The only sport route at Fringe Wall. Climb the sharp arete to a sandy fridge size block.

Mentor

Bar Exam

Scorpion Corner

Soft Serve

Widow vs Mantis

Itch

Cactus Flower

Sacred Simplicity

The Sting

Switch

Carolyn’s Corner

Warren's Roof Crack

Bitch

Dunn's

Warren's Left-Leaning Crack

Neutron Dance

Octopussy

Worm Hole

P1 - A short approach pitch up and right to the base of the splitter (5.7).

P2 - Nice steep splitter handcrack (5.10+).

Decent - (2) ropes are necessary

Bar Exam is a fantastic off-width climb on Cactus Flower Buttress. Climb a few easy moves to get on top of a short block, then climb a short sections of hands to OW in a right-facing corner. This climb shares the anchor with "The Sting".

Good luck making the final move look pretty.

Scorpion Corner looks hard from the ground and its looks are not deceiving!  From a large belay ledge climb a hands and thin hands broken crack far to the left of the main corner.  Bumping a #1 Camalot up this section and then removing it once on the ledge above is highly recommended due to rope drag.  Walk right to the main corner and start up overhanging thin hands that quickly open up to tight #3 Camalots.  Continue up the wide hands corner through a few bulges for about 50' to a stance below the large roof.  Spend some time recovering and trying to figure out how to start the roof traverse which starts as 4.5 Camalots and pinches down from there.  I'll save the specific beta for the roof but laybacking is key.  Good Luck!

Starting off a small ledge, follow waving thin hands to hands on variable quality rock. Climbs like an offset splitter and has a good variety of movement.

Laid back tips to an arm bar, then a calf lock to pull the small roof into more tips.

A splitter finger lieback crack in a right facing corner between Switch and Bitch. Climb through the fingers section to a solid hand jam. The angle eases but the climbing becomes a bit more technical before the chains.

This three pitch splitter is easily viewed from the road. It is a great route for those who like things a little wider.

P1 - Climb a flake crack up about 20 feet to reach the start of the splitter. Continue up hands, which quickly become cups, and then fists to a fixed anchor. (5.10, 110')

P2 - Continue up with more fists and offwidth past a drilled angle to a wide slot. Work into the slot and up to a fixed anchor. (5.10, 110')

P3 - Hands, fists, and offwidth will take you to a slightly sandy finish and a small ledge just below the rim. There is a "fixed" anchor here that could use some updating. (5.10+, 90')

Descent - We rappelled the route with a single 70m. Not sure if a 60m would do it or not.

A striking line with nice climbing in a flare until you get to the overhanging, calcite-cheese-grater knee jams

From a belay shelf located right of the juniper, launch straight up the left facing corner, which becomes right facing at half height.

Back story:  Following a two month trip to Yosemite in 1984, my friend Douglas Scott & I were reluctantly making our way back to New England when we decided to procrastinate in Indian Creek. We only saw one other group of climbers there in 4 days, and that happened to be my NH partner doing the same thing as us.  After spending a night under the boulder in the middle of Fringe of Death Canyon (I seem to remember a quite nice thin-tips lieback problem on the boulder?), we wandered up to this route.

Douglas led, with Charles and I following. We all agreed on mid 5.10, but never thought to name it; the name I have assigned it here is our last initials. We believed this to be an FA at the time mostly because of the amount of loose rock that was cleared in the process, and the fact that the rope left an unavoidable groove where the climb changed direction, which had not been evident before.  The base area also required a fair amount of 'tidying' to allow for any kind of rope management.

This is being reported only now, some 36 years later, (guess I've been busy) because I just rediscovered these old crappy scans from slides.

This route has been referred to as "steep splitter hands."  While this is an accurate depiction of the final moves, the meat of the route is wide stemming and a crank on small, somewhat crumbly holds leading into a quick section of pumpy fingers and off-fingers.  The steep splitter hands that follow are a relief.  On the whole the Sting is an interesting and challenging Wingate route.

The route starts up an overhanging fist crack to gain the face. Jam the crack until it ends and make some thoughtful moves to switch to the finger crack to the right. Blast through a hard move with bad feet and enjoy some hand jams to the chains.

Carolyn must have loved the wide. This crack is mostly 2s and 3s with 3 cruxes: a roof, a first pod, and a devious 2nd pod. Expect the brunt of the work to be offwidthing through a goofy angled 5s section.

Follow a steep, sustained finger crack in a left-facing corner up to an alcove and a small offwidth section. Off-fingers widen to big hands out a tiered roof and narrow back to a fingers splitter before the anchor. This route is a long pump-fest with a little bit of everything on it.

A splitter, burly ringlock crack in a shallow left facing corner, easing the difficulty a little.

Dunn's climb ascends a left facing dihedral. There are a variety of gear sizes starting with fingers transitioning to thin hands, cruxing on fingers and back to thin hands.  There is a sit down rest half way up.

Climb the fingers-to-hands crack through a roof to an intermediate anchor (stopping here keeps things at 5.10+). Continue another 30 ft up the slanting off-fingers crack with a small changing corner to the anchor.

Octopus is route #15b (unknown? 140') in the new Indian Creek Guide, but its way taller than 140'.  It starts by squeezing up a fun chimney with ample face holds that can be protected by a #6 Camalot and a slung chockstone.  Once above the chockstone a #1 Camalot crack can be found inside the chimney which is the same splitter crack that leads to the anchors.  Thin hands and some wide fingers will get you to a nice rest ledge at the bottom of the crux.  Plug in a couple finger size pieces and layback up a steep left angling flake with a hard topout.  Finish with a nice overhanging hand crack to the anchors.

P1-Start in a left facing corner with a short, awkward bombay section to get established in the crack. Goes from hands quickly to fists and then easy stacks, eventually becoming a moderate squeeze chimney for the remaining forty feet of the pitch. Tunnel behind a loose stack of blocks to gain the belay ledge or else carefully step across the outside to a comfortable two bolt anchor station.

P2-Climb up over the stack of blocks to the laser cut splitter, Bloom's guide describes climbing the left crack with pods which seems feasible except the last half of the crack pinches shut. The right crack is impeccable though and climbs a short section of fingers, stacks and thin hands to a good length of perfect hand crack with a very short section of wide hands just before the anchors.

Tops out the wall, rappel the route.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Fringe Walls