Stolen Crown

Continuing with the theme of tasty high-hanging fruits and 4-stars* mixed 11c lines, here's one which had somehow escaped the keen eyes of other choss-munchers. It is rumored that an illustrious and prolific Brit noticed it in the early days of Shangri-La, rapped in to check the features, and decided to leave it alone as the top looked too thin. Not being one to pass on others' scraps I decided to have a look for myself and, as usual in the Jungle, ended up with a gem of a route once lichen and loose rock had been dealt with. I initially put in a low anchor to avoid the hard upper third of the route, got called out for skipping the best climbing cause it looked tough, pulled my weaksauce bolts, and took it to the top. It makes for a MUCH BETTER climb (thanks for not letting me get away with it AR).

Scamper up easy moves on blocky holds to a bolt which protects the entry in the dihedral. Small gear and good stemming lead to solid holds below the second bolt (beware the large flake guarding the top of the dihedral, it's not helping the sequence and it sounds like a drum). Shuffle right across a cryptic bouldery section aiming to get your mits into a gritty hand crack which quickly thins out to tips. A few balancy moves with bad feet will see you past the last bolt, into a steep juggy staircase (pumpy gear placements), and finally to a rest atop a pillar where you'll have ample time to come up with a plan for what's to come: a perfect offset crack in an open dihedral.

Stem and lieback this feature until the offset disappears and the crack pinches. Set a solid piece (or three) and fire up this technical and balancy crux using glassy feet and the occasional tips lock. Once you reach the inverted staircase above a combination of pumpy liebacking and creative stemming past good placements will see you to the anchor.

• 3.5 stars rounded to 4. The top section climbs the coolest feature at the crag but the lower section is just OK with slightly crusty rock and unremarkable moves. The no-hands rest in the middle also detracts from the overall quality.

SC is located about 20' to the right of

Sine Wave

at the top of a short loose gully separating the face from a crumbling choss stack.

Looks for a grungy looking corner crack snaking across a face with a large cheese-wedge hole to its right. The upper dihedral is unmistakable.

4 bolts + gear from BD purple C3 to #2 with doubles (even triples) in the tiny to 0.5 range. A second #1 can be nice but there are plenty of size options. Nuts (small to medium). The rope runs pretty straight with regular draws. The chain anchors are shared with Sine Wave to the left.

Regarding bolts 3 and 4 along the hand and tips crack: the inside of the hand crack is exfoliating aggressively, you can rub gravel off by hand, and I don't trust gear in there; the tips crack is formed by a detached finger of rock, I pulled purple and green C3s while bounce testing them and decided a bolt would save me from stained underwear. Realistically all but bolt #2 could be skipped but I don't recommend it. Your mileage may vary though...