Elder Cleavage Direct

Pitch 1: Boulder up to a good crimp, and then very carefully step up again to a small horizontal slot just beneath the small overhang, about 12 feet off the ground, where you can place your first protection. Step left and work your way up an awkward vertical slot. Then mantel onto a sloping ledge, crossing the route Up Yours. (People used to belay here in days of yore but it is best to continue.) Step up to an obvious thin vertical crack that arches up and left. Be mindful of the ledge as you commit to engage with this crack; I like to reach way up and place a nut over my head before I get going. Once you get onto the face, continue up the crack, with thin moves and good gear placed from tenuous stances, and then follow the crack to the left, reaching a jug beneath another overhang. From here, move to the right as you surmount the overhang, finally ending on a good ledge with a tree that has cord and rap rings attached. Whew, what a pitch!

Ivan Rezucha: The original P2 went up an obvious 5.8 jagged crack that had been done earlier as a variation of a nearby route. That 5.8 crack was one of the "cleavages" that led to the name Elder Cleavage.

Pitch 2 as it is usually done today (and as described in guidebook), 5.4: From the tree at the end of pitch one, move up and a little bit right, through an overhang. Then follow the path of least resistance past several more ledges with trees, some of them with fixed gear on them, until you reach the large ledge. The climbing is all 5.4 with occasional loose crap and dirty horizontals. It is pretty much straight up with some slight jogs to the left and right. Avoid the thickest fields of lichen and you'll stay on track. This pitch is worth doing just to get to the third pitch. Once you reach the big ledge, move to the right about 15 feet to a good-sized tree that is just to the left of a pile of blocks that is leaning against the wall of the cliff.

Pitch 3, 5.10b: This is one of the best 5.10 roofs in the Gunks! Start up the right-facing corner above the stacked blocks. Climb easily up to a stance beneath the large roof with a hanging, left-facing corner just to the right. Make the committing moves up and into the roof; there is good gear to be had next to some blown-out old fixed nuts. Once you are fully into the roof, move right to the pointed block/outside edge of the left-facing corner. Then move up and escape the roof. Climb easily to the top through a forest of lichen.

On P3, from Seth: If you are doing P3 of Elder Cleavage you are cheating yourself if you don't also do Boob Job (5.10b), another awesome roof pitch twenty feet to the left off of the big ledge.

 Descent: Right now I would not use the existing chain anchor around the dead/dying tree to get back down. Instead I would put a cordalette around the big tree at the Elder Cleavage topout, rap down to the big ledge to do Boob Job, then walk off.

About 100 feet downhill of Lonely Challenge, and just right of the right-leaning ramp and crack of Up Yours. Start 10 feet left of a small boulder standing very close to the cliff.

Standard rack - get a spotter for the bouldery start.