Rise & Shine

A long series of interesting, varied, and challenging pitches running up the entire height of the South Corner Cliffs.

P1: Climb the flake, reach left to the crack, and follow it as it bends rightward (traversing left to the other crack puts you on Kissing Pigs ). Reach a scruffy set of ledge steps leading to a sheltered stance beneath an overhang. Tricky opposition protects a difficult move getting up to a fist-jam stab and a bit of burliness through the overhang and crack leading on- and up to easier ground. Beat through a short bit of brush to reach the base of the next pitch.

P2: Climb up a set of right-facing flakes, edges, and cracks through a ground-level scoop. Step left and follow the crack line up to a blocky section leading up to the right edge of the cliff. One can escape the cliff to the right, but the original ascent stays on the face, climbing into a niche in an overhanging section, using opposed brass nuts for pro, then hand-traverses left with pumpy pro (micro-cams to 1/2") before pulling above the bulge onto easier terrain. From there, climb up and right to finish on the "Pyramid", a giant triangular block with exposed but easy face climbing (there is now 1 bolt on this section, reducing the grade from 5.5 X to PG). Walk across the spine of the Pyramid to safety.

P3: If you escaped right on P2, scramble straight up; if you came up via the Pyramid, walk right 20'. Both reach the base of a right-facing corner in a slab leading up to a small overhang. There is a large overhang a bit farther right, 30' up. Climb up the corner (small brass nuts) breaking the overhang via a thin hand crack, then move up past a perched oak tree and climb a left-leaning steep ramp, working around the left side of an overhang, to reach a balancy, awkward stance. A blind 1" cam placement protects the next move, an exciting swing up and right to another left-leaning ramp on the right edge of the cliff. Move up the ramp, reach for good edges on the steep face to the left, establish yet another tricky, opposed brass nut pro placement, then make a committing swing up and left onto the steep face. Move up the right-rising foot rail to its top, reach high for decent holds, then climb easily up and left through blocky rock, merging with Crack of Dawn for the last ten feet.

P4: Begin as for P2 of Crack of Dawn: climb up via left-facing flake to a stance, then make a tricky move to gain a little more height on a sloping stance, with a pair of short horizontal pods, which should now be at about knee level. Move left (rightward is Crack of Dawn ) to reach a left-rising thin crack. Ride that puppy to its eventual level-off point, reach up through the overhang to another left-rising horizontal crack, and take that, continuing to follow it as it sweeps upward. Break through a small overhang at its end to reach the top of this section of cliff, at a good wooded ledge.

P5: (this is the same as the last pitch of the Gray-Harrison Alpine Route): Step right, up onto a stance beneath a bulging scoop, with a left-rising vertical crack breaking the bulge. Up via the crack onto easy ground. Wade through the hay up and right to a final headwall. Reach a ledge at the point beside a sharply-defined right-facing corner which defines the left edge of a ceiling 12' up. Climb the outside edge of this corner, reaching out to good holds on the face to its left to pass the edge of the ceiling. Scramble up to the top of the slab. Note that there is a fixed tree rappel anchor about 50' climber's left of the top-out.

Same start as Kissing Pigs: at a left-facing flake at ground level, which gives access to a hand crack to its left. This is on the wall up and left of the main TeePee Wall, and about 40' left of Sauron's Bolt of Horror. Like the link-up Animal, Rise & Shine's pitches can be modified, varied, and for most of them, circumvented if desired.

Bring an extensive trad rack, including offset brass nuts (doubles of the medium to large sizes of these), standard sized offset nuts, a double set of micro- to medium (2") cams, and one 4" cam. Pro at several crucial points is tricky. Expect to use opposed brass nuts, blind cam placement, and other advanced tricks of the trad-trade. There are no fixed anchors en route specifically for this climb, but there is a rap anchor near the top, and several good to questionable rap anchors on nearby trees along the way. There is now a bolt on the "Pyramid" variation of P2, though it was not there for the first ascent.