The Dreadnaught

The upper part of this climb has some truly redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, however, the initial section impresses me more with the amount of redeeming that would be required to give this decaying pile of choss anything more than a bomb.

P1: (5.9, R, 80') The first pitch is a wandering, runout affair full of loose rock, dirt, plants, and sloping holds. It is both harder and more dangerous than it looks from below, and I saw a pretty good climber take a flyer off of this. Pick and choose your way up to a crumbling ledge. Once standing on the ledge, there are excellent holds and good gear to belay from on the narrow ledge.

P2: (5.10c, 50) The second pitch is good. Good enough to bother rapping into from the ridge and doing, but not worth approaching from below. This stem-fest varies from an acute dihedral to some almost open-book territory. The crack in the back of the corner comes and goes, so be sure to protect down low and toss in a few cams before the minor runout and trust the footwork. Good jams and gear come before hitting the danger zone.

There is a wide gully on the South side of the Skunk Canyon drainange, between the Dreadnaught and the North Ridge. This is on the West side of the Dreadnaught. Hike up the hill for some distance until the rock is a distinct ridge on both sides, to the East and to the West. Continue up the hill past 'Solid State' and past 'Super Power' to a right-facing corner than hangs 30 meters above the ground, protected by loose and blocky rock. This is the only major, right-facing corner at mid-rock and would be hard to miss.

No matter what you carry, you will place some poor gear in poor rock, with some distance between at times. Consider taking a set of nuts and cams to 3.5", plus some supplementary 0.4-0.8" cams and extra slings if you intend to lead this as one pitch. The belay up top is best done off of some hand-to-fist sized cams back and down, with a few stoppers for a directional up and on the ridge just South of the belay stance at the top of the crack.