This is the central line out the big, low roof in the small buttress left of

Divine Wind

. It climbs out a phallic spike on positive holds to a difficult lip encounter. We rebolted this on a cold day but were too chilly to climb it. It feels stout.

Place a directional down low, undercling up to first clip, rail out the spike to lip clip, then bust the lip to a big horn. Stand up to moderate cracks up the vert wall with anchors high up the slab over the lip.

Bad Girl's Dream

The Far Side

Night Stalker

Divine Wind

Practical Joke

Bust Out laughing

Comedy Works

Tears of a Clown

True Comedian

Skyrunner

Slapstick

I thought this was a challenging and interesting climb, but, if you don't messing with wide cracks, you may disagree. It's just a bit dirty at the start. Then stemming and some strangeness leads to what was for me a mysterious crux near the top.

Rossiter and Rolofson call this 5.8, but it seemed pretty hard compared to some of the 9s at Blob, so I'll give it a 9.

The two-bolt anchor, though convenient, is recent and unnecessary, since you can easily scramble down and left from the anchor to the ground.

Start: From where the trail hits the base of Blob, hike left and up. Scramble up a slab. There is a large, right-facing corner (

Divine Wind

). Left of that is a roof with a couple of very hard, bolted lines. Left of that is the large left facing corner of Night Stalker.

A few stemming moves get your hands to a ledge. You can place a green Alien from the ground to keep you upright, should you fall here. With your hands on the ledge, you can place a hand-sized (or two) at the base of the corner. Once you're standing on the ledge the climbing up the corner is straightforward until you get to a wide section with some strangeness. Easy climbing leads to steeper rock and the crux. Save at least a #4 Friend for the crux.

The Far Side is pretty much as far West as one can get on Blob Rock. From the Radlands slab, continue West past Divine Wind to a separate face with five bolted routes on it. The Far Side is the furthest left. While this is a short route, it packs some tough and interesting moves. The Far Side is a well protected line on solid stone with two hard cruxes. If it were three times the height, it would get three stars.

Thin stemming on high quality granite.

This writeup only discusses the first pitch which is all most people are going to be interested in.  The second pitch is said to be 11b and very serious.  Anyone care to add a description of P2?

P1. Start at the left end of Blob Rock, below a prominent clean, right facing corner which starts about 30' above the ground.  The corner is visible in the Blob Rock perspective photo, just right of the top of a pine tree in the foreground and left of a prominent slab/bald-spot. (From the Bolt Cola area, walk left a couple of hundred yards and scramble up some ledges to reach the start.)

Some moderate, better-than-it-looks climbing leads to the corner proper.  Place a good upward directional to protect the small nuts that will follow.  Stem upward placing good small stoppers and RPs.  The crux is at the top of the corner and can be partially avoided by stepping left around the arrete which the old Erickson guidebook said made the pitch 10+.

There is a fixed anchor at the end of the pitch, but continuing on Bearcat is highly recommended.

P2.  On the second pitch you have to do the hardest moves before you get gear in, so it is a potential ankle-breaker, certainly "R-rated". It is of similar difficulty to the first pitch, though the hard part is pretty brief. It is also possible to finish the route with the Wounded Knee roof.

A decent, moderate, slabby route. Can be done all gear if you climb right of the last 2 bolts (or place gear up and right of the last 2 bolts, then step back down and climb to the anchors). If you're a beggining trad climber, try clipping every other bolt and place gear in between.

Start: From where the trail hits the base of Blob, hike left and up. Scramble up a slab. There is a large right facing corner (Divine Wind). Left of that is a roof with a couple of very hard bolted lines. Left of that is a large left facing corner (Night Stalker). At the left end of the next slabby area is Practical Joke. Just left of Practical Joke are a couple of very short hard bolted routes. This is the start of "Comedy Wall".

Climb past a bulge. At the third bolt, step right across a narrow slab (crux), then up easier low/angle ground. A couple more moves up the final slab leads to the anchors. You can make this harder by avoiding the various cracks left and right of the bolts.

Climb the left bolt line on the short face. A dike and a glued-on crimp allow passage.

This climb is fun and lets you avoid the 12b crux on the route

True Comedian

if you do not wish to climb that hard.  The crux is an 11a move at the last bolt before the anchors.  There is a crack to the right to layback before the crux.  The crux can be done either to the left or the right by the last bolt.

This is a short, sustained face climb up excellent rock in the middle of the Comedy Wall. Clip the first bolt on

The Far Side

, step up and right, then climb the flat face past four bolts on underclings, sidepulls, and dishes to a crux lip encounter reefing for and then on credit-card edges. One more bolt protects the finishing mantel over the slab to reach double-bolt anchors.

True Comedian is located West of

Divine Wind

and

Radlands

on the short face with five bolted routes. TC actually starts on the small face right of the face with all of the anchors. Start on some very thin and improbable smears and edges and then step left onto the main face. The hard stuff is on the lower slab, but the main face still holds a difficult crux in surmounting the roof. TC is another challenging addition. Look for technical footwork on good rock, but save the juice for the final moves. Short but cool.

This short, steep, west-facing headwall offers a fine test of power. Marred by its short stature and a bit of glue, it's well worth a look for some fierce bouldering off the deck. Finesse, flexibility and finger strength go a long way on this diminutive pitch -- not to mention some finger tape and perhaps a crack glove or hand tape for the final moves.

In the guidebook as "Windwalker Extension," this moniker is misleading as it's really a stand-alone pitch. Linking it with Windwalker (12d, first pitch) would be a ridiculous exercise in rope drag management.

Climb the right line of bolts on the short face. Make use of the dike for your left hand and the right arete. This involves a slap.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in West Buttress aka Comedy Wall