West Face

The original route to climb the entire western face of Machete Ridge.  Machete Direct's final two pitches are part of this route (being also final two pitches of West Face). A fun route if you're looking for something different, though most people would agree that Machete Direct and Son Of Dawn Wall are more appealing.

The normal way to gain the first pitch is to walk along the wall past Corona and Dos Equis: walk south towards Son Of Dawn Wall, and then follow a climber's trail from the base of SODW, up a fourth class ramp to gain a short bolt ladder.

To add a little more climbing, we climbed "Beyond Destiny" (5.7R) which starts just 10 feet right of Corona. From the top of Beyond Destiny, its an easy and safe 40 ft walk straight towards the wall, you will find West Face's initial bolt ladder way back in the corner.

Pitch 1: Climb the super easy bolt ladder, and then follow main wall up and left. The bolt ladder is only 4 bolts, but its actually really easy to climb up a little higher and reach the second bolt. After the bolt ladder climb up and left along easiest path but DO NOT climb into pink rock! Stay about 10-15 feet below it. Shortly after the bolt ladder you will see a two-bolt anchor up in said pink rock, don't go up there, the anchor you want is roughly 30 more feet left, following the easiest path. STAY OUT OF THE PINK ROCK.

From the anchor,  you can unrope and "3rd Class" along the ramp allllllll the way over to the beginning of Machete Direct's fifth pitch. Wee!

When walking north along the narrow ramp from the pitch 1 anchor, you will pass the bases of several bolt ladders. They are (from south to north) Los Banditos, Rock Around the Clock, Bills Bad Bolts, Daedalus, and finally Machete Direct Pitch 5. Note that Los Banditos is not in Young's 2007 book as it was established later.

The third class gets very narrow and loose, and gravel abounds, providing more a sense of 4th class.

My partner and I were happy to rope up again at the base of Daedalus's bolt ladder., using the first bolt as an anchor... a brown tricam also works in a pocket if you want backup... I took the rope over to the Machete Direct Bolt ladder from there. From Daedalus to Machete Direct I used up about 50 of my 60 meters of rope. No meaningful protection for traverse, but its nice to put at least SOMETHING between you and the ground.

NOTE: The anchor you want is about 30 feet down the slab from  the start of the bolt ladder. A good way to tell where you are, is if you can SAFELY scramble down a few feet away from the bolt ladder, look up and Middle Tower should be directly over head. The bolt ladder goes up for about three or four aid moves, before free climbing up and left into the giant dihedral/flare that leads up along the base of middle tower.

From there, follow directions for pitches 5 and 6 of Machete Direct.

The "R" rating comes from multiple opportunities to really change your life if your pro blows out of the shitty rock its in... and for the very sketchy traverse between the first official pitch and the final bolt ladder: the catwalk gets very narrow for a bit, and the bulging headwall forces you to crouch and scramble over a large chunk of rock about the size of a refrigerator that has visible tunnels eroding through the base of it, you could probably send the whole thing off the wall with a good kick... best be careful about how you interact with it.

The easiest way to find the start is to climb "Beyond Destiny", which starts just 10 feet right of Corona. Beyond destiny is a surprisingly long, and moderately fun 5.7 with bolts that can be supplimented by gear (which you should already have if youre doing West Face). The bolts for Beyond Desinty go up and slightly right until you reach a bulge above a horizontal crack, and from there go straight up. Dont do what I did and completely forget about the cams hanging off your harness, which makes for a very very spice move to pull over the bulge while already being 15 feet above your bolt... 7 or 8 bolts total, I forget. Buy Brad Young's book!

The original way to gain the start is to hike past Corona, heading south to reach Son Of Dawn Wall, and then following a fourth class ramp from there, up and left.

The bolt ladder is way at the back of the overhanging headwall, right where it meets the main face of Machete Ridge.

We brought 10 draws, which was nice for extending cams.

A few single and double length runners...

A light rack of cams from 0.3 to 3 inches.

Use those cams where you can! Dont hold back, i think my .75, my 1, and my 2 never left the rack but they certainly could have. Pro is sparse and shitty so dont worry about running out of cams.