This is the right-leaning Lost Arrow-size crack rising out of the bottom of the dark gully/wide chimney left of

Look Who's Talking

.  If you like placing tiny gear in spicy situations,

Empty Rhetoric

is the route for you.  It actually climbs well (the Ruckmans gave it one out of three stars in their 1998 guide) and with patience and the right gear, you can sew it up.  But because the route leans to the right as does the ground, and there is a wall a body length behind you, as well as a ledge that could flip you over half-way, the R rating is probably warranted.

Battle up the LA crack to a horizontal break (avoid the urge to clip the fourth bolt of

Hyperbole

), move right to catch another, slightly thinner crack, and continue battling to its top.  Do not be dismayed by the occasional patch of lichen or nice garden feature at the break; they are inconsequential.

Empty Rhetoric

ends at a large sloping ledge with chain anchors.  If more climbing is desired, consider continuing up on

DNR

(the arete just left),

Hyperbole

(the bolts just right), or

Look Who's Talking

(the vegetated crack system to the far right).

Empty Rhetoric

North Ridge

Baby Talk

Direct North Ridge

Talking Tough

Over Easy

Look Who's Talking

Talkin' Them Broken Foot Blues

Notalotatalk

Hyperbole

Hyperbole

takes on the series of overhangs between the

Direct North Ridge

to the left and

Look Who's Talking

to the right, starting right of the toe of the northeast buttress in the gully/wide chimney leading to the northwest face of Talk Buttress.  The route is a little contrived and has a garden feature or two, but the position is great.

Hyperbole

and

Empty Rhetoric

(as well as the neighboring climbs on north face of Dead Snag) rarely see sun regardless of the time of day, so they're tolerable even in the dead heat of summer.

The first five bolts take a line just left of

Empty Rhetoric

.  The climbing is a little devious getting from the first to the second bolt; if you're in the wrong place, it may be hard to clip the second bolt.  The climbing eases up once past the second bolt.

Once on the large sloping ledge above the first five bolts, sling one the chains on the anchors for

Empty Rhetoric

and continue on past five more bolts to a second set of chains.  On this latter section, stay out of the corners for a cleaner line, and at the fourth bolt above the sloping ledge, move right over the roof to find the next and last bolt before the final chains.

One can also break up the climb in two pitches by stopping at

Empty Rhetoric's

chains -- this reduces rope drag somewhat and makes for better visuals for the belayer, but doing it in one pitch is the way to go if longer draws are used.

If started by the bottom, near the trail, then a short scramble or easy broken rock leads to a steep, short headwall.  Some loose rock here.  Climb up this low angle fin to the top, which, is just below the NW face of the Talk Wall and ends at that point.  The traverse over to the North Ridge proper should probably be belayed using the large pine tree up slope and take care with the initial step up onto the slick short ramp that leads over to the crest of the ridge.  200 foot (60 meter) pitch.

The steep, main section of the North Ridge climbs either on the arete, or, slightly left onto the East Face.  Fun, steep, but, don't pass up any opportunities for protection.  Some loose rock.  At the end, either stay on the arete or climb up the neat slot corner.  Above this the ridge goes low angle and more broken.  150+ feet.

Note:  the arete forming the North Ridge is the left skyline of the Talk Buttress.

Continue up the ridge, finding easy ground and some solid rock.  Aim for the large pine tree at the top of the ridge, where the North Ridge fin of rock sort of bends over and blends back into the Dead Snag formation.  Take care with loose rock.  200 feet (60m) pitch.

Traverse over and note the top of Steort's Ridge.  Down climb/traverse back to this location for the standard get off.  Some exposure and loose rock.

From the base of Talk Buttress, turn west.  Baby talk climbs the left-most of the 2 left-facing right-trending cracks.  It has it's moments, but digresses to a romp up bad rock, near the top.  The 2nd pitch or 2nd half is a ridge scramble to the south to attain the down-climb at the notch.  More of a means to a view than a route in it's own right.

The

DNR

climbs the northeast ridge of Talk Buttress, starting from the very toe of Talk Buttress, right of

Over Easy

and left of the gully/wide chimney leading to the routes on the northwest face of Talk Buttress. The route is to the right of

North Ridge

as shown in John Gottman's 1979 guide, which is best described as a chossy crack that starts about 10 feet left of the toe of the buttress. There is an MP posting for

North Ridge,

but from what I can tell that describes a variant of the original route as shown in Gottman's guide (and Tony Calderone's 2017 guide), albeit longer, starting from the fin of rock just east and uphill from the routes on the east face of Challenge Buttress, and traversing onto Talk Buttress in the vicinity of the start for

Look Who's Talking

.

Trivia aside,

DNR

stays pretty much directly on the skyline between Talk Buttress' east face (bearing

Over Easy

) and the north face (bearing

Hyperbole

and

Empty Rhetoric

). Although we spent some time cleaning the route, expect a small amount of lichen and a few suspect holds, but it should clean up with subsequent ascents. Consider jumping on this if

Steorts' Ridge

is hammered, but, of course, you'll have to go back to bag

Steorts'

because it is the best 5.6 in the Wasatch.

Start on the lowest point of Talk Buttress and climb the ridge above, using gear when you find it and clipping an occasional bolt (bolted in an effort to make it suitable for novice trad leaders). When the ridge kicks back, near the top of Talk Buttress, scramble up and left maybe 30 feet to the chains atop

Over Easy

. About 60 feet up from the start of the route is a stance on the right with two bolts, but it's better to do one long lead until the terrain becomes hands-free and cam placements abound.

This climbs staight up the face to the pin, and then crosses Look Who's Talking just right of a nice hand crack (look for the bolt).  Beware, the Ruckman guide is wrong.  There is 1 extra bolt between the pin and the roof, and the bolt above the roof is hangerless.  This is where the runout exists, as well as your pre-pin moves.  This climb has nice sharp edges on beautiful quartzite.  Fun moves galore.  The finish makes this climb.

Pitch 1: Locate the first bolt about 20' up from the base of the chimney/gully. Climb up past 9 bolts to a 3 bolt anchor, clip the anchor and climb up through a steeper juggy crack. Follow the weakness to the top and a 2 bolt anchor. This is a pretty fun line, with the crux getting to the first bolt, and mostly cruiser climbing after it. Good candidate for someones first trad lead.

Descent: Rappel the route with one rope.

Look Who's Talking is a really great route, despite the vegetation and squeeze chimney as seen below.  Start on top of a chockstone, which is just before the dropoff to the left.  Make an airy traverse left (ground drops below), but this can be protected with a red alien. Reach the crack and all the plant life.  Easily avoid the plants on face holds, passing 2 really bad pitons which aren't worth clipping.  Reach a beautiful finger crack which splits a smooth as glass wall, pulling through a roof.  Face climb around the squeeze chimney, then finish up on a ledge. Some moderate downclimbing to the left is required to get off.

Also known as

Talkin' Smack

this is the face directly below the end of

Notalotalk

. Thin and steep with a couple of long moves thrown in. An attentive belayer is needed for the belay as the crux is just below the 2nd bolt.

This is the climb that climbs the flake on the right side.  It pops over the flake and then starts a nice rightward shuffle.  The shuffle is a blast, as the crack is nice on the fingers.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Talk Buttress