Pins and Knickers

The topo in Ruckmans' 1998 guide shows this route climbing up the left side of the

Winky and Waxman

pillar then diagonalling left to a short, right-leaning, left-facing dihedral followed by a 5.10+ face section to a large horizontal break. Since Stuart did the FA as well as co-wrote the guide, a reasonable assumption is that the topo correctly shows what he climbed. However, I was told by a knowledgeable local years ago that

Pins and Knickers

is the left slanting thin crack system starting above the very top of the pillar, about 5 or so feet left of what is now

Better than Bitter

. In any event, I'll leave that mystery to others and post up the latter line, which IMO is one of the finest trad pitches of its grade in BCC.

Although the guide rates

P&K

as an R, the line we did is adequately protected (microcams, unavailable in 1987, may be the reason). As usual on steep quartzite, though, hanging out to place the gear can give a similar sense of unease. From the top of the

Winky and Waxman

pillar, finger jam up the left-leaning crack until it pinches off then pull the crux -- bona fide 11a -- into a rest of sorts, place an excellent brass nut in the back of a pod that also can take a No.3 camalot, and gain the horizontal break. Traverse a few moves right along the break, then step up and left onto the headwall and airy climbing to the belay. Feel free to snicker at those on the sissy sport routes on either side.

Between the

Hollow Man

and

Better than Bitter

bolt lines; the real climbing starts above the pillar of

Winky and Waxman Go Boltin

g. Descend from the

Better than Bitter

chains.

Probably can get by with one set of cams from micros to 3”, supplemented by 1 set of brass nuts. Gear belay on top.