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Peak Mountain 3

Raining Tearer

FA Alex Hesler & Cody West 8-30-18'
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

This is a great route that still needs quite a bit of love. Place some gear, and step right over immediate exposure. If my memory still serves me, there is a slingable chickenhead near the beginning. Climb perfect holds past incipient cracks through a right-facing corner with loose rock. It could've been all the falling rock, but this corner seems to be the crux. Once on a ledge below the large and obvious tree, we walked around left to a small notch with a left-leaning, thin hands crack to gain the tree anchor for P1 (5.7, and possibly the technical crux). From there, it appeared you may have the option to walk off left (northwest) and back down the steep gully to the base, but we did not confirm this. You can also continue climbing the ridge trending slight right over very exposed but low 5th Class rock. If you choose to continue up P2 (5.3), it may be wise to practice your mountaineering and place a few pieces. Be VERY cautious as the rock is excellent, alpine-esque quality, but it is loose in many places including some large and inviting looking features. Check your holds, and wear a helmet. The difficulty slowly eases as you ascend to walking on the ridge top.

Hike down the gully west of the ridge to descend. The summit is pretty amazing if you have the time for it.

Location

Hike up the valley below the summit until you see the boulderfield leading northwest toward the summit. Follow it until you reach the obvious large southeast-facing ridge. Start on the leftmost end of the south face of the ridge aiming for the tree about 100' up. Scramble up 20' or so of easy rock to a small exposed belay perch below the right-facing corner above.

Protection

A single rack to a #4 and maybe a couple stoppers or extra fingers/hands pieces. A few slings to extend and anchor the tree for P1. Lots of large loose rock came down on the 1st ascent and following. It is cleaning up, but your belayer should do their absolute best to avoid the rockfall zone (which is difficult with the small and isolated belay area). I do believe it would be worth cleaning on rappel by scrambling to the tree on top of P1 first before attempting.