Opening Moves

Rock is fairly clean, climbing sustained at the grade, particularly on the first pitch, and the route is easy to follow and protectable throughout. The route has certainly been climbed, but I have not been able to find it on any topo or get any information about it.

Pitch 1: (5.6, 110 ft) Go up the right half if the distinct buttress on the left/south end of the Checkerboard. Take the slabby surface up to a ledge. Follow the ledge a short distance left to a chimney. The chimney can be climbed on holds, as opposed to chimeneying it, and is protectable. It is blocked at the top, but an exit to the left to a short and comfortable ledge is quite doable.

Pitch 2: (5.6, 90 ft) Continue up the same feature, now just a groove in an open slab. It is easy at the beginning, but steepens sharply. This is the crux. The move is protectable using the vertical crack above the bush. (If you are adventurous, you can follow the vertical crack splitting the bulge on the right instead. It protects well and it's clean, but it is 5.7). Continue up and slightly to the right until you reach a really wide, ledge slanting down toward the right. This is the same ledge the first pitch of Lone Piton comes to.

The route is on the extreme left end of the main Checkerboard Wall, left even from the first pitch of Lone Piton. The buttress found there is composed of two halves separated by a groove. The route starts to the right of this groove.

To get back down walk along the wide ledge leftward until you reach the gully below Lone Piton. Scramble down the gully by dropping down to a tree, walking through it, and then scrambling down the rocks on the far side. Taking shoes along is recommended for the descent down the slope to the bottom of Checkerboard and the walk along its bottom edge.

Standard rack up to #4, small nuts.