Freedom of the Bills

This route climbs mostly straight up to a high point of Hidden Wall.  No doubt, many have been attracted to the starting dihedral and, almost certainly, some have ascended it.   But we found no pro or tat over the length of the entire route, and removed a number of death blocks.

I initially gave this three stars but changed to two. Two and a half might be about right.  The overall rock quality is lacking compared to most of Seventh Sojourn, Warpy Moople, Westron Wynde, etc..

Thanks to John Kear for posting about the potential for new routes on this wall.

P1 - 5.7, 90ft: Up the broad dihedral (little pro). Pass a tiny roof on its left.  Belay at an 8” diameter tree beneath a bigger roof / bulge. Some have led the "crack" directly up to the roof before exiting left.

P2 - 5.8+, 100 ft: Traverse right and up into a steep right-facing dihedral. Above a bolt, climb up (5.8) to a small roof and then an intermediate ledge.  Trend up and right and come back left to reach a large dirt ledge. Belay at one of the trees.

P3 - 5.8, 140 ft: Ascend the gully at right end of ledge.  Mid-pitch, climb the steep corner  (5.8, scant bomber rock for pro, lieback or otherwise). Or bypass the LB on its' left by initially following cracks just below the LB and passing a bolt (5.8) that is hard to see from below.

Continue up the block-y gully to where it chokes down and is filled with a bush. Belay 15 feet higher at an 8” diameter tree at the base of a steep wall.

P4 - 5.9, 140 ft: Make a few moves up, then follow rightward crack and then up to a bolt visible between the second and third small ledges. Continue up. When the difficulty eases, trend left until to the right side of a large obvious roof - micro cams or small nuts.  Make a few moves up to 5" pro or smaller gear deeper inside. Either engage the crack or move left two or three moves and then up.  Follow the initially wide crack until you can move right to the sloping dirty belay ledge with a large tree.  Tree is visible from the start of the pitch.

P4 Var 1: Ryan Price has climbed straight up from the bolt to the tree, passing through a large irregular chimney or wide slot; see topo.

P4 Var: This pitch has also been led via the higher easy ramp left of the three small ledges. And the leader then negotiated the terrain just beneath the large roof from left to right with some down climbing 5.7 to get back on the described route. Some pendulum risk.

P5 - 5.7/5.8, 140 ft: Climb up and right roughly 15 feet. Step left to ascend a ~20 foot vertical hand crack with lichen in it; crack is directly above the belay-ledge tree. Pass just right of a small 2” diameter tree and climb up and left (5.7).  Continue up within 5 or 10 feet of the left edge of the buttress to a narrow broken ledge at the base of a 20 foot tall panel of brown rock.  Ascend the panel (5.7) and continue to the top following a left facing dihedral.

P5 tops out on a good belay ledge at a point within several feet of the left buttress edge. There is a one foot diameter tree in back that cannot be seen until on top (i.e., the pitch does not end at the tree that can be seen from the start of the pitch; rock is lower quality in that general direction).

After the last pitch, some will want to be roped for another 15 feet or so until up and well back in the woods.

The route starts in a huge obvious right facing dihedral about mid-way down the gully along the base of Hidden Wall. See beta photo.

Protection: Set of nuts, couple micro cams (e.g., BD C3 #s 1 and 0), cams 0.3 to 3 with doubles 0.5 to 2 or hexes, and one ~5” cam (e.g., BD C4 #5). ~15 slings.