In The Groove

Ascending an appealing natural line, In The Groove climbs an obvious corner with nice moves on the easy side of 5.6, and is a good warm-up for other nearby climbs.

P1: Start up the corner, using the crack and face holds on the left to advance. At the roof about 15-20 feet up step left and continue following the corner upwards. There is a crux bulge, but in my opinion all of the climbing is pretty straightforward 5.6 or easier, and is well-protected. As you get higher there are numerous left-facing flakes in the corner that provide good holds. At about the 80 foot level, there is a dirt ledge at which you can build an optional gear belay-- I did not; I finished the climb as a single pitch.

Original P2: A shorter, easier pitch. After a few more moves upward, the rock to the right eases off to a stairway of blocks up which it is easy to climb to a large oak tree with a rap station. Dick Williams describes this as a dying oak tree in his 2004 guide but as of June 2010 it seemed to me to be very much alive and thriving (but see comment below; as of 2013, not so alive). From here, a single 60 meter rope rap just makes it to the ground.

Direct finish: Williams describes a new direct finish in his 2004 guide, which climbs straight up from the end of pitch 1 to a small roof (crux), after which one climbs straight to the top.

I explored up to the roof, found the hold just under the roof to be a bit less of a jug than I expected, and then couldn't tell where to go. There is a lot of lichen over the roof and it seemed unclear to me whether to go left or right; there were no obvious holds I could see. It did not appear this variation had seen a ton of traffic. The tree at the top is higher than the traditional finish, so you will likely need two ropes to rap, or you can walk a short distance to the Ursula rap station, which will get you down with a single rope in two raps.

About 45 feet to the right and uphill from Groovy, at the obvious clean, left-facing corner with a roof above at 15-20 feet and numerous left-facing flakes above that.

Standard rack. Plenty of pro.