moves, but not the rest of the climb.

Protection

Regular selection of stuff up to fist size. Double ropes are nice for protecting the second pitch effectively.