Que Rasca

This exciting route follows the SE ridge of the Eastern Ironing Board. You can begin the climb at the very base of this ridge, just above the bottom of Bluebell Canyon, this adds 2 or 3 poorly protected pitches to what I describe. The standard start is to hike up along the base of the East Face for several hundred feet, until reaching the second of two wide cracks/gullys. Left of the point where this crack intersects the main ridge there is a subsidiary summit, the most significant one along the lower half of the ridge.

Begin up a slab left of the wide crack/gully. Climb up the slab (some scary unprotected 5.7). On the second pitch, you can head left to the ridge crest and go over the subsidiary summit, or (easier) traverse right, crossing the crack/gully and then on up to the ridge crest reaching it after the subsidiary summit.

Either way, the climb now follows the ridge crest. You will find a bolt and fixed stopper at the top of the route "

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love

", and then you can belay at a good bolt before where the crest steepens. The next 40' is the crux and is totally unprotected. Consider that this route translates (roughly) "How Scratchy" in Spanish.

An alternate way to do the crux section (not necessarily any better protected) is to traverse 20' north to another bolt (this bolt may be on the route "Smooth"), and then head straight up to the crest (5.7 s). In either case, after the crux, you will come to the bolted anchor at the top of

Velvet Elvis

, you can belay here or continue another 140' to a notch, where you will find a 2 bolt anchor on the other side for a 60' rap W to the ground. A 60m rope barely makes it from the bolt below the crux to the top belay. In fact, with a 60m rope we were able to do this entire route in 3 pitches, but they were all full pitches.

A light rack.