Eat Mo' Possum

This is a multipitch adventure of dubious quality and safety. Due to the potential for rock fall, DO NOT CLIMB IT unless you are certain there are no climbers below on Shadow Rock.

Pitch 1 (50 ft, class 4): Climb an easy slab and grassy ramps 50 ft to a double-bolt anchor at the base of a slab.

Pitch 2 (90 ft, 5.6): Climb 90 ft up the left side of a lichen-covered slab protected by two bolts and two small cam placements (one marginal) to a double-bolt anchor just below the overhanging Crescent Moon Flake. Pitches 1 and 2 can be linked.

Pitch 3 (100-200 ft, 5.0-5.9): The overhang is highly fractured and looks as if a cascade of rocks will start popping out at the slightest touch, but if you're fearless you can apparently climb through it somewhere (don't ask me where) at 5.9 (has anybody actually led through it?). Otherwise you can traverse right under the roof on 5.0 jugs (protected by cams) and then either (1) climb the right side of the formation (5.6?), which looks very brittle and unprotected, or (2) wimp out like I did and ascend grassy ramps farther to the right, work your way back to the left, and continue up brittle class 4 rock (one medium cam placement) to the final double-bolt anchor. The anchor looks like it is about 100 ft above the roof, but if you take the hike to the right you'll be covering about 200 ft of terrain.

Begins at the Swallow anchor at the upper left edge of Shadow Rock. From the top you can either scramble to the top of Bishop's Peak (beware of poison oak, which is ubiquitous) and hike down the trail, or you can descend to the ground via rappel. I haven't tried it, but I suspect you can do four single-rope rappels on a rope at least 65 m (200 ft) long.

1 set of small- to medium-sized cams, several quickdraws and several long slings.