Start in the Birth Canal and at it's end take a 90 degree turn and climb through fifty plus more feet of fists, twists, hands, and maybe a few tight hands as you wind through a tunnel like cave. At the mouth of the cave bust through a big hands dihedral where the crack goes vertical for a few feet, followed by ten or more feet of splitter hands to tight hands that lead to an exciting finish. The Birth Canal is one crux and the end is a second crux, but endurance over the distance is the true challenge here as no individual section is any harder than 12-/V5 or so. This is without a doubt one of the finest cracks anywhere. It is especially appealing to me because it splits the cave it is in through it's proudest aspect.

There are many other variations starting at the various cracks and going to either side of the cave, including the one that traverses the jugs into the crack. This version is the one generally referred to as The Full Crackhouse.

The Crackhouse

The Birth Canal

[Redacted]

Outside Traverse

Baby House

Yuji's Crack

The Crack Whore is a 25-30 foot off-width roof bouldering problem. Start as far back in the cave as possible and climb out to the lip. A variation "The Crack Head" (11+) is to climb through the squeeze chimmney in the middle avoiding the crux (turning the lip).

20 feet of horizontal crack to 15 feet of vertical crack.  If you can establish above the roof in the vertical section it's all over.

Pumpy!

Starting very far to the right of the exit crack on Birth Canal, locate a large chalked up jug.

Traverse left on huge jugs utilizing a variety of heel and toe hooks until you reach the hand crack that exits Birth Canal, or make some sporty finishing throws to the lip off good jugs near the end.

I've heard this route called V4, but I think this rig is best described as climbing a sport route without all those cumbersome quickdraws.

I found a new little mini-crackhouse a couple miles from the crackhouse.  It's fun, and quite a bit easier than the crackhouse, so if you're beat down and sad from not sending the crackhouse, stop by here on the way out and get a burn in on this thing.  Or do it as a warmup on your way to the crackhouse.  You're already gonna tape up, so why not?

Start in the very back on a fist jam and a hand jam with your feet out towards the lip.

The topout holds are still a bit crispy, as well as the lip of the crack in the roof.  Give this thing 20 or 30 more ascents and it will be nice and clean, so if you go in the next couple months, just expect a little bit of sand, etc.

Start laying on dust and guano with your hands behind a choke stone. Pull on and make a series of tight hands or ring lock moves. After pulling a cruxy sequence, either climb the crackhouse tunel line in reverse and top out as per the Birth Canal (the enduro version) or keep climbing strait and finish as per The Crackhouse (the direct version.) Both versions go at about v6/7.

I find the first section of Yuji's Crack to be the most bouldery sequence in the Crackhouse warranting a grade higher than Fat Crack, but not quite as high as The Crackhouse.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Crackhouse