Misericorde

Though it appears to be 5.9 terrain, the south face of the Stiletto gets rather steep, providing some great, airy, and spicy rock climbing.

1. From the toe of the buttress, follow the crest for about 700 feet to where things start to get steep. Stop on a commodious ledge just left of the prominent pillar, 5.7.

2. Climb towards the wide crack on the left side of the pillar, traversing left on some intermittent jug rails for 15 or so feet. Head up past a series of shallow, right-facing corners with minimal gear (for about 20 feet) until it is possible to go left around the corner to some better gear. Make some committing moves to a good horizontal which is level with the top of the wide crack and traverse right to belay on a good foot ledge with small gear about 10 feet right of the large, left-facing dihedral, 5.10 R, 90 feet.

3. Step right and climb a very steep handcrack in the right wall of the dihedral, exiting onto the top of the prominent pillar. From the top of the pillar, traverse 25 feet left or so, place some small gear, and launch up the right of two major, left-facing dihedrals past several fun boulder problems separated by good rests. Belay where the dihedral turns into a ledge, 5.11- (5.9R), 160 feet.

4. Step right and up to the next ledge system, then cut back left making sure to place some gear on the traverse because the next section is a little exciting. Locate a shallow, left-facing corner, climb it and the incipient seams above it to the ledge below the great orange headwall, 5.10+ R, 80 feet.

5. There are two cracks in the headwall that almost touch down the the ledge. Climb the right hand of these two (it starts about 20 feet left of the pillar on the right side of the headwall). Follow the crack until it pinches off (about 35 feet up in some lighter color rock). At this point, step right and enjoy more fantastic crack and face climbing to a fifteen foot section of chossy chimney and the summit, 5.10+, 150 feet.

To descend, do not rap off the block on the summit with the tat on it. It moves rather easily and is a testament to someone's rashness. Downclimb about 20ft on the northeast side of the spire to a two nut anchor, rap 35 meters to a grassy ledge with another two nut anchor. From here a 30m rappel leads to some grassy ledges. From there, one can downclimb into the gully to the east of the feature and hike back down the gully to the packs.

Start at the toe of the South face.

Standard rack, but be sure to have small cams.