Milk the Quartz for Pints

On 30 Jan. 2015, David Light and I were looking for a warm-up on a cold morning, before climbing

Reveille

on the adjacent Amphitheater. About 50 feet right of

Creeping Obscurity

, David led up, crossing a thick, horizontal vein of milky quartz. He continued up, meandering to find protection and avoid solid-looking granite dinner plates (5.8). He belayed on a broken ledge at about 110 feet. Another loose pitch (5.6) ended on the left-descending ramp, about 20 feet right of the relatively tall ponderosa pine. We descended west, partway down the ramp to the nadir of the steeper upper wall of the Annex.

The third pitch began right of a large juniper tucked into an alcove. David led up into a large pocket of milky quartz, then diagonaled right before heading straight up, to the top of the upper wall (5.9-). The whole climb has interesting moves complicated by lots of the powdery lichen that lubes crucial footholds.

The first two pitches lie on the right side of The Annex. The third pitch begins to the right of a large juniper tucked into the nadir of the upper tier, on the west-descending ramp.

We topped out on a plateau, east of the summit of the Bitty Buttress. We walked east, then south, to the top of the west-descending ramp. We followed the ramp down, to the base of the Amphitheater. Down-climbing above deadly drop-offs begged caution. We did a short rap from a sling on a flake.

SR.