Hunter S. Thompson Dome

This wall is a taller 'adventure wall' relative to some of the others in the area, like the Black Corridor and Sweet Pain Wall.

There are a mix of routes here, including gear and bolted lines, but some of the more attractive lines are in fact mixed, with a few bolts here and there, but certainly requiring some gear to feel sanely protected. The routes here range from 5.9 to 5.12, with the hardest of these having bolts at the cruxes.

This wall get's mixed shade and sun, but the lower part of the wall and belay tended towards shade early and late in the winter days.

The descent from the taller routes on this crag consists of walking and scrambling back and right down a gully or two and then traversing a very exposed rock slope (4th class, leave the sticky rubber on) to reach the base, or a very protracted gully-whack the long way down. The cliff is not well advised for less experienced climbers.

The best route that I did on this cliff was Gonzo Dogs (10-). Walking the Vertical Beach was a little loose, but nice. Runout Rodeo was also fun. I have not done the harder lines here.

Unfortunately, several people have seen it fit to use the gully at the base (the most natural and safe belay) as a latrine. Belaying off of the ridge behind the gully can be dangerous without a tiedown point. A lead-fall can suck the belayer off of it and drop then into the gully, over 3 meters- possibly letting go of the rope.

If you go to do the longest routes on the wall, take a 70M rope and stretch it create beautiful 222-235' pitches while avoiding bogus belays.