Several new routes have been put up in this sector of North Table Mountain, and Good Man Dan is the latest addition by the Mad-Uni-Bolter, Alan Nelson. The major features of this sector are the arete climb,

Brain Cloud

and

Shadow of a Hangdog

, the crack to its right. Next is a trad "gully" and right of the trad gully is

Table Manners

, followed by another

Dan Hare route

with black hangers, and then an arete. The arete is Good Man Dan. Two easy clips take you to the crux and the third clip. I found this third clip awkward and preferred an extendo clip at the third bolt, however, pinching a minor chip below an obvious jug, sets this clip up well, just watch the balance! Fun moves and more pumpy than it would appear, Good Man Dan at least will not blow up in your face unless you miss the third clip. Good stone with some discontinuity in the climbing.

Good Man Dan

Mandela aka Leaning Pillar

Dan's Line aka Restless Heart

Over The Top aka Unknown Bolt Line

Left Behind

Nader

No Manners aka Hodat

The Milk Dud

Feeding Frenzy

Table Manners

Dan's Manners

Adrenalyzer

Oblivious

Brain Cloud aka Shadow Arete

Broken Arrow

Major Bolt Achievement (MBA)

Brain Dead Ted

Mournful Mullet

Wazup? aka Buchanan

Cliff Hanger

Stoney Middleton

Minor Trad Achievement

Fatal Attraction

Twenty Something Arete

Spike

Shark Attack! or Shark Infested Waters

Mini Me

How Rebolting aka Butt Crack

Sick Minds Think Alike

Bad Manners

Shadow of a Hangdog (aka Fat Fingers)

This is a nice moderate crack line.  It is marred by some bird poop near the top but this is avoidable. The lower section is a fun stem problem protected by small cams. The crack widens near the top and continues into a chimney before moving right to the anchor bolts. Another fun, moderate crack at Table.

This climb is about 5 feet left of

Brain Cloud

.  Follow a thin crack on the left side of the arête, then move right to the

Brain Cloud

anchors.  Aesthetically, this climb looks great; but the actual climbing is not as exciting as it appears.  The crux is about 20 feet up.  If you stay in the crack and not wander to the ledges on your left, you will get the most out of the climb.

Hmm.... same anchor, different result. Dan Hare captured the line on this wall with a much better concept than

Table Manners

. Pried out of the stainless steel center of the universe, he has uncovered another fine addition to the route count on NTM.  Immediately to the right of

Table Manners

and sharing a top anchor with

Table Manners

is a line of black [now silver] hangers that identify Dan's route. The line picks out a couple of discontinuous aretes and links them up. The climbing was tricky and thought provoking and made perfect sense as a distinct route. I dropped a star for the discontinuities that provide complete rest between sections and another star for use of the grungy slot, even though this use is very brief. Overall, this was a satisfying climb to decipher and well worth the time. But, we have come to expect that of Dan, and I just want to climb the line he puts up when he is 65.

Although the route looks like a contrived, poop-covered, ledge scramble, there are some fun moves.  There are 3 distinct sections.  The first tier is a nice warm up.  Jugs and a mantle with optional heel hook.  The 2nd tier is the crux. A harder and more powerful mantle.  Then, the last section to the anchor is steep and hard enough to make it fun.

Climb double thin cracks to a large, wedged block.  Continue up the crack and into the left-facing dihedral.  Finish on a fairly large ledge at the anchors.

Here's a route if you want to scare yourself.

It starts out with some hand/fist jams, face holds, and some stemming.  The pro is not bad, but it isn't great either.  Once you get near the top, the rock is extremely delicate and seems about ready to peel of with the slightest tug.  It is not fun to hold on or place gear here.

The sun was hitting this tiny pillar in a very inviting way when we walked by.  Although nobody is claiming this, surely someone has climbed it before....

The crux is the bulge near the bottom and has pretty secure jugs.  So it would be pretty safe to solo/boulder this, except the landing is pretty bad, so don't fall....

The gear is good too, so even if roped, this will only take a few minutes to climb and walk off....

Feeding Frenzy takes the prominent buttress with a big, left-facing dihedral at its top. Slab up for a few clips and make a sneaky, thin series of moves to get established in the corner (5.11d). Some people have done this entirely on the face, but they probably have mutant feet. Chase the corner and a small overlap up to the anchor for about 5.10c. The stone on this route is quite good.

Table Manners starts on the blank face just right of

Brain Cloud

Arete and

Shadow of a Hangdog

. I can almost always find the good in a climb, and while this has some, Table Manners struck me as highly contrived. A bolted face is not really climbed, but the very pro-able crack to the right is climbed. This is followed by a highly contrived finger traverse that steps left, picks up a bolt, and steps back right to the continuation of the trad corner. The roof above is bolted for an apparent direct ascent, but the climbing in fact takes off in a very pro-able crack to the left.  This whole route can be done trad following the natural features of the rock. I'm sorry to say that it was not impressive.

Dan's Manners is simply a variation of

Dan Hare's new line

that picks out the most continuous way up the Manners wall by following

Dan's Line

up to the ledge and swinging left to pick up the head wall section of

Table Manners

. This gives more continuity by using the 5.11b/c sequence of

Dan's Line

and the 5.11c/d section of

Table Manners

. The only break in continuity is the ledge above bolt four on

Dan's Line

. Using the principle of optimal beta for estimating the rating, Dan's Manners would go at 5.11c/d with a very reach-dependent move that could juggle the rating by a letter grade.

On the left side of the MBA Buttress are two boulder pinnacles.  This highball boulder problem takes the 25' high one on the left that sits directly below and in front of "Cliff Notes".  Boulder up the arete on the south side of this pinnacle.  The crux comes about two-thirds of the way up and involves a committing smear on the arete to support a long reach for a positive sloper edge.  Falling is not an option - you'll wind up in Golden.  A top-rope of sorts can be rigged off the anchors on "Spike", but if you fall around either side of the pinnacle you'll pendulum into the wall.

The crack looks pretty steep, but there are plenty of jugs and protection to keep it safe and easy....  Move up the crack to some broken ledges then pass a bolt on the way to the anchor.

Climb the sharp arete about 40 yards west of the top access between Table Top and Industrial Buttress.

Climb just right of

Shadow of a Hangdog (aka Fat Fingers)

, following the bolt line just left of the dihedral with the large crack. Follow a thin crack up and right to a small roof. Clip, then make a sweet dynamic move to a good hold. It's unclear whether the route uses the opposite face to stem off of; we did.

MBA climbs toward a small roof just right of

Feeding Frenzy

. It starts up a distinct face. Some tricky hands and fingers gets you to a stance just below the roof. Snag the roof and a clip, and then power up to the anchors. This was originally done straight up for a 5.11b move but is frequently done by slipping a bit to the left, and this may knock off a letter grade. It has good stone, nice movement, and is a bit spooky on the sharp end.

Climb the face behind and right of "

Fatal Attraction

" and left of "

Butt Crack

".  It's not as good as it looks and not worth bolting.

This is a chimney/off-width climb that starts out low-angle and easy then gets narrower and vertical to overhanging.

If anyone has information on the FA, please let me know!

This is a very short crack climb but has a fun move or two.  It would certainly be better if longer but it is worth doing if you have climbed all the routes in the near vicinity and want to place some gear.  The crux comes about halfway up as you commit to the crack.

This is the leftmost bolted route on the MBA Buttress.  Two bolts on a short slab lead to ledges at the base of an arete.  The crux comes immediately off the ledge past a couple of overlaps.  Cool moves finish on up the left side of the arete to the anchors.

This is the right facing dihedral immediately right of

Brain Cloud

and

Shadow of a Hangdog

.  Overall, this is one of the cleanest and most contiguous moderate cracks I have found at Table.  The pro is plentiful and there are fun jams.

Walk off - go right or left to the nearest gully.

To the right of

Major Bolt Achievement

is a crack that's harder to climb than it looks.  Pull through an initial roof to get situated in the slot, and follow it to the top.  The climb is also more interesting than it looks.

WARNING:  THIS PROBLEM WILL KILL YOU IF YOU SCREW UP!  To the right of

Adrenalyzer

is a leaning obelisk sitting on a ledge.  It looks like a good push on the backside will launch it into the houses down the hill.  On the overhanging south side is a line of jugs separated by big reaches.  The thought of climbing those jugs raises the spectre of pulling the obelisk over on top of yourself and being crushed like a bug.  The line is obvious, compelling and terrifying.  Even if the obelisk stays put, the moves are hard and committing, the ground a long way away from the crux (at the top), and the landing nonexistent as the hillside drops away.  This is no place for posers or wannabees.  The rush of pulling over the top is indescribable, but the consequences of failure will leave you puking in the bushes.  My advice: JUST SAY NO!

The technical crux is getting off the ground, the mental crux is near the top.  There really isn't any gear, and it's not tall enough to bolt.  You wouldn't want to fall, but you probably won't.

The name comes from the hard to read graffiti at the base, and because of the height....

To the right of the

Adrenalyzer

pinnacle, climb straight up the narrow face on a ladder of square-cut edges.  The route is named for the [former] "Spike" of rock cantilevered out of the wall into space at 2/3rds height.  Pass this on the left, exercising care not the disturb this unique and apparently precarious geologic feature.

Addendum:

you can go right of the spike, step over, and the line goes around 8+.

Addendum:

the spike is gone from the route.  It lies near the base of the route.

Luckily this fun crack was spared from the bolting frenzy.  This is one of the many reasons to drag some gear up the hill....

This short 2-move wonder to located to the right of

Wazup?

.  Follow a short lieback crack past 3 bolts to a 2 bolt anchor.  This could be lead on small cams, but they would be difficult to inspect.

Climb the chimney/slot/gully immediately left of "

Feeding Frenzy

".  This has no fixed anchors, but there is an easy walk-off around either side of the MBA Buttress.  It is an obvious but forgettable line.

This takes the cool handcrack in a left-facing corner between

Cliff Hanger

and

Spike

.  Start in a crack on the left side of the

Adrenalyzer

pinnacle and wander up to the base of the dihedral.  The corner is basically vertical and sucks whatever gear you throw into it.  At the top, reach around to the right and clip the anchors atop

Spike

.

The route is located on the MBA Buttress.  It is the prominent, left-facing dihedral just right of

Table Manners

and left of

Dan's Line aka Restless Heart

.  It climbs the roof crack out left of

Table Manners'

last two bolts then turns right to gain the anchors.

Climb the crack system just right of

Brain Cloud

, a noticable arete sticking out, about 40 yardswest of the top access between Table Top and Industrial Buttress. The lower crack system ends at a small roof, with a clean looking 1" wide crack running up and slightly left.

Description

Protection

Routes in MBA Buttress