The Sarcophagus

The Sarcophagus is one of the two awesome chimneys which splits The Warlock into its Top, Middle and Lower summits (The Spell is the other one).

Pitch 1: The regular first pitch, which we didn't do, supposedly goes up hard-to-protect and loose rock. It looks heads-up and probably goes at 5.7 or 5.8. As a safer alternative, we climbed the steep crack to the right of the regular start. This way felt about 5.10b burly crack climbing. Belay below the large chimney system, wherever comfortable.

Pitch 2: Climb up the chimney. Belay below a huge, obvious roof.

Pitch 3: This is a very short pitch. To overcome the roof, you have the option of going left through a tunnel and then back right or climbing up and around the roof on the right. We chose the easier way to the left and through the tunnel. Going right looks like it would be a steep and exciting finish, although slightly harder. Belay on bolts on top of the lower summit.

The route starts in the awesome chimney to the right of the even-more-awesome chimney of The Spell.

To get to the route, you'll need to climb up The Howling and then rap into The Warlock / Witch gully. Leave your shoes, packs, etc. at the base of The Howling.

Descent: To descend from the top of the Lower summit, you'll first need to climb up another pitch of easy 5th class to get to the Middle Summit. From here, do a short rappel from bolts to get to the notch between the Middle and Higher summits. Then, aid up a few bolts and climb easy 5th to get to the Higher (true) summit. From the Higher summit, locate the rappel bolts and do two raps to get back to near the start of The Howling.

Lots of wide cams, nuts and long slings.

Wear your helmet as there may be loose rock on the route. (There was when we climbed it.)