Empire of the Goats

After a long hiatus, Mark Tarrant and I returned to Empire of the Goats to finally suss out P2. This is a real lesson in what it means to have the right partners. We did some rearranging of the bolts that have made the climb much better.

P1 remains largely as it was, a decent 5.11 that has cleaned up nicely. The P1 belay was shifted entirely to what had been a lower perch.

P2 is may be the best pitch on this crag altogether. It checks in at 5.12b/c, but has some perplexing solutions that would make the on-sight seem more difficult. The initial difficulties moving through the face of the big dihedral have been brought down to the strenuous 5.11 domain. The first crux, just below the final headwall, is still burly with very tricky footwork, pretty much all on smears. A final crux awaits just before the anchors, and this may be more of a pump crux than a technical crux.

Kudos to Mark for holding it together for a red point burn early in May, 2008.

A dozen draws and a 70 meter rope. P1 runs up on half a dozen clips, while P2 needs a dozen and something for the double bolt anchor at the top. A 70 meter rope will touch ground comfortably from the top of P2. The older notes indicated that a 60 meter rope would just touch ground from the top of P2, and this is true, but there is very little room for error - tie the ends of the rope. It is difficult to get back into the top of P1 if rapping from the top of P2, you are just too far out to get back in.