Jericho

Some are content to climb only the classic routes of Eldorado that are chalked from top to bottom and worn smooth from the pitons of yesterday and the loving hands and feet of today. This is a classic Eldorado route of a different nature. It is unlikely to have chalk and the exquisite dihedral on the second pitch appears to never have been pitoned. This dihedral is how the first pitch of the Naked Edge might have looked before all the enthusiastic hammering occurred during the Golden Age.

This route is located between

Knight's Move

and

Black Out

and contains an obvious flared, slightly overhanging dihedral on its second pitch.

Pitch 1 (5.9 s): Begin on

Knight's Move

and after ten feet cut out left on dubious flakes and lichen covered terrain, sling a small tree and then head straight up thin cracks (RPs) on the arete to a terrible belay stance. Load up the crack in the dihedral with tiny nuts and put in some better gear (#1.5 and #2 Friends) down and right from the stance. It might be wiser to do a hanging belay from the cams down and to the right. Either way, it's not a great place to be hanging out.

Pitch 2 (5.11c s): The second pitch climbs straight up the steep, beautiful dihedral which is too small to accept fingers. Intially the dihedral protects with RPs and the smallest TCUs. A "thank god" fixed nut is located about 10 feet up and the belayer's nervous twitches and spasms should subside when it's clipped and they are no longer the landing zone for the leader. I give the start of this pitch a "serious" rating. A combination of stemming, pressing, scumming and squirmming is required to gain ground. Just when this combination becomes bleak there are some face holds outside the dihedral on the left hand side. Climb through a small roof and make some hard moves with much better gear. Continue over easier terrain up and right to a ledge with a tree festooned with rappel slings.

Descend by rapping

Knight's Move

. A 60m rope will just make the first of two rappels

Lots of small gear - 2 sets RPs #00 & #0 TCUs plus standard Eldo rack.