This short pitch is on the opposite side of the Rat Brain from the popular and easily located routes Kim and Fantasia.  It is one of the few routes in the shade until late in the day, so it is a good choice while you wait for the other routes at Poland Hill to cool off.

Start in an alcove with an OW crack forming the left side and bulge on the right that has a thin crack starting about 15' up.  For the OW fiends, this route could probably be done by only climbing the wide crack.  Most of us will probably do a combination of some wild stemming moves, a bit of off-width, and some standard jamming higher up as the crack narrows.

I belayed on the large flat ledge at the end of the difficulties.  Two options exist from here.  Apparently you can walk off to the South from here.  Or, as we did, you can follow the crack you just climbed through the narrow chimney, and hang a right to get to the base of "Boulder Hopper", another fun (yet short) 5.9 crack that gets you to the top of the Rat Brain, and the rap anchor at the top of Fantasia.

This route is very short (40') but I still give it 2 stars because of how cool the moves were.  Anywhere else I would probably consider this a 1 star route because of its length, but for some reason at Vedauwoo these short routes still seem worthwhile.

Ape Walk

Green With Envy

Little Old Crack aka Boulder Hop

Remote Control

Skull

Unknown (approach to Kim)

Piece of Dirt

Cumulus

Soul of a Poet

Tanfasia

Toadstool

Orbital Ridge

Fantasia

Boulder Hopper

Clean and Jerk

Overload

Stem Christie

Clean and Press

Cool Jet

Sweet Finish

The Bistro

Escape From Vaudeville

Underachiever

Sugar Crack

Estrogen Patch Remover

Petit Crapon

Southwest Friction

The Bear Voo

From Sugar Crack, scramble up easy boulders on your left to a right-facing, thin, flake thing. Top out.

This is a fun and funky wide roof crack.  Start on hands at the constriction at either end, and top out on the opposite side from where you started.  The version moving toward the interstate is slightly harder than the version moving away from the interstate, but they are close enough that they deserve the same rating.

This is an okay route to do while waiting to climb

Kim

.  Start around corner left of

SW Friction

and

Kim

.  Belay in crack and rap as for

Kim

.

Per

Aeon Aki

: About 50 feet left of

Southwest Friction

, Boulder Hop climbs a 30 some foot hand crack to the top of the Rat Brain.  Begin by stepping off of a boulder and onto a small ledge.  Make an anchor to belay your second then rap from the fixed rings at the top of

Southwest Friction

.

Eds. This is a combination of two submissions for the same route combined onto 1 page to avoid duplication and confusion.

Hard finger crack start to fun thin hands jamming then through a slightly wide roof (long reach to a good handjam).  Excellent climbing with good pro, but the first 10 feet are definitely the crux.

This classic line lies in the center of the SE side of Poland Hill. Scramble up to the low angle hand crack in a right-facing dihedral, then climb with determination and haste the overhanging hand crack that continues above (crux). Belay just below the wide crack.  With good protection surmount the interesting slot (5.9ish) and belay atop.  Walk off the back of the formation.

This could be a boulder problem or a trad climb. I did it on gear. It’s the wider crack at the base of

Kim

. There are tricky moves to start followed by a 5.3 scramble with plenty of anchor making spots.

Piece of Dirt is located on the "Rat Brain" section of Poland Hill, on top and to the right as you approach.  It is the first route of any substance to the right of the obvious, right-angling,

Kim

crack, and is an equal distance to the left of the classic and equally obvious, plumbline offwidth

Fantasia

.  Once you get up to the Rat Brain (done by circling around to the east of Poland Hill and then following your nose up some slabs), the route will be the reasonably clear line of fairly new bolts (in 1999) following the right side of a large, semi-circular flake to a slab above.

Launch yourself into a full-on lieback on the flake, clipping the first three bolts in the process (10-).  Make sure you are solid before pulling up rope for the clips - it's easy to blow it and launch yourself from this position.  Make the transition from lieback to vertical slab (crux), and then follow the slab past two more bolts to a bolted anchor up and right.  Although the rope drag leaves something to be desired, can be TR'd by leaving the last bolt clipped as a directional.

This is the old Bolrog Project in the Bistro Boulders. Sit start on the big round side pull at the lip of the undercut roof. Go up on crimps, undercling, crimps.

Fun blend of Vedauwoo crack climbing mixed with modern face/roof bouldering. Bring an extra pad for the back breaker slab behind the finish.

Located 15 feet to the right of Sugar Crack, begin in a crack with good hands, be aware of possible friable rock at the beginning.  Continue up on somewhat overhanging good hands to the pod.  Now the fun begins, use whatever technique you can to go through the offwidth pod crawl.  I'm talking knee bars, shoulder bars, head bars, anything to move a 1/4 inch at a time.  This is a very awkward pod, wearing a longsleeve shirt and pants will help you save some skin.  Once out of the pod, use the same anchors as on Sugar Crack and hope your second can follow.

If you are waiting for somebody on the way to Poland Hill, this little boulder will occupy you for a while.  It is located just off the trail after you come out of the trees.  For the Toadstool problem, start both hands underclinging the lower lip then make one move up to the sloping lip at the top.  Perform a difficult mantle to topout, then enjoy the view.

This is the offwidth flake just to the left of

Skull

(start at the same place). Contrary to the guide topo, there's no rappel descent at the top of the climb -- after the 30 (?) feet of offwidth, step right and do the last 15 feet of the first pitch of

Skull

to a sling anchor. When I was there, a healthy, fat, white rat watched my thrutchings from inside the crack as it scrambled around on various bones + vertebra is had collected inside. You can toprope this climb from the 1st pitch anchor on Skull if you add a directional at the top of the flake (#3 Camalot or bigger?). The thrashing is over relatively quickly on this one, but still seemed like plenty of work!

On the Rat Brain next to

Kim

is a proud fatty. This has got to be one of the hardest 9s I've ever seen. It is sustained with a tricky pod fairly low that is hard to get gear into (I wish Wild Country made a #7 Friend), but it is possible to toprope if you want practice suffering.

From the top of Sugar crack, walk straight back though a hallway in the rock, keeping your eye to the left.  Alternatively, climb Petit Crapon and finish by walking to the end of the slot above that climb.  A left turn will bring your into the previously mentioned "hallway" above Sugar Crack.

A few meters back in the hallway, you will see a hand-to-fist crack going up the wall on your left, about 30' behind the top of Sugar Crack.  Climb up this, first stemming behind you in the hallway to the big boulder, then fist and hand jamming or thrutching (arm-bar?) up the crack to the top.  There is no 'hop' required.  You can simply pull onto the rock and jam upward.  My partner was short and still flash-followed the route at about 5.9.

Belay off of gear up top before walking across the top of the "Rat Brain" to the anchors above Kim, from which you can rap off.

A nice climb if you are in the area but I wouldnt make a special trip.  I started in a deep slot below the climb.  It may be possible to stem across from the slab and enter into the meat of the climb sooner. Chimney up to the bulge, there are some nice hand jams along the way as well, get some nice hand jams at the bulge in the crack on the left. Make some awkward moves to get over the bulge and continue on a short easy hand crack. The crack then gets wider (#4 camalot) but the angle decreases dramatically.

This route is on the left side of Poland Hill as the Rat Brain sits to the right.  On that left side, a stack of 4 large features is split down the center by a slightly right-leaning thin hands crack that goes vertical then curves gracefuly to left leaning as it passes each of 3 horizontal cracks/bulges to reach a slot up top (5 feet long) and a slab on the left abover that.  Climb this surprisingly good system to the top of the slab to a crappy fixed anchor.. Belay here with a back up on your gear.

To exit, top out back behind you (all of the way) and walk over toward the base of the rat brain, just below the climbs Fantasia and Kim.

This route is the left-most prominant crack system in the attached photo.

You find out where the "stem" in Stem Christie comes from at the final (crux) moves.  This thing is interesting and fun.

Climb the right side of the flake which, after a few hard moves, opens up into an easy chimney formed by the flake and the wall. The rock on this is very sharp, so your belly might get a little cut up!

If you want to toprope this route, you can scramble partway up the descent of Skull Rock and wander over to the top of this to make a gear anchor.

From

Fantasia

, go right about 5 feet, give or take, to the flaring finger crack that is non-existent at the bottom. What I did was climb

Southwest Friction

and use the TR anchor bolts from

Fantasia

. As for the rating, Heel and Toe says 11c.  I'm not even close to an 11c climber, so I say 11a/b.  But it is very hard.  Enjoy!

This is a classic hand crack that runs up the center of the Bistro Wall. It's a great problem to do after finishing a few routes at Poland hill, or on its own.  Start underneath a small roof, and pull through on good fingerlocks and pinches to gain the hand crack. This section might feel harder for those with a shorter reach. Solid jams lead to the top.

This is definitely an eyesore bolt line, but it's there, so either chop it or climb it.

From the Zach Orenczak guidebook (added here for completeness: the guidebook has an R rating and only one bolt. Someone bolted the rest of this thing): use the flake to the right of

Sugar Crack

, and climb the obvious bolt line on the face. This is very similar to

Pretty

on Nautilus - friction and crystal pinching.

Start in the bushy stepped OWish section with good gear, some stemming, and nice fists. The fin-like projections make for good feet.  Move right and slither over a hump and into a nice rest area before firing up a few meters of wide chimney moves (or stemming). Find the beautiful hand crack and follow it to its conclusion.

Rope drag must be managed carefully.

This route is worth doing if you are in the area.  It is located about 50 feet to the right of

Fantasia

.

P1: Follow the acute leaning dihedral for 50 feet.  A #3.5 or #4 Camalot is useful if you want to sew up the exit face moves out of the top of the crack.

P2: Follow the path of least resistance to the top of the formation.

Descent: A one rope rap off of the anchors above

Kim

(5.6) will get you to the ground.

This route was an abandoned project of some woman Rob Kelman told me about, and she asked that the name stick when the route was sent, so there ya go. I don't love the name personally but I tried to respect the other person's wishes. If it offends anyone, I'm happy to change it.

Begin about 60ft right of Stem Christy. Work up a big ole chimney to the roof and then hand traverse right for about 15ft to a wide crack splitting the roof. Plug in some big cams and crank over the roof. Build a gear anchor and walk off to the east and then north towards Kim, eventually circling back to the base. The walk off kinda sucks.

This is a beautiful and a well-deserved Vedauwoo classic, and also an excellent beginner lead. Kim is the right-angling crack on the Rat Brain clearly visible on the approach.  Approach the Rat Brain as described on the main page and on the

Piece of Dirt

route description.  Continue up past

Piece of Dirt

to the left side of the semicircular/circular flake.

This climb eats about any gear and provides perfect jams for hands and feet all the way up to the now-bomber two-bolt anchor.  There may be one of the old spinner 1/4 inchers left up there as well, which used to make for an uncomfortable rap down.  Four stars.

Petit Crapon lies 20' left of Sugar and right around corner from Fantasia in an alcove.  The start looks harder than it actually is.  This route has 2 distinct sections that require completely different techniques.  Although described as an offwidth, the first half is straight up chimneying for the most part.  Exit the chimney onto a ledge, then continue up arching finger crack (crux) to easier ground (protects well with .5 camalot).  Belay in horizontal crack.  Descend as for Kim.

This is the clean low angle slab to the left of

Kim

on the Rat Brain.  It is a little runout, but what 5.4 slab isn't?  It is a nice introduction to friction.

This is a nice and interesting crack boulder problem.  Start on two roughly equally positive underclings under the roof, the first of which is just past where the faint seam intersects the beginning of the crack.  Move out the roof using some fun and interesting moves and do some burly pulls at the lip to get to the hand jams which are just past the obvious pod.  This thing is much harder than it looks.  A longstanding project, I believe this is number 15 in the Poland Hill section in the latest Vedauwoo bouldering guide.

Description

Protection

Routes in Poland Hill