The Boldness

Stirling Moss

Numic Warrior

The Barking Dog

Soylent Green Jeans

Roberto Duran

Pussy Nuts

CU on Top

Secret Ingredient

Chocolate Sunday

Coronary Bypass

Pincushion

Hookers and blow.

Rapper's Disappointment

Cheatstone Crack

Hundred-Foot Stick Clip

Sugar Ray

Start just to the right of the small buttress of Pincushion, above a large pine tree.  Climb up to a small, right-facing dihedral, then move right and up to a thin crack on the face.  Follow the crack until it ends.  There are three options: we moved right to a small, dirty, mossy, and polished corner.  You can also climb straight up on clean, but unprotected, face moves.  It may be easiest to move left to an obvious crack.  In any case, belay on a good ledge above.  The next pitch starts with easy face climbing to a ledge in an alcove thirty feet up.  Climb the right-slanting crack (5.9) on the left side of this alcove.  A short, easy pitch up the cracks above takes you to the top.  (An alternative start may be possible thirty feet to the right, where a thin crack leads to a rusty old bolt.) 

  To descend, walk left (east) and descend as for Pincushion.

Thin, heady, and varied-- a sustained tick that probably edges further into sandbag territory every time someone climbs it and wears away at the tiny fragile holds. THIN slab to groany flake to odd mostly horizontal moves out a steep section to chossish finishing face (easier). Way more classic than I could describe. A window back in time when balls and mind control made you a climber worth respecting, not who pays you to wear their shoes. When placing a bolt meant you NEEDED it, not because it made the route "popular" or "accessible." Classic.

A little roof problem.  Easy climbing goes up the left-facing corner leading to the big overhang.  Rappel Hundred-Foot Stick Clip.

Climb the positive leaning corner and crack up to the roof (crux) pull through the roof and continue up the weird crack to an alcove.

Duran was a boxer widely remembered for the famous words, "no moss," or something phonetically similar.  Climb discontinuous cracks in the broken corner system immediately to the right of Stirling Moss.  A fingertip lieback halfway up is the crux.  To descend, scramble down and right to the rappel anchor on Hundred-Foot Stick Clip.

climb up and left from the upper pine tree on low angle grey rock. Work left to a ledge below the large pointed block. Climb up the face and crack/corner on west side of block.

This is a delightfully improbable route.  Though it looks like it might be hard and unprotected, it turns out to be quite reasonable. 

  Just right of the start of Hundred-Foot Stick Clip, climb a steep, varnished flake.  Continue up, staying just right of a blunt arete, until you reach the left end of a large roof.  After a few moves, you can step left to the bolted belay/rappel station on Hundred-Foot Stick Clip.

Climb to the left side of the roof, then up and right on the varnished face.  Adequate protection is available.  The easiest descent is to step left to the rap station on top of Coronary Bypass.  Alternatively climb Pincushion for two more good pitches.

A pleasant route.  This could probably be done in a single pitch if you scramble up a bit to establish your initial belay.  But two pitches works out well and reduces rope drag. 

  Climb up and right to a belay stance beneath the right edge of the hanging block.  Climb past a small overhang and continue up the varnished face to the big ledge.  A bolted rap station is on the right side of this ledge.

This is a good quality line that goes up to the top of the second tier of cliffs.  A bunch of old pitons found in this corner indicate that this route has some history to it. 

  Climb a white crack to a right-facing dihedral capped by a roof with an offwidth crack.  Continue up the wide crack to a large ledge.  (This pitch is not really up to the quality of the climbing above; a more aesthetic start might be to climb Chocolate Sunday to reach the big ledge.) 

  At the far right end of the large ledge, climb the corner system and belay in a small alcove with some fixed pins.  The next pitch continues up the crack, past a small roof, a short offwidth, and a few more fixed pitons.  Eventually climb a featured chimney to the top. 

  Descend by walking left (east) to a wide broken area.  On the eastern edge of the broken area, a rappel from a pine tree leads down a featured slab to the ledges above Soylent Green Jeans.  There is a rappel tree here also, but it is easier to scramble (skier's right) down a short 4th class section, coming out at the big pine tree beneath Soylent Green Jeans.

Interesting face climbing on a mostly bolted route starting out on the cheatstone boulder.

From the upper pine tree climb up on grey rock to a blank, black corner. Follow the finger crack in corner to top.

High up, on the third tier of cliffs, there is a gem of a jam crack, similar in character and quality to Ragged Edges.  The cheatstone itself is a boulder about the size of a fairly roomy utility shed.  A few stems simplify the opening moves.  Good hand jams lead up the steep, pocketed face to a small alcove with a wide crack.  Stem to the top and walk off left.

This route is a pleasant top-rope pitch.  To lead it would require long run-outs (or a Hundred-Foot Stick Clip!). 

  Climb the headwall beneath the slab, then wander up the lower-angled rock above.  Near the top, you will pass an old protection bolt; a short distance above there is a two-bolt belay/rappel station.

The obvious crack parallel to Roberto Duran (you know, the route I thought I was on).  3 dimensional climbing leads up the crack, using many face holds, some jams, and a bit of stemming.  All of this leads to a final crux section before pulling up onto the ledge.  We slung the block above the scrub oak as our anchor.   Rap off 100 foot Stick Clip.

 Surely some one has done this route.  Just posting a name to hasten it's correction.

This is best known as area of Soylent Green Jeans and Stirling Moss.  Although there are several excellent climbs on these cliffs, they have not seen a lot of recent action.  A number of bolts and old pitons in the area testify to unrecorded climbing activity over the span of decades.  Most of the route names and FA details are lost to the ages, but were probably the work of the usual suspects who were active in the 70s and 80s.  Kevin Lowell is also thought to have put up some of the early routes.  Most of the routes in this area face to the north and are climbable in warm weather.

 The general layout is as follows: 

  The leftmost section is the alcove with Soylent Green Jeans.  This area is just around the corner to the right of the The Case Face.  It is easily identifiable by the two large pine trees at the base of the cliffs.  There is a rappel station immediately above CU on Top which allows descent with a single rope.   A scrambling descent can be made a little further to the left.  Just above the vegetated area at the top of Soylent Green Jeans, a highly featured slab leads up 150 feet to the next level.  This slab can be used to approach (or descend from) the Cheatstone Crack or the Egg. 

  To the right of the Soylent Green Jeans alcove is a broad, featured buttress with what appears to be a huge hanging block on its right side.  A smaller, mini-buttress lies against the face below and right of the hanging block. 

  To the right of the Hanging Block Buttress, the face becomes taller, and features some areas of good rock mixed in with some heavily moss-covered stone.  Above the level of this face, the topography becomes more confused, but good climbing is to be found on the Cheatstone Crack, and historical significance on the Egg. 

  Descent from the upper levels is probably easiest by scrambling to a rappel from a tree atop the featured slab just above Soylent Green Jeans.  From the big ledge at the top of the Hanging Block, you can rappel from either of two bolted stations, one at the top of Coronary Bypass, the other on top of Hundred-Foot Stick Clip.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Mossy Ledges Area