Uomama bin Rotten

This route has some of the absolute worst rock I've encountered in a quarter century of cragging. The only other route that even came close fell into the Pacific back in the '80s. Large sections of this pitch have bear a strong resemblance to used clumping cat litter in appearance, feel, and structural integrity.

It is listed as a "chipped" route because countless holds were created, destroyed, and modified during the initial ascent, and it seems certain that this process will be repeated on any subsequent ascent. No tools beyond bare hands (I left my chalkbag in the car) were used in the "manufacture" of this route.

Despite stone that barely qualifies for the classification, the climbing is quite engaging. The real challenge is not in climbing 5.10 moves, but in distributing your weight and pressure on the holds without blowing them to pieces. Pull a little too hard and you'll need to scrape out a new hold with your fingertips. The crux comes about 40' up where the wall bulges slightly.

From where the Access Fund trail skirts the base of the lower tier of the Child Free Zone, head right on the path that traverses the base of the wall. Follow it all the way to the right, past the giant cave/gully to a spot where there is 15' or 20' of better rock at the base of the wall. There is a nice 80' bouldering traverse (

Fergus' Traverse

• V1) from one gully to the next along the base of this wall, and a bolted Richard Wright route on the right that goes halfway up the cliff. Start about 20' left of Richard's route in a grey corner with a crack that looks better than it is. Head straight up using anything that comes to hand (tossing off about half of it). On the upper wall, follow a crack up the middle of the wall left of the chimney past endless perched boulders to a particularly large one that hasn't fallen off the rim yet.

Don't forget your helmet, don't set your pack at the base, and be sure to belay from well off to one side. There's not much point in bolting it into a sport route - even with 25 clips it would still merit an R or X protection rating.

Equalize four or five pieces up on the rim, and rig it so the TR point is over the edge with a 30' chunk of rope. Pray that weighting the anchor doesn't cause the top of the cliff to disintegrate. A doubled 60m rope may not reach the base.

Beware: there are reports of potentially lethal rockfall on this route!