Dick's Delight

This route is included in the Leland Davis East Slabs guide as the "Standard Route (Dick's Delight)". If you enjoy long pitches of mostly or completely unprotectable slab climbing on an ocean of immaculate granite, you will also find this route to be a delight. The climb shares pitches 1-3 with the Normal Route, and pitches 5-7 with the Great Bowl/Ingraham Dihedral route. Pitch 4 is a zero-pro slab traverse to connect the two routes. Avoid the route if you hate constantly being >3-4 body lengths above or right of your last piece of gear.

P1 (5.7R, 120ft): Start up slab toward the right-facing corner, placing some gear in it before veering left out onto the slab proper. Once on the slab, look directly above for a good bolt, ignoring the old 1/4" to the left. After clipping the good bolt, climb upward toward left-facing flake features. Build a gear anchor in the left flake.

P2 (5.6R, 200ft): Climb up over mostly unprotected slab, taking advantage of any available pro opportunities. Rather than taking to the brushy ledge developing above and right, stay on the slab and go for a cobblestone road-like section. This part is really fun climbing (no pro). End up with a gear anchor in left-facing flake about 10-15ft left of the brushy ledge.

P3 (5.6R, 180ft): Continue up the flake/corner feature in which you built the anchor, then either climb steeper slab directly up or veer slightly right and then back left. At this point you know to take advantage of any/all available gear placements, of which there are a few on this pitch. Build a gear anchor in a right-facing corner/flake system, on a comfy brushy ledge (the "lunch ledge").

P4 (5.6R, 120ft): The Normal Route would head upward from here. Instead traverse directly right to the base of Ingraham's Dihedral. No gear is available on this pitch. It starts with some delicate 5.6, but after a while you can literally walk on a surface made of water eroded dimples. Build a gear anchor in the right-facing flakes below the dihedral, utilizing an old fixed piton.

P5 (5.7+R, 200ft): Climb the Ingraham Dihedral, taking advantage of a few small gear placements in the lower half of it. Once it starts getting steeper and you start getting more scared about how far above your last gear you are, traverse left delicately, place a cam or two in a flake feature, and climb the rest of the dihedral on it's left side. End at a relatively new 2-bolt anchor below the roof above.

P6 (5.8+R, 180ft): This is the serious pitch. From the 2-bolt anchor, traverse right of the roof and up, eventually reaching a point where you can step up above the roof onto the next, steeper level. A terrible 1/4" bolt is right in front of you, and clip it you must (no other pro). Climb directly up on steeper, less-featured slab, seeking out any possible ledges along the way. Once standing on one of these, you can reach down and try to place a nut. Eventually reach a better ledge and finally get in a good piece of gear (0.3 Camalot). Next, do a fingertip undercling traverse on the overlap feature that trends up and left, maybe placing a blue ball nut under it if you can find the right spot. I found exactly one such spot, giving me the courage to step up onto the next level and climb more steep slab to a small but anchor-worthy tree.

P7 (5.4, not R!, 100ft): Climb up a good crack and then veer right to non-technical ground. Place cams in the crack just for fun, since you brought them.

Original description of the route: mountainproject.com/photo/1…

Topo of the route (G to H here): mountainproject.com/photo/1…

This may be the most protectable route on the East Slabs proper, but is still solid R. Don't fall. Do bring a wide variety of cams to take advantage of all pro opportunities and to build gear anchors (only one bolted anchor, atop P5). Placements exist for everything from a blue ball nut to a #4 Camalot. Bring plenty of slings to extend everything. Descent is a walk-off/scramble back to the Bivy Boulder.