Aquarium

Both the Handren and the Supertopo guides make this route sound a lot harder and scarier than it is. In reality, it’s a great long moderate with good protection. However, both the approach and the exit off the top of the tower make for a full and adventurous day. It may be possible to combine some of the pitches with careful rope management.

P. 1: Climb the slot chimney to a great, huge flat ledge. 5.5,150’

P. 2: The original route apparently climbs a 5.9 flake that’s quite a bit to the right, then traverses back left, but it’s a lot more obvious to go straight up the slab, left on a ramp, and up a corner to a nice stance on a pedestal below a wide section. (This is the third pitch of Luna.) 5.6, 60’

P. 3: Both Handren and Supertopo describe the start of this pitch as unprotected 5.9, but the gear is quite good and the climbing is never above 5.8 (at most). Stem up the obvious wide section, placing the #6 when convenient, then continue up the crack. Step right when the crack gets brushy and climb the crack and corner system on the right, passing a bolt, to a bolted belay/rappel anchor at a good stance on the right. 5.8, 120’

P. 4: Continue up the right-leaning crack, then traverse right (there are a couple of opportunities) to a corner with a hand crack, and follow it to any of several possible belay stances. 5.6 or 5.7 depending on reach, 150’

P. 5: Climb up and traverse left around a bulge, then follow an easy right-leaning corner to a stance below an obvious offwidth section. 5.6, 60’

P. 6: Pass the short offwidth section by face climbing on the right (a #6 gives toprope protection), then continue up the crack on much more moderate climbing to a good stance. 5.7-5.8, 80’

P. 7: Traverse straight left on easy ledges (passing about 20’ above the top anchor of Luna), then climb the varnished face left of a big corner to a stance. 5.6, 80’

P. 8: More or less straight up, passing a short varnished headwall down low, on mostly easy white rock with limited protection opportunities. Near the top, a #.75 Camalot in a horizontal protects a short set of face moves; continue up to a good ledge at the base of a wide crack. 5.6-5.7, 210’

P. 9: Up the wide crack, then step left and go up easy ground through a wide notch. Continue up easy ground on the left side of the notch to the summit of the tower. 5.6, 200’ (It’s easy to split this pitch by belaying in the notch.)

P. 10: But wait, there’s more! Easy but poorly protected downclimbing leads to a step across to the main wall. 5.4, 60’. From here, 4th-class climbing leads to easy ground. Both Handren and Supertopo mention a fixed rappel to get down the downclimbing section, but we saw no sign of one.

This route climbs crack systems on the north face of a prominent tower facing the Rose Tower; it’s highly visible from the approach. From the base of Olive Oil, head more or less straight left, passing a brushy spot, to the base of the wall. A very awkward and brushy step (some may prefer to rope up) leads to an alcove at the base of a slot chimney with a varnished right wall. It may be easier to approach via the lower pitches of Luna, but we didn’t test this theory.

The descent is non-trivial, and involves some easy but unprotected downclimbing off the top of the tower until one can step across to the main wall, followed by scrambling up to easy ground. A bit of slabby downclimbing gets you to the Jackrabbit Buttress walk-off, following cairns over to the Brownstone Wall descent trail.

Single rack to #4 Camalot, plus doubles on #.75-3 and a #6. Very little fixed gear (one protection bolt and one bolted anchor).