Saddle Up

A surprisingly good route tucked away on Jackrabbit Buttress on the way to the Brownstone wall. Pitch 1 has fun interesting stemming and chimneying through a cool cave system. Pitch 2 has a sustained steep handcrack on good rock. 3 and 4 ease off with fun climbing on good rock.Bushwack your way into the alcove and scramble up some third class to rope up. We didn't have a middle mark on the rope, so pitch lengths may be off a bit.P1 - Stem and chimney up some very featured rock, eventually the rock smooths out before the base of a slightly left-slanting rib. Continue up the rib into a cave system. Very fun stemming and chimneying up working slightly left to gain the top of the huge chockstone. Build your anchor at a small T-shaped crack about ankle height on the east wall on top of the chockstone. 5.7+ 110 feet. (lots of variations on this pitch that could go harder or easier)P2 - Step off the chockstone out and right over the void (spicy) to a couple of face moves to gain a nice, steep hand crack on the right. Jam your way up the crack, watching for an occasional jug on the right wall. Continue up past a white flake on the left side of the crack and belay just above. 5.9 120 feet.P3 - Continue up the handcrack as the angle eases and the crack trends left. Belay just before the crack peters out, standing on a small varnished ledge with the crack at your chest. Great anchor, it takes anything from .4 to a #3. 5.7 175 feet.P4 - The crack is ending, so angle a bit right then head up. The rock and pro are much better than it looks. 5.4 190 feet.Unrope and walk off heading towards Brownstone wall.

The route starts in the large gully between Smooth Operator and The Black Pearl. The obvious landmark is the huge chockstone at the top of pitch one.

Descent - Walkoff northwest towards Brownstone Wall.

Single rack to 4", doubles .5 to 2", some may find a #5 useful on the first pitch.