Latch Hand

This pitch is on the far right side of Gollum's Arch Rock, about 100 yards past Seam-stress and Gollum's Arch. Walk past those routes along the base of the cliff, boulder up into a hanging gully beneath an overhanging, rotten section of the cliff, scramble up to the gully's highpoint then descend just a bit to the base of the route. A short, narrow, and hanging right-facing dihedral is the start of the pitch.Gain the hanging corner, climb to its top, then traverse left to the obvious, thin seam that splits the upper slab. Climb the continuously delicate tips crack past a piton and a tiny tree. The gear is very good but not immediately obvious. For what it's worth, I find the moves off the ground to be really burly (not 10a as the guidebook suggests).I have also led an alternate "direct" start. Just left of the original start, climb a left-angling weakness to a short right-facing corner feature (11/11+ R), then move right on a sloping shelf to the base of the crux seam. I certainly don't recommend this start over the original, since it's kinda dirty and dangerous, but it is something different. From the top you can walk left (West) down a ramp to get back to the ground.

This is one of a killer circuit of hard seam pitches in this general area. On the Hens and Chickens check out Two In The Pink (11+) and Hagakure (12a); also on Gollum's Arch Rock, try Seam-stress (11d) and Wrath (12).

Bring RPs, small stoppers, and cams up to 2". There is one decent pin in the crux seam.