Ruffis is the finger-to-hand crack that heads out the large roof just right of

Cat's Cradle

. It is strenuous and has plenty of awkwardness. Wear long pants for knee scums on the walls and roof.

Ruffis

Cave Crack

Lucille

Journey to Coramonde aka Anita

Hassler's Hatbox Route

Cat's Cradle

Cat's Claw

Best of the Blues

This is a great route well worth the walk after topping out on any of the Walt's Wall or Fall Wall routes. After locating the crag gawking at

Lucille

, look to the right for this classic line.

Ascend the stemmy corner to the first large ledge. One could separate the climb into 2 pitches after this first 30' of the lead. Step a few feet right and surmount the initial difficulties of entering the crack - seemingly the Vedauwoo theme. If you fall out, you have a king-sized ledge to plop back onto. Once established, cruise the fun, continuous handcrack to the anchor.

Cave Crack is the deep chimney that leads directly to the top of Hassler's Hatbox. The chimney actually extends all the way through the rock, narrowing to a fist-sized crack by the time it escapes the other side. I believe this is easiest path to the top of Hassler's Hatbox, if you don't mind a little blue collar grunt work that is!

Scramble up into the base of the chimney and belay inside. Begin by stemming with good footholds past some secure chockstones. This part can be protected by a couple of nuts.

Continue up the narrowing chimney, and soon it becomes possible to place large cams. The larger your cams, the less you have to burrow into the chimney for protection. The last 15 feet are somewhat strenuous, but very tight and secure. The chimney ends right on the summit.

To descend, scramble over to the Cat's Cradle anchor and rappel 80 feet to the ground.

This is the distinctive (and impossible to mistake) offwidth/squeeze chimney roof.  Climb Best of the Blues (10b), the crack below with a small fist crack roof, to get to the belay cave for this monstrosity.  Then go up.  Go out at the roof, then go up when the roof ends.  Be creative and you might score the 6th ascent!

This route is well worth a little scrambling and bouldering to get to the platform at the start of the climb. To find the route, just locate the huge roof system on the right side of Hassler's Hatbox formation. Once you reach the starting platform....

P1. Follow the crack system to the alcove under the roof, and belay from here.

P2. Traverse under the roof and belay from chains.

This route is a lot of fun with airy and exposed moves across the entire traverse. You may even get applause from the people picnicking far below.

This route is just right of

Lucille

and about 20 feet left of

Cat's Cradle

. As you top out on Walt's Wall, look left to the obvious Hassler's Hatbox formation.

Work your way through the rockstacle course and down to the start of what looks like a chimney. This climb is great for beginning trad leaders. The climb has it all, cracks, easy off-width techniques and stemming.

Rap down from the bolts at the top of

Cat's Cradle

. Note: there is usually a stiff breeze at the bottom, so belayers take an extra shirt or jacket.  Don't forget water; you'll be thirsty after coming up Walt's Wall.

Climb the first 'pitch' of

Cat's Cradle

and the beginning of the '2nd pitch' above the potential belay shelf. Next protect and climb the seam to the left (crux). Finally, follow the flared hand crack until it peters out. Step right into

Cat's Cradle

. The crux is interesting, but

Cat's Cradle's

finishing crack is a much nicer line.

A tricky 5.10 move off a large boulder leads to easier climbing. The crux is a splitter hands/fist crack through a roof. There is some cordelette around a block that you can lower off.

Description

Protection

Routes in Hassler's Hatbox