Air Mail

Both my partner and I thought that this was a great dihedral and had wonderful moves, but not much obvious pro. It can be a frightening lead. Take a 4" cam to reduce leg shake by placing in high and left at the top (crux)

The route is 5.9+ in the old rossiter book but has been "downgraded" to 10a in the new Levin book, eliminating the proper suspicion that it should be getting. I interpret the 9+ as a height-dependent rating short person (5'4") might say "plus several" I was glad to be 5'10", but I'd still say +1. Peter (5'8") wished he were taller too, but he made it anyway.

To find the route, go up the West Ridge to the famous and popular

Pony Express

area. In the middle of this area is a tree, 1/2 way up on a sizable ledge. The corner immediately left of this is

Pony Express

. Looking further left at ground level, about 20 feet left, is a flake, crack and corner system called

Zip Code

.

One more system left of

Zip Code

is a sizable, right-facing dihedral that goes 1/2 way up the wall to a large ledge (70'). The crack in the dihedral offers some generally poor and sparse protection, but it could hold a fall and is definitely better than nothing.

Climb the dihedral up to the large ledge, moving left to the face and arete when necessary. From the ledge, one can either climb up and right on more poorly protected face, merge and finish on Zip Code, or traverse left to a 5.8 crack system called

Cold Turkey

.

You will probably be wigged out enough to take the latter two of these options with grace.

The pro up high is bad. In fact, it is mostly small and bad. The dihedral crack is mostly closed, with some iffy stoppers and some micro-cams or ball nuts. Aliens would probably be best due to their narrow width to get the best placement. So I've said some "S" routes are really "S-", but this route is "S+". The moves, while not terribly difficult, are somewhat insecure which adds to the stimulation of having little gear. Up high, a #4 Camalot placed in a diagonal slot will reduce the runout to the anchors.