Great Roof Bypass

Yet another time I planned to climb

Kor's Flake

and there were too many people on it. The route we did appears to be a variation of what I have seen in most guidebooks.

(1) Climb the first pitch of

Kor's Flake

(I always climb through the "hole" but not for any particular reason).

(2) Start up the second pitch of

Kor's Flake

but break right to a black and slightly bulging dihedral. I think that the normal route continues up

Kor's Flake

and avoids this. Dihedral felt 5.9, though I had not done too many 5.9 trad leads at the time, so could be 5.8+. It seems like we belayed after the black dihedral.

(3) The dihedral continues but is very dirty, head up and left instead (heading for a flake at the left edge of a big roof). The flake is big and hollow/scary, but leads to the best part of the climb. Do a "squeeze chimney traverse" to the right under/inside the big roof. I managed to fit through after much wiggling. My partner was convinced he couldn't fit but he finally did. If you are over about 190 lbs you probably will not fit. Continue to the dihedral at the right edge of the roof (I placed a large cam on a big runner before pulling onto the wall) and pull over to the right on (mostly) good holds, with good gear (large stoppers). The route continues to the saddle though I don't remember exact details. Difficulty decreased after the pull around the roof mentioned above.

I was going to give the route a star for the roof traverse and pull over the dihedral. I really enjoyed this pitch, but I figured that many people wouldn't so I left the star off.

Standard rack, I used one large cam in addition (seems like I always have one).