Begin at a right-facing flake crack with extensions 20 to 25 feet. Traverse left to a larger, right-facing flake that forms a chimney, and ascend this to a shelf. Pull the small bulge (crux), and continue up and right until you reach a thin crack which is the finish for

Very Bad Saturday

and the first pitch of

Kitchen's Delight

.

Bad Saturday

ATR Left

Strong Love

Low Road

Kitchen's Delight  2

Strawberry Jam

Orange Christmas or Orange Xmas

Exit Ramp

Very Bad Saturday

Northeast Cutoff

ATR Right

Mr. Chimp

Grunt Lieback

Starting from the anchors on top of

Kitchen's Delight  2

/

Bad Saturday

, head up and right up the crack with some grass near the bottom. This is easy but fun crack climbing.

ATR Left climbs a mellow slab on Crystal Freeway. Use plenty of smears and small edges to make your way up. It is slightly runout, but it is better than many Voo slabs.

Strong Love ascends a left-leaning finger to thin hand crack.  Climb a few strange moves to get established onto a horizontal, place gear, and crank through the crux - the first five feet of the crack.  After this, the climbing eases up a little.  This is an awesome route.

NOTE: this is number 4 on the topo. This is a great moderate hand crack (actually the 2nd pitch of Kitchen's Delight) that literally eats medium cams - and your hands if you don't tape up! Step across the void to the right (facing the rock) from the belay station and jam up the crack.

NOTE: this is #3 on the topo. Tape up or your hands will look like a bowl of mashed berries. Other than that, it's simple - jam up the beautiful handcrack. Think about 'swapping sides' at the squeezy crux. The upper half turns into an offwidth though (think about long pants, gobi knees). If you don't feel comfortable running out the last 30' to the anchors, set a belay (on gear) at the obvious shelf in an alcove. Bring up your second, then do the second short pitch to the top. This climb is the 5.8 Vedauwoo 'hands' testpiece.

Orange Christmas is a long and demanding pitch of face climbing and crystal pinching. The crux is in the first 25 feet and involves sustained face work up a water groove and then a very difficult pull over a bulge to get established on the lower angle wall above. After the crux bulge, work straight up to the bottom of a large flake system (this is the route "Flake Out"). Place gear in the bottom of this crack and make a lengthy rightwards traverse aiming for the first of the bolts on the upper slab. The upper slab is easier (9+ or 10a in spots) but is very runout. It is 20 feet plus between old quarter inch bolts.

NUMBER 2 on the Topo.  Start up an ill-protected, knobby face underlying a rounded lip and waterstreak.  Place an optional #1 Camalot prior to mounting the slightly overhanging lip on dicey crystals (you can clip the first hanger if you have a big ape index).  Continue up and right past the four bolts on successively smaller/thinner edges that seem to vanish!  The crux is to the left after the 4th bolt.  Stretch it, man.  Place a cam or two above the crux if you're still shaking.

NOTE:  Alternate 2nd Pitch, No. 5 on the topo, 3 bolts, 5.9+ and a little run out.  Follow the bolt line.  Don't get suckered left or right.  Exciting!  2 bolt anchor just right of top.  2 rope rap to the ground.

Climb the thin seam just right of

Bad Saturday

, placing protection when possible, until it joins the top of

Kitchen's Delight

and

Bad Saturday

.

This is NUMBER 1 on the topo. It is a great climb for beginning leaders.

Start in the vertical crack seen at the tip of the arrow. You'll come to a wide pod about 25' off the ground. Head right from here, and continue up about 20' past this. Protect here and cross over to the upper crack (this is NE Cutoff), the one that heads directly towards the belay on the topo. Protect along the way, paying particular attention to your second - if they fall, they pendulum on a cheese grater! The crack will eventually peter out (protect here with a #0.5 Camalot or wire), so traverse the blank area on crystals-go ahead, do it, then ascend the crack to the right about 10 feet and traverse again over to the bolted belay. A 60m rope will get you down from here.

NOTE: an alternate second pitch: 5.7 - go back left from the belay, and ascend the gnarly handcrack seen on the topo to a bolted rap station at the top (to the right as you top out). Tape up for this one! Two rap stations to the bottom as indicated on topo.

The better of the two ATRs in my opinion, this route follows bolts up the featured slab of Crystal Freeway. It starts lower angle with smears and gradually steepens as the rock gets more crystals. There are slight runouts to the first and second bolt, but that should be expected here at the Voo.

There appears to be a second pitch, but we did not do it. If anyone has done it, feel free to edit this page.

Climb a right-leaning fingercrack in a flare to the crux traverse which involves flared jams with almost nothing for your feet.  Then climb the last 30 feet of steep flared hands to the anchor.

This climb is best found by locating

Strawberry Jam

(#3 in attached photo), then looking for a flake that begins 25' to the left on the ground but sweeps up and right for 60+ feet to a bolt anchor just 10 feet left of

Strawberry Jam

at mid-face.

Work up and into the undercling/lieback, then follow for 35 feet into the crux, where the flake dog-legs to near vertical. You might grunt, you might not. I found the climb to be a nice combination of footwork and brain-power for 90% of the moves, with a few raw power hand-jam pulls that were secure, but hard.  The hand and footholds were so frictiony that little grip or effort was required most of the way.

Do this and the nearby

Strawberry Jam

for a nice morning out of the sun.

Description

Protection

Routes in Crystal Freeway