Year of the Dragon

Year of the Dragon is a bit of an anomaly for Mt. Gretna. It climbs a slightly overhanging face on, gasp, actual holds! Plus, the sequence is not cryptic.

Start sitting on two crimps. Backstep and work up solid, small crimps to the obvious, beckoning sloping pinch. This hold is one of the best in all of Mt. Gretna. Slap out left around the slight corner to a sidepull. Keep it together and squeeze the right arete to topout.

I always felt that it helped to be tall for this problem. I could never keep my feet on while moving from the pinch, while I watched Ernie have no problem with it over and over. I consider this a benchmark problem for V6 at Mt. Gretna. Of course, that is assuming optimal conditions. The pinch will feel impossible to hang onto in the summer. There is an excellent video of this problem on the 2001 film Hard Gret.

Walk 100 meters past the upper and lower matrix. Year of the Dragon will be on your right just off the trail, and the problem will face your back. The boulder is downhill of the large Green Marble boulder.

Single pad.