Dog Cheese

Falsely listed in the new Fixed Pin guide as Orion's Belt, this route ascends the face to the left of

Dog Star

. Dog Cheese turned out to be a surprisingly nice route given the vague route descriptions in the guidebooks available at the time, and it was great to find a new line.

The route starts near

Dog Star

, and a black stained corner was attempted, but the pro seemed uncertain, so an exit around that to the left was used to access the upper part of the wall. Various grassy ledges and slabs lead to the steeper upper wall.

An angling crack that came in around low to mid-5.10 was encountered in the middle portion of the route with a bit of an overlap. Cracks and corners led up to the final obstacle at a ledge high on the wall. A final steep finger crack seemed the most protectable option and was probably the crux of the route overall.

After Scott and I topped out, we enjoyed watching Tom and Rich climb the final pitch from the ridge. Tom asked if the crack was 5.8, perhaps hoping for a quick finish? I noted that it was more like 10+, but I had at least cleaned out the key gear placements already. An epic hike out took us most or all of the night.

It is obvious that the Fixed Pin errors were intentional considering that they had the other three members of the FA team listed and most of the route details correct. During this climb, I led all the pitches, and Scott and I were the first of the two teams on the wall that day.

This is on the left side of McHenry's.

Gear to 3".