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Peak Mountain 3

Moonshadow

FA Al Long, Lindi McIlwaine, Al Rubin (May 1976)
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

150' of sustained liebacking make this a memorable adventure.

Pitch 1, 5.7, 150' (or, in the words of a guide, "Only 5.6 but be sure to send up your strongest leader.") Climb either corner to the top of a pillar (about 70'), then traverse 25' left under the large overhang, and pull the layback flake and exit right and build a belay level with a pointy flake. Look down and realize you are standing on top of the same massive flake you were underclinging on the traverse.

Pitch 2, 5.7, 110'. Step left and down past flake into left-facing dihedral. Climb this corner, exit right, then wander up an easy but runout face to a ledge.  I doubt that one path is much better than another.  I do remember traversing to look for placements, and also deciding to go without.

Pitch 3,  From the ledge, this is 5.easy and short. Go up and left to another ledge at the base of the huge slab.

Pitch 4, 5.9, 150'. Belay as far left on the ledge as you can. The leader must step out left and down into the corner at the base of the left-facing dihedral. From here you have a clear view of the Half Moon Crack, above you to the left. A finger crack protects the first cruxy moves up into the dihedral. Lieback the long, leftward-arching dihedral. The second crux is near the top, and also protects well.

Pitch 5, 5.8, 150'. Climb up right, then back left over a corner, and pull through a bulge split by a hand crack. Belay on the vegetated ledge. We improved a rap station up and left of the belay and directly above the Half Moon Crack. We used this to descend to the bolts atop Half Moon crack.

Pitches 6 & 7. These should be easy. Jon Sykes says to head up and right to the summit (and the usual walk-off).

Location

You can find the crux layback pitch by surveying the dihedrals right of Vertigo's Half Moon Crack. Moonshadow is the rightmost one before the slab, and it's curved the opposite way from Half Moon. The start of the climb, however, is far to the right.

Start in the twin 20' left-facing corners (often partly wet) that are about 150' right of Union Jack/Vertigo, and 100' right of White Iceberg (a bolted face climb). These corners are not in the first large left-facing dihedral right of the bolts -- that dihedral is the start of North-South-West.) To be sure you are in the right place, look for the large overhang that goes left from the top of a pillar, about 70' up. A different route (Down East) continues up a curved crack above this pillar.

Protection

Big cams may be useful for the layback crack, but they are not necessary. As with the Half Moon Crack, you will find that part of this flared crack in the dihedral is too wide to take standard cams, but is OK for BigBros. At least Moonshadow's cruxes are far above any ledges.