Lenticular Gyrations

This is a mostly independent crack climb, sharing about 60' of other routes and adding over 900' of new terrain. The only pitch that has more than one bolt is the crux. Pitches 2,3,4,6,7, & 8 are standout pitches. The first and last pitches of the route have the worst rock quality. This route is heavy on the fingers to thin-hands size range.

Pitch 1 (5.10b): A good warmup pitch, albeit a little dirty. Climb the first 20' of "Eye of the Storm," clip a bolt, then traverse directly right and up through some small roofs and bulges. Stop at the base of a long polished dihedral. Good stance.

Pitch 2 (5.10d): Climb the long polished ramp which starts easy and gets progressively harder. Some good footwork and a lot of small gear is required. After the crux, head back up and left to an easy, but runout groove. Save some finger size pieces and slings for this section. Belay on top of a huge ledge.

Pitch 3 (5.11c, 1 bolt): The fun begins. Climb up the dihedral for 10 feet, then traverse left across the face clipping a bolt. Step around the corner and into a nice dihedral. Climb the pumpy corner to a nice rest before the roof. At the roof traverse left to the belay.

Pitch 4 (5.11d, 1 bolt): Climb the flake on the right and clip a bolt. From here transition up and left to the next crack over. The crux comes with some tricky feet and shallow hand jams. A little committing. After the crux, climb the glorious and exposed splitter to the midway ledge.

Pitch 5 (5.9): Easiest pitch on the route. Climb up to the midway ledge and go straight up to a low angle corner against the headwall. The crack is a little grassy, but safe. Continue up the corner to a decent stance and an anchor.

Pitch 6 (5.11a): Climb the cool and splitter inverted flake, with feet on the ramp. At the apex of the corner system punch straight up. A short boulder problem is the crux and a much easier section runs past the standard Tradewinds belay and up to a belay shared with Astrohulk. The last 30-40' of this pitch is shared with Astrohulk, while Tradewinds goes out left past the creepy detached flake.

Pitch 7: (5.11b, 1 bolt) Climb up the obvious corner on the right for 10' then traverse directly left across the face on some nice edges. Climb directly up the thin hands splitter in the middles of the face. At the top of the crack, clip a bolt and do a short, but tricky boulder problem, moving left. Continue up the thin crack to a poor stance and the base of the crux pitch.

Pitch 8 (5.12, 7 bolts): This is what you came for. Place some small cams in the crack and get to a good rest at the base of the Crescent. Start clipping bolts and fire into some hard and insecure liebacking. After a few bolts a thank god rest is found. From here go straight up and climb an exposed and sequential boulder problem. Move to the left with a crack switch and hold on for another tricky section before getting to easier ground and the belay. Pumpy, burly, and sustained. The bolts are close and safe, but pulling through would be difficult in many spots.

Pitch 9 (5.11c, 1 bolt): Worst pitch of the route... just when you thought it was over. Climb the dirty corner with small and sometimes uninspiring gear. Halfway up, climb a very short and narrow chimney, clipping a bolt. Use some trickery passing the bolt and hold on for a few more hard moves. From here, climb straight up the corner with easier climbing up to the belay. An annoying pitch, but you have to do it. Someday this pitch will be clean.

Start is shared with Eye of the Storm. Scramble up to the large pedestal passing the start of the Venturi Effect. The climb starts in the large corner on top of the pedestal. It's easiest to descend by rapping the Venturi Effect with a single 70m rope. The route can be rappelled in most places using 2 60m ropes. Biners or quicklinks would have to be left at pitches 4 and 9. If you climb to P4 and want to bail, simply walk left on the Bivy Ledge to the PV rap station.