This is the hardest of a trio of routes found right of the Thunder Tactics area and left of the Surreal Estate wall, the other two routes of the trio being Staying Power and Once Upon A Time. (One of the trails to The Bank dumps you right at the base.) Sparkle In The Rain is as good as its highly touted neighbor to the left (Staying Power), but a good deal harder. Fun climbing from bottom to the top. The face at the start is somewhat technical, gaining the roof is pretty hard, but the crux is found high on the route, climbing the final steep face. The anchor apparently was moved higher up on the route after the first ascent, making the pump factor even more of an issue. Great, fun climbing that draws on all your sport climbing skills.

If you care: the grade for this route is variously written as 12b or 12c; it seems considerably easier than Future Fossil, a 12c a mere 250 feet further right, and Surreal Estate (also listed at 12c) is said to be harder still. To me, it felt more like the difficulty of Hot Beach or Blank Frank, 12b and 12a/b respectively.

Sparkle In The Rain

Once Upon a Time

Trundle

Courage and Enlightenment

Staying Power

Surreal Estate

Heavy Weather

Le Pincher

Feverish

Sicilian Style

Stormy Weather

Ice Cream Hangover

Unusual Weather

Leverage

After jacking your feet up onto the wall and climbing jugs to the first clip, you'll be following the balancy and technical arete. The roof above this has some of the largest holds I've been on at Shelf, yet still demands some attention as the pump grows. The move above the roof, prior to the chains, just might make you laugh if you don't fall off. A Shelf classic in my book, with solid rock -- despite the appearances down low -- great moves and position.

This is located just around the corner to the left from Surreal Estate Wall. Climbs just right of

Sparkle in the Rain

(12c) up a heavily pocketed, left-facing crack, then cut right to a shelf and then again up. The crux sequence leaves a solid flake on thin holds up a shallow corner. Nice moves continue up to the anchor.

Scramble up a pile of blocks and make a committing move to clip the first bolt.  From here, angle right, then left, then far right, then slightly left towards the anchors.  Wacky bolting at the end of the route causes confusion and rope drag.

This is the big, obvious overhanging route that follows the steep wall, cuts right to a hanging dihedral, and goes all the way to the top of the cliff left of "

Staying Power

" and "

Sparkle in the Rain

".  By the looks of it, it has been recently retrobolted. This route is now equiped with big, modern, black hangers. The route has seen little traffic, despite beeing a superb, long, multi-cruxed line that can be defined as "adventure sport climbing".  I broke off a huge basketball-sized jug way up high, and cleaned a lot more of the route off, so now it should be safe, but use caution, as this doesnt see very many accents...it also definitely fits in with old school Shelf ratings, have fun!

This is another great route in this section of the Bank by

Heavy Weather

and

Unusual Weather

.  Surreal Estate climbs like a 12a at Shelf but has one big pocket pull in the middle.  I can't remember for sure, but this move may be rather height-dependent.  It is more continuous and less crimpy than other 12+'s in the area such as

Future Fossil

or McFly.  I gave it 3 stars on a Shelf Road scale.

This is a beautiful line up the left side of Surreal Estate Wall (the third big clean wall reached from the standard North side approach). The belayer relaxes on inclined rock as the leader tackles the continual cruxes. A few shakeouts can be found and will certainly help. The first crux pulls through on pockets, a mid-bouldery crux pulls edges before reaching a final overlap and the third major crux overlap. It is sequential, pumpy, and awesome!

This route climbs the vertical plaque of rock right of

Ice Cream Hangover

. It doesn't look terribly appealing, what with the variety of bolts, runouts and no chalk, however it actually climbs pretty nice. I don't blame you if you don't want to try this thing ground up, but it's easy enough to rig a toprope from

Ice Cream Hangover

.

The climbing is pretty easy (11-?) but intimidating with very cool moves up to the obvious roof. The well-protected crux sequence starts here with some powerful to balancy moves getting over the roof and beyond.

Supposedly, this was one of the earliest routes at the Bank and is still one of the hardest. It deserves more traffic than it's getting...probably a couple more bolts at the start would fix that. Whaddayathink, Bob?

Follow the first 5 bolts of

Leverage

until it is possible to step rightwards across the wide chimney.  Intricate face climbing up the black headwall leads to a thoughtful crux just before the anchors.

Climb up a dihedral of sorts passing five bolts to a big ledge rest on the left at the top of the dihedral. Be careful on this ledge, as it's loaded with a few large rocks that could easily be pulled off.

From the ledge, commit to the pocketed, vertical face for a few clips before entering the sharp, prickly rock at the top to the anchors.

Stormy Weather takes the arete and face on the left side of Surreal Estate Wall. While the easiest way up the wall, and usually given less recognition than the bigger brothers on the main wall, Stormy is actually a very interesting climb. Hike up the face on edges where you can choose to stem off left or stay straight up on the face. Logic foe me uses the stem since it is well within reach and a real  contrivance to avoid. Good moves on corners and edges gains a switch to the left, really on the arete. Power up a bulge on good Shelf Road pockets. What makes the line interesting in my mind is the position of the climbing and the diversity of the rock. Just as good as the big boys on the right, and probably never harder than 11a.

About 30 feet right of the Surreal Estate Wall is a short face with two bolted lines on it. The left of these is Hangover. I may be the only one I know who gets a kick out of this route.

Follow some edges for a dozen feet to a couple of pocket pulls that gain an over the head horizontal crack that will soon turn into a undercling. I've usually used a nice cross through to step into the undercling, which has always made for a satisfying sequence, something of a kinesthetic kick.  It is not the best stone to begin with, but it has a nice sequence to play on.

The middle of the Surreal Estate Wall hosts a striking line that fires up to a wide crack system at 60 ft, this is Unusual Weather, and for what it is worth, a better line in my mind than its harder cousin to the left. Very continuous climbing on pockets and edges takes you up to a horrizontal break. A traverse left gets you to a spot below the crack. Moderate climbing with some unexpected exposure (for the Shelf) gets you up the crack.  I ususally find that if anything is cruxy on this route, it comes in the first 40 or 50 feet when the climbing picks up thin pockets and a few thin, flat inclusions. No single move is really 11c, so it may gain a notch or two for continuity to hit 11c. Don't be put off by the opening moves, big reaches for reasonable finger pockets will get you to a good jug pocket just below clip two, however, the opening feet are really marginal. For my style, I find that the best part of the climb lies in the first half dozen bolts. I wish that this excellent line were closer to home since Unusual Weather is well worth doing if you are in the neighborhood.

Start on orange-hued rock behind a large flake, that leans away from the wall.  A few hard moves past the first 3 bolts get you to a nice ledge with the best moves to come.  Lieback the flake above while saving a little bit of juice for the steep and juggy climax.

Description

Protection

Routes in 06. Surreal Estate