Buried Treasure

Buried Treasure is a fun, moderate 2-pitch sport route on Treasure Wall. It is the easiest multi-pitch sport route on the crag, and is a great first multi-pitch outing for newer climbers.

After completing Buried Treasure, you can continue up the final pitch of Stayin' Alive (10a) for a fun, 3-pitch sport route to the top of Tonnere Tower. This variation is called Buried Alive. See ?beta photo?.

Buried Treasure was intentionally created as a sport route, to provide an easy multi-pitch clip-up for newer climbers. In many places, it can also be protected with trad gear. If you prefer to place gear, bring your trad rack and see how many bolts you can skip. If you prefer to clip bolts, bring your quickdraws.

Take the Treasure Wall approach, and go uphill about 60' to a slabby face just left of a huge left-facing dihedral. The route starts on this slabby face.

P1: Climb up easy rock to the first bolt. Stem off the dihedral to the right past the first two bolts (5.9). The rock is a little friable in this area, so be careful. A more difficult variation climbs the thin face directly without stemming (5.10a). Continue up and work left onto an arete. Climb up a steep exposed face, with a cool crux at the 7th and 8th bolts. The easiest line steps up left and traverses back right (5.9). A harder variation climbs straight up past these bolts (5.10). Continue up to the anchor on a small pedestal. 5.9 to 5.10, 95', 10 bolts.

P2: Traverse right from the pedestal, step up to clip the first bolt, and crank up to a stance (5.7). Angle up right to a steeper face by the 3rd bolt. Make some thin face moves up and right (5.8). Continue up right to an airy arete. You could also go up the gully and face left of the arete, but the arete is more fun. Climb the easy but exposed arete, past some unusual rock, and angle left to the anchor. This anchor is the starting anchor for Clean Sweep. 5.8, 75', 6 bolts.

P3 - Sport finish: Buried Alive ***: continue with the final pitch of

Stayin' Alive

(5.10a, 95', 13 bolts), for a 3-pitch sport route to the top of Tonnere Tower. Angle a bit left to get to the first bolt of Stayin' Alive from the anchor atop Buried Treasure. A longer runner or two are helpful if you do this. You could also move the belay 15' left to the regular Stayin' Alive anchor; see ?beta photo?. To descend, rappel 95' back to the anchor atop Buried Treasure.

P3 - Trad finish: If you brought a trad rack, you can finish on

Clean Sweep

(5.9, gear).To descend, rappel 90' back to the anchor atop Buried Treasure.

Descents from the top of Buried Treasure:

a. Two rappels (70' and 95') back to the start. Angle the first rappel a bit to the left to get back to the anchor atop the first pitch. After the second rappel, pull the rope from the left to keep the rope from landing on a stump in the corner on the right, 40' off the ground.

b. If you want to do more climbs on the east face, you can do a single 95' rappel from the Stayin' Alive p1 anchor back to the start of Face Off/Nick Of Time.

Follow the Treasure Wall approach. Hike 60' right up the hill to the start of the route, above a flat terrace. The route starts up a slabby face just left of a big left-facing dihedral.

Eds. the beta photo has been deleted by its submitter.

P1: 10 bolts to a 2-bolt anchor.

P2: 6 bolts to a 2-bolt anchor.

P3: (Stayin' Alive) 13 bolts to a 2-bolt anchor.

P3: (Clean Sweep) gear to 3" to a 2-bolt anchor.

Trad climbers can skip some of the bolts and place gear on the route if they so desire.