Jim's Beta for Scenic Cruise

For the descent, we left our approach shoes at the top of the gully, descending in our climbing shoes. Look for a large flat-ish rock at the base on the right side of the Cruise gully. The rock is surrounded by large, healthy, poison ivy.

The start of the climb is just a few feet away. Flake the ropes out in the dirt -- the only available spot that avoids the poison ivy. Carefully step through the poison ivy and onto the rock on the outside of the arête.

P1: Link the first three pitches by simul-climbing. Belay at the top of a 5.8 jam crack on a good ledge on the right. With 60 meter ropes, the follower is just above the P1 belay when the leader reaches the P3 belay. 5.8+

P2: Move right from the belay and head up an easy, unprotected face to an overhang. Pull through the hang using creative stemming and into the finger crack above. After a bit, the crack splits. Head up into the right crack and sink some protection, then switch to the left crack. Belay high at a fixed anchor at the base of the long, sustained-looking finger/hand crack. 5.10a, 140'

P3: Hard moves directly above the belay lead to easier hand jamming. At the top, make some tricky moves to the right and belay in the pegmatite. 5.10b, 140'

P4: Climb through awkward pods in the pegmatite with adequate protection. At the top, clip a fixed nut, then move down and left (left!, not right as described in the guidebook) to an obvious ramp that angles up left. Getting onto this ramp is awkward; I used a tiny crimper on the face to get established on the ramp. At the top of the ramp, move left and clip a fixed runner around horns. Continue directly left past a couple thin face moves (5.9-ish) and a large ledge below the overhanging corner of the next pitch. I climbed down about 10 feet to a better ledge with one bomber cam placement and an old 1/4" bolt. 5.10a R, 120'

P5: Climb the overhanging corner above. The steepest climbing is at the bottom and is easier and well protected. Above, the climbing becomes more strenuous. There appeared to be two places to traverse right; we chose to climb higher (very strenuous), then move right 8' into the 5.8 crack. Climb straight up these cracks for quite a ways, becoming off-width at the top just before the belay. Belay on a nice flat ledge. 5.10+, 160'

P6: From the left side of the ledge, climb a 5.9 crack straight up for 80' until it is possible to step left onto a slab. Make a rising leftwards traverse across the slab to the far side, then make an exposed move across the void to the base of a broken left-facing corner that becomes a chimney higher. Climb up this corner until an adequate belay can be found. 5.8, 150'

P7: Chimney up between the face and the flake, directly above the belay. Adequate, but small, gear is found on the main face. Make a couple weird moves onto the flake at the top, then move rightwards to a belay at bolts. 5.8, 90'

P8: Climb straight right for 60' over easy ground, then angle up and rightwards past a couple bolts. (The top bolt is total crap...don't bother.) The move past the second bolt is the crux -- smeary 5.9 face climbing. At the stance above the bolts, step right and climb a few feet of pegmatite, then follow the left crack past a bush. At the top, hand rail right, then up rightwards through more pegmatite to a good ledge at the base of a right-facing pegmatite corner. 5.9 R

P9: Climb the right-facing pegmatite corner directly above the belay to a ledge. Short pitch. 5.10, 60'

P10: Traverse directly left from the belay across flakes to the base of a right-facing corner. Climb this corner past a small roof (fixed #4 Camalot) to a stance on a sloped ledge beneath an overhanging corner. 5.9, 140'

P11: Climb the overhanging corner directly above the belay. After 30', move right (and keep going right if it isn't easy) to easy 4th class terrain and onto the giant ledge beneath the top. 5.9+, 150'

From the ledge, unrope and walk left about 100 yards to a left-facing 4th class corner that leads easily to the summit.