Orange Christmas or Orange Xmas

Orange Christmas is a long and demanding pitch of face climbing and crystal pinching. The crux is in the first 25 feet and involves sustained face work up a water groove and then a very difficult pull over a bulge to get established on the lower angle wall above. After the crux bulge, work straight up to the bottom of a large flake system (this is the route "Flake Out"). Place gear in the bottom of this crack and make a lengthy rightwards traverse aiming for the first of the bolts on the upper slab. The upper slab is easier (9+ or 10a in spots) but is very runout. It is 20 feet plus between old quarter inch bolts.

The route starts down and left from

Strawberry Jam

and

Grunt Lieback

. Look for 4 old quarter inch bolts leading up and a little left through a water groove and over a bulge. The large flake system of Flake Out is directly above the start.

8 bolts total. All bolts are original and marginal at best. The upper bolts have homemade aluminum hangers - very inspiring! The bottom 4 bolts are pretty close together for the hard climbing and the top 4 bolts are very spaced. You can also place a yellow metolius to protect the rightward traverse onto the upper face. A nice #2 camelot fits in here as well. There is a new and bomber two bolt anchor at the top with steel rap rings. You can make it with two ropes to the ground or you can use a single rope and make it to the anchors atop Grunt Layback and from there to the ground.