Climb the first pitch of

MRC Direct

.  Instead of stopping at the anchor, do an easy traverse left to a prominent, vertical crack and belay.  Climb straight up and over the roof (lots of jugs), and continue on easy climbing to the end of the crack.

To get back down, there are rappel bolts at the top of the mound between

MRC Direct

and MRC left.  Rappel to the bolts on the top of pitch 1 of

MRC Direct

and then to the ground.

MRC Left

The Red Snapper

Straight Edge

Dire Pitch

Old Easy Arete (aka "Arettez Maintenant")

The Bear Flare

The Hatchet

Nameless Crack

MRC Direct

Unknown

Desiderata

No Name Chimney

Gehe Jetzt

The Borg

The Biggest Tits in Country Music

Cheap Perfume Direct

Psychoshop

Finger Fantasy

Dancing All Night

Guardian

The Biggest Lips in Rock 'n' Roll

Cheap Perfume

Soggy Bottom

Cincinatti Sua Slide

Boneghazi

Classic Splitter

Golden Grief

Bombay Hooker

Reverse Cowgirl

This route is just to the left of

Old Easy Arete

. It features two sections of wide crack with the second one being the crux of the route. Start up a relatively easy, wide crack/chimney to a shelf. Move left on the shelf to a fist crack. Climb that to another shelf. From there, we continued straight up to

Old Easy Arete

, clipped the last two bolts on that route, and went up to its anchor. Luckily, the sketchiest parts of that route are below you at that point, so the climbing is relatively easy to the anchor.

This a fantastic crack problem.  It is also a sloper problem.  Andy did the problem by pulling on the traversing flared crack like a rail, and the concensus grade for that method is soft V12.  You can also primarily crack climb it, only using a couple of face holds, and the grade given reflects my opinion on how hard it is to do it that way.  People who face climb it don't all think that it is a quality problem, but I think it is a fantastic crack problem if you are in to that sort of thing.  Either way you climb it, it is very representative of Vedauwoo style climbing.  A quality find on Andy's part.

Climb

MRC Direct

, and belay on the large ledge that is down and climber's right from the MRC rap rings (gear belay). Straight Edge is the unmistakable splitter. Step across the chasm, jam a flared crack (#6 stopper works nicely here) to a small bulge, place pro, and gun for the top. The guidebook rates this a 9+; however, compared to other 9+s in Vedauwoo that I have done, this is a step up. It is definitely a 3-star pitch.

Dire Pitch is a good, varied climb. Start with some easy chimneying, occasionally interspersed with short sections of OW and hand cracks. Belay at a rap station just below a steep headwall covered in bird poop. Climb around a chockstone above the headwall on the left, passing an ancient bolt. (I climbed the headwall, which is about 20 feet, hand crack on the right, fist to offwidth on the right, and good stemming against walls on either side. This is good, well-protected climbing, but I could not squeeze around the chockstone at the top, even after removing helmet, so downclimbed and proceeded the correct way. Maybe a child could fit?)

It is easy climbing after that, with a quick, fun 7-7+ hand crack at the top.

Descent: we walked off to right/back, eventually making our way back to our bags. It was quite tricky to find the path of least resistance, especially near the top. You could also rap off as for MRC, as you top out at the straight edge anchors, but that is not efficient with four rappels dropping you at the base of the face climb arete. It may be possible to rap down to the top of P1 and rap down to bags on P1 anchor, but the first rappel looks like it goes through rope eating crack, so we didn't attempt that.

Sustained crystalline friction at 5.9, first 3 bolts. Tech crux at the 4th bolt (might even be 10a). Rob Kelman, guidebook author, downrated route from original rating of 10a to 9 in 1994's

"Heel & Toe."

Recently (2007), Rob said, "It's become harder. Couldn't be because I've gotten older, could it??" This would be a bad route for the second to fall of of, hence I have added two more bolts in the middle section & one at the very top.

This is a really cool, bombay, roof crack.  Start at the very back of the roof and burl your way out to the lip using an interesting combination of chimney and hand/tight hand crack technique.  The lip is a committing offwidth and fist sequence above an uneven landing.

This is one of Vedauwoos best roof problems.  The meat of the roof is a ten foot positive sloper rail followed by another ten foot positive sloper rail.  At the end of the second rail, move out left to another smaller rail containing a positive crimp and then rock up onto the slab and top out.  Getting from the end of the big rail to standing up on the slab is the crux.  This one is an absolute classic.

Start at the good hand jam, then bypass the wideness to a good fist (tight for some) to some crumbly feet and face holds. Top out on the kitty littered perfect hand jams to the top. You definitely want good technique, a fall would probably break your legs.

The chimney on the other side of the rock makes for a good warm-up.

Found on the west face of Old Easy, 'MRC Direct' (#1 on topo) is one of the most striking lines encountered at Vedauwoo.  While it is a true hand crack classic, it may be climbed less than one would expect.

Several cracks overlap and intersect witheach other, making it seem more comfusing than it really is.  It is the most central, 2 pitch line with a belay station (B) midway, just under the prominent roof.  The crux is turning the roof!  After this, one moves up and gradually right to the second belay (on gear).  To get to the rap anchors (XX), one climbs up and left (facing the rock) to the rounded top of the formation.  Double ropes will get you down in one rap, but a single 60 M rope requires an intermediate stop at the 1st belay station under the roof.

Other variations:

MRC Left

(#2, 5.7) strikes out left from the first belay on '

Direct', traverses 25' along a ledge and ascends a prominent handcrack which widens to offwidth near the top.  The top belay is on gear.  The rap is the same as for 'Direct

'.

The Seam Variation

(#3, 5.10a) starts midway up the first pitch of '

Direct

' and is then continuous with '

Left

'.

Ralph Called

(#4, 5.10b) is the left crack above the roof of '

Direct

' which goes vertical and is continuous with a bolted face to the top rap anchors.

Finger Trip Roof

(5.10a) is a harder variant of the prominent big roof of '

Direct

', taken by going up the right side of the roof, somewhat off line.

Two option exit pitches:

Middle Exit

(5.9)

The Straight Edge

(#5, 5.10a).  See guidebook for details-take larger pro.

Optional beginning pitch:

Arretz Maintenant

(#6, 5.9). See guidebook for details.

This is pretty sweet. The route starts off with slabby fingers and thin hands then progressively harder moves leaving the slab up to the "bird hole" and up the flared hand crack - cool movement. The route finishes up on a couple of bulges that are slightly harder than you would think. This has really nice face climbing with a few jams that is somewhat atypical for Vedauwoo. Perhaps it is a little harder for shorter folks..??...

Grade wise, there isn't much to compare this to in Vedauwoo. It felt harder than

Currey's Diagonal

but not as hard as

Da Gyps Route

. It is just as good as those by the way. This is a very nice climb.

I did an enormous amount of cleaning on this, especially on holds that are crucial. It is in prime condition currently. If this has been done, I would guess it was a long time ago. It seems odd that such a nice line would go unreported....?.... (best I can tell anyway).

This is a beautiful fifteen foot offwidth roof.  Start inverted at the very far end of the cave and work your way out, stacking your way out to and over the lip, after which the crack thins all the way down to fingers.  Find the way that fights you the least.  This is a very elegant moving problem.  One of the best problems in Vedauwoo, and one of the best offwidth problems anywhere.

Climb the chimney past several blocks to a crack in a flared groove. There is a two bolt anchor on the ledge at the top of the first pitch.

Pitch two climbs blocky twin cracks to the top of

MRC Direct

.

This route is fun adventure climbing to the top of Old Easy.

Descend the

MRC Direct

rappels, two raps with a 60m from the summit bolts.

This is a fun little crimp problem. Start on the left with your hands and foot in the obvious crack (hands on the obvious sloper, flat toed shoes are helpful), and work your way right until the crack ends. A few more desperate crimp moves up the face lead to the top.

The bouldering guide by Bagdonas gives this problem V11; however, one of the crux crimps broke off while I was working on it, making the end quite noticeably harder with very different beta. The new end beta also strongly encourages staying higher on the problem the whole way, which I found more enjoyable.

I'm not sure where to put this one. This is an awesome roof crack boulder problem.

TBTICM is under a low roof on the back side, where that roof meets a vertical wall at its right edge. Slide all the way back. The roof crack is a hand crack at the very start, then pinches down to fingers/off-fingers for most of its length. The best way to do this section is by power underclinging, but since the crack diagonals to the left here, this isn't as bad as it could be, especially since the feet are less than ideal in a few spots. Near the lip, it opens up to good hands. To finish, there are two options: climb the crack over the lip and stand up, or climb to the big knob at the lip, bust a kick-through out left into the roof crack formed by a VW-sized boulder leaning against the main boulder, pull through, and top out on knobs and a flared hand jam. The latter option is harder and very much the better of the two. This is a great, visionary Scarpelli first and an excellent place to practice roof crack climbing and Leavittation.

This is a beautiful fifteen foot low ball splitter roof crack.  It starts out as good tight hands and narrows all the way down to ringlocks at the lip, going to tips before rocking over the top of the boulder.  Start as far back as possible.  Incorrectly labeled Tyco Shop in the bouldering guide.  It is named after an Alfred Bester/Roger Zelazny book.  The Psychoshop is the black place of the soul changer.

Finger Fantasy climbs steep flared hands and fingers out a roof. Much steeper and more gymnastic than it looks from the ground. Similar to Nasty Crack and The Rookie, in that it makes a good introduction to steep flared fingers at Vedauwoo.

This is a very fun moving problem!  Sit start on an ok, tight, flared right hand and a decent left hand sloper on the low cobble.  Work your way up the ever thinning crack, using all available features.  Finish on the cobbles after the crack peters out.  This thing provides an excellent combination of technical jamming with interesting footwork.

This route is a thin hands flare though a roof. It is possibly hand size dependent. I found the crux getting to a ledge out left above the lip. I wasn't quite sure what to rate this crack, but it sure was fun! It is harder than

Biggest Tits

in my opinion, similar to

Nat's Three Star Roof

, but Nat's is easier, and easier than

Beer Crack

. All are rated V3.

There is an obvious mafic cobble at chest height, which is the logical start to this problem. There are probably many possible variations, but the easiest route seems to be to hike your foot up high at the start, traverse right to a good pockety crystal mass (crux), and then to work your feet back left to the starting cobble. You can finish straight up from here on nothing lichen crystals, or traverse further left to the crack under the prow of the

Bombay Hooker

Boulder (which is what I did).

This is a fun little thin crack boulder problem.  Start sitting down on the low tight hand, moving up to a bomber finger slot and then into the tips jams.  Reach to the top of the boulder after the crack disappears.  The crux comes moving through the tips jams.

This is likely Vedauwoo's longest roof crack.  Start on a flake jug at the very bottom of the cave and climb rightwards through two big pods, afterwhich the crack bends and heads up the "Sua Slide", which is a long, rectangular tunnel.  At the end of this tunnel, follow the crack through some funky offwidth moves as the crack bends again and spits you out of the cave.  The only detraction is the fact that the moves right before the offwidth finish are very lowball, though that is forgiveable given the overall quality of the problem.  A great and funky mix of many types of crack climbing with a touch of face climbing thrown for good measure.

Find Desiderata and walk Southbound along the base of the Old Easy formation for less than 100 yards. You will encounter a large pine tree next to a prominent alcove. This southeast facing crack overhangs about thirty degrees, and can be done from a stand using perfect hands, or done for full value by sit starting on fingers/tight hands.

Pull over the lip with high feet and underclings to gain a jug and easy ground to the first bolt. Clip the bolt and traverse low right to a mantle move onto a chicken head, and clip a second bolt. Make some slabby moves to gain the third bolt which is a little higher and to the right. Clip the older bolt and move yet again up and right to gain a nice, but short hand crack which turns into a seam. Make some difficult moves to gain a ledge, where you can belay.

From there, move to the left edge of the ledge and pull through the 5.8 fist crack/bulge. The more insecure you are willing to get, the easier it is. From here, move left up the easy crack/flake until you can move straight up on unprotected 5.4. Gain a 5.6ish fist crack and belay at the top at two bolts.

I linked this into 1 varied pitch with good use of slings. Less confident leaders should probably break it into two pitches.

Awesome crimping and balance problem with a cool jump move to get things started. Start left hand on a small divit/bump/crystal feature at about head height. Using any number of crumbly feet, jump up into the undercling jug where the nose connects to the boulder. A few crimpy moves up and left lead to a sloping dish on top.

Sit start using the right arete and a good left crimp. This problem climbs the triangular side of the boulder facing the ledge. Hit both sides of the boulder to make your way to the top. She won't finish until you assume the position.

Description

Protection

Routes in Old Easy