Viewfinder

The name says it all. This route finishes spectacularly with one of my favorite views in the White Mountains. On top of that expect fun varied climbing on amazing granite from bottom to top!

My vision for this line was to open up a safe climb at a moderate grade for folks getting in to trad climbing. So I did add some bolts where I would have just run it out personally. It is not however a sport route so expect some run out sections on 5.3-ish climbing.

Notes added after hearing feedback: It has been brought to my attention by a few people that I had underestimated this climb when I first did it. I have upped the grade to 5.8 as I am happy to bend to the consensus and honestly don't like choosing grades in the first place. It has also been pointed out that without super solid rope handling there could be danger on the upper headwall of hitting the deck if you blew one of the tricky moves at the end. If you do feel like this could be an issue you could build an anchor closer to the headwall to make rope management easier. Perhaps the crack at the end of Say Nothing (5.5) would offer a good spot to reduce rope stretch. The very beginning flake requires care as well.  place gear only where the flake meets the cliff and take your time placing even if it means you need to hang on it after. That's better than a ground fall. So my vision of a route for novices may not have been perfect but I am not willing to bolt a crack up on DIckie so I will say ALWAYS spend the time you need to place good gear, communicate with your belayer and only climb with people you trust to save your life. There are other routes at the grade and below now, so you could warm up on Say Nothing, Watching Me and or Watching You and the Dark Corridor. 

Pitch 1: The start moves and the finish move are the hardest parts for sure. Either stem off of the tree to gain the flake or (perhaps a little hard for 5.7) avoid the tree. Either way protect above the flake (the flake makes a good hold but I wouldn't trust it with a cam behind it in a fall). Mantle a nice ledge and then clip a couple of bolts while figuring out a tricky slab. After the tricky bit, romp up a very easy slab following a clean white streak and eventually gaining a belay at an oak tree (rappel set up on tree).

Pitch 2: Step above the tree on to a couple of ledges. Move right to a big flake and use this to get up on top of the low angle slab above. Another cruiser slab (a little run out but 5.3) leads to two short slab headwalls with a ledge between. Surmount these slabs protected by bolts and gear and move up on a ledge to stand below the final sleep headwall. With a little finesse make your way in to the obvious crack with good pro. Be carful of one block that wouldn't be good to protect behind. Make your way through the path of least resistance until a perplexing final crux (place solid gear) makes you think twice (5.8). I used high feet and solid balance to lean out left for a thank god hold and a final mantle to the 2 bolt anchor.

Enjoy the view while you bring up your second.

2 rappels with a 60m rope should get you down in style (throw knots in the ends just in case of course ;)

There is a short wall on the left side of the Dark Side area. This climb starts on the extreme left end of this wall. Look for an obvious flake slightly left of a large tree trunk. Another way to think of it is as you approach there is a spot where a huge boulder has fallen from the trail carving a path in to the valley. Just after walking by here look for a small cairn on your left View Finder's starting flake is visible just up trail from the cairn.

A normal rack up to #3 Camelot and some draws.