The Tickle

This is an interesting route that seems to be well off the beaten path. It's harder and steeper than it looks. From the top of the approach gully, start up an easy dihedral but with suspect rock, and then tackle an overhanging and leaning finger crack. Once you get to the steeper part of the route, the gear and rock quality greatly improve. The crux comes early, but the climbing stays with you for a bit.

(The route name and first ascentionist were obtained from Steve Levin's excellent guidebook to the canyon.)

This route is located at the upper end of the gully just right of

Xanadu

.

A standard Eldo rack. Some small cams (purple TCU, blue Aliens) would work for the crux. When I did the route, there was a fixed ballnut at the crux. The guidebook suggests belaying at a tree to the left of the route (obvious from the picture), but it's a bit awkward traversing over to it. I ended up building an anchor after all the difficulties, bringing up my partner, and then downclimbing easier rock to the right of the route.