Disguise

Disguise starts from the upper left end of the ramp that splits the left-hand side of the south face of the Wind Tower. One could easily access this route by climbing something on the west face and scrambling around (The Bomb or similar). We started on Diffraction, and upon reaching the ramp, continued up and left to a nice belay at a crack (medium cams). The route pulls over the small roof above the ramp at a slight left-facing corner (no pro .8). It then heads up and barely left before reaching a right trending small right facing corner system. Follow this system to the crux moves up and right, and then back left. The line proceeds more or less straight up the huecoed face above to a belay at a pine tree on top of the face. With a combination of lichen, a good amount of questionable rock, sustained climbing on non-positive holds and a little route finding, Disguise is a pretty intense and totally "classic" Eldo 5.10 face climb. When compared to the neighboring Metamorphosis, Disguise is more run out, less obvious and not as positive, however the position and the moves are of equal quality. If we go by the standard that three stars designates a "must-do" route for the area and grade, Disguise probably doesn't quite make the cut. Two stars for position, moves, but a lack of perfect rock.

There isn't much pro to be had on this pitch. We started with Diffraction for which some long draws and a few cams is sufficient. On the route itself, I placed one each of the blue, black, red, and yellow Aliens in that order and nothing else. I would bring a set of nuts and several other cams (a few larger) in addition.