Double Life

Shirt-Tail Peak is comprised of two main walls split by a massive dihedral/gully, which is climbed via "

The Mountaineer's Route

." The left hand wall contains the popular classic

Gambit

, and the Right hand wall has several lower quality routes, one of which is Double Life.

The obvious arete/face to the shallow left-facing corner on the prow of the right-hand buttres is the

Giuoco Piano Direct

.

Double Life is a short ways to the right of

GP Direct

, on the South Face of the West wall, starting in a crack system & shallow, right-facing corner. Rossiter gives this route a star (1/1 star rating), which makes me wonder if he's ever climbed it, because I generally really enjoy the routes he highlights in his books, but this one sucks.

The crack system moves up and right for the first pitch, and is better looking from the ground than it is in reality. For the first 20-30 feet, your main concern is bad rock, not difficulty. Continue up the crack system for perhaps 80 feet to 2 reasonable pins (with good gear all around them) and execute the 'crux' moving up and left around them.

Once on a large solid ledge, follow another crack system up and right to a false summit, or up and left to join the

GP Direct

. Neither option is particularly good, clean, or hard. Do whatever you pick- or maybe spend more time on a better route. I liked Moriarty's Revenge/

Moriarty's Mistake

a lot better.

As of Feb 2002, the best way off is to traverse to the left-hand summit and rap as for

Gambit

, or to get into the big dihedral/gully as for the

Mountaineer's Route

and rap, although there is no anchor on the top of the last pitch. Some of the other anchors need some upgrading as well.

The route takes a mixed bag of protection. [A set] of stoppers & cams or hexes will do. The quality of the rock on pitch 1, particularly at the start, leaves something to be desired and some run-outs. A better name for the route may have been Nine Lives.