This excellent climb ascends the center of Cornerstone Buttress’ downhill face. It’s a fun and varied sport climb worthy of traffic. Several distinct cruxes make this an interesting and engaging climb.

Clip the first bolt and find your way carefully to the second. Pass some solid pocketed terrain to the blunt arete. Work out some long moves to good holds to get to the slab above where you can take a rest before the climb goes slightly over-vertical. Make some fun, interesting, and slightly tricky movement past several bolts to a final heart-breaker stem and layback sequence. Find a jug stance to the right of the anchors and clip them on your left. 

Not super straight forward beta, or climbing, with several sequences that can be botched. A little of everything!

Push Me, Pull Me

Dr. Dolittle

Captain Clusterfuk

Sugar Daddy

Wisdom Teeth

Mouthful of Marbles

This climb starts out slightly dirty, only to lead to epic rock and climbing with great position and exposure. 

Start by stepping off the boulder at the base of the climb with a high pocket, NOT from the ground (grittier). Clip the first three bolts on a left facing diagonal, then mantle and high step your way past the balancy crux into pockets. From here to the next bolt can be done direct or you can trend right over the bolt to the corner for a bit of a rest. It is dirty here in the middle, but soldier on and you will be rewarded with amazing rock above. Climb over a small roof feature and onto the headwall above. Enjoy the rest of the route as holds appear when you need them on incredible rock unlike anything at Smith. End with easier climbing and interesting movement on bullet hard angular holds and horizontal ledges that lead you to the anchors. 

Pull onto the hueco covered slab using small pockets, and climb just to the right of the bulge On low-angle terrain. Once the route gets vertical, use good finger locks and face holds to get into the crux, a super fun and interesting boulder problem that uses high feet and a prominent right hand side pull and a poor left hand dish.

 The crux is somewhat height dependent. Find high feet and make a long move leftward to a good jug. Take a rest and climb your way past a few more bolts to a tricky and reachy ending before traversing slightly right just under the anchors. Clip the chains with hands on the ledge below.

Start under an obvious bulge using a large right hand blob. Clip the first two bolts past left-hand sidepulls easily and then navigate a reachy crux before the third bolt.

Follow a ramp to the right, under a slightly overhanging headwall. Clip the next two closely spaced bolts, perhaps retreat for a rest, and then fire through one of two variations to the next bolt. 

Easier climbing leads to the final three bolts, which climb over several large, slightly overhanging, polished plates of tuff, interspersed with juggy incuts. Climb right of the anchors to huge holds before clipping the carabiners. 

The right-most climb on the Cornerstone ascends a slab, face, and crack, ending on a ledge. Climb the middle of the pocketed slab for two bolts to a head wall. Clip another bolt above you and negotiate the tricky crux at the start of the left-facing zig-zag feature. Clip the next few bolts past tricky climbing while the pump builds, before reaching a good jug rest mid climb. End with bomber finger locks and then an easy, flaring crack that has some unique inclusions.

Mouthful of Marbles is one of the best routes on Cornerstone and an engaging and sustained climb. It looks a lot more blank than it actually is, as most of the holds face up and left and lack much chalk. This is definitely some of the most interesting rock in the monument. 

Move past the first four bolts using pockets and good sequences on less than perfect tuff, until the rock suddenly turns bullet hard and very fun. The rest of the climbing follows amazing sidepulls and crimps that appear just as you need them, on some of the coolest rock at Smith. 

 The last two bolts are spaced out enough to add some mental spice, and the crux comes above the second to last with a killer sequence through a thin vertical crack. Go get on this cool route. 

Cornerstone buttress is just left of the main Monument base area, separated by a deep crumbly gash. It makes up the left side of the base of the Monument proper. This fang-like buttress hosts a lineup of great 5.11 sport climbs on surprisingly solid rock. The  concentration of moderate climbs make this wall a welcome addition to the Monument. 

Shade early and late in the day, the left face stays shaded till mid afternoon and then goes back on the shade early evening.

All routes bolted summer 2019 by Jason Chinchen.

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Routes in Cornerstone Buttress