This route may never see a second ascent, but who knows: the line does beg to be tackled. As you approach the Renaissance Man crag, Pestilence Crack follows up the left exit of the boulder  "perched" above the cave. The first twenty feet are harder than they look, and the rock is weird and slippery. After that, the climbing kicks way back--as in so far past horizontal that you actually climb down. I won't spoil the fun with beta. Get creative! After the lip, scrape for the finish jug and top the crag out. Downclimb the gulley to climber's left (easy 5th) or rap off the Renaissance Man anchors.

Pestilence Crack

Sword In The Stone

The Wicked Duke Takes a Wife

Bring Out Your Dead

The Black Death

Trebuchet

Renaissance Man

Camelbak Crack

More of an access to the gully above, this route follows disparate cracks and horizontal features straight up to some bushwhacking/climbing past a few ledges until you reach the top with a final boulder problem finish to gain a right leaning crack and mantle top out on the boulder above.

I love this route. It provides stacks of beautiful hand and foot movements, good rock, and elegant positioning. The crux comes low, and the last 15 meters pack consistent and engaging 5.9 climbing. Enjoy!

Historical issues:

It should be noted that this part of the Renaissance Crag shows signs of past climbing attention. I found an extremely sketchy 1/4" thick bolt that was drilled only 1/4" in to the sandstone patina. It took about 2 or 3 turns with my fingers to remove it. I have no idea when or by whom this bolt was placed. I've asked around (Dave Griffith and Steve Edwards, for example), and no one seems to know. What's more, I've no idea what line of travel that ill-fated bolt professed to protect. In any case, I'm not the only one who thought this area worth climbing.

Also, to the left of the second bolt of this route, you can see a Metolius hanger protecting a bottomed-out seam. Again, someone has been here before me. I can only guess that this bolt protects the start of a 5.8ish crack/dihedral to the left of Sword and the Stone.

A somewhat powerful, in-your-face trad route of short stature. This line was done by someone a long time ago, I'm sure. A bit sporty to the first placement, but a good spot makes things palatable. After the mantle, things ease considerably. You can head up and left in to the hand-crack (I'm assuming this is how the route was originally led?) or you can go straight up the gently overhanging face via great edges (5.9ish), passing one bolt. The crack is typically quite dirty and contains suspect rock.

Tackles the gently overhanging face left of Bring Out Your Dead. See that beefy undercling? Move past it via some very powerful bumps, then unlock some tricky moves out the roof. A glory jug awaits up and around the corner. Sustained and powerful, especially for so short a route.

First ascents are tricky to find, nab, and grade. Trebuchet struck me as exceptionally beautiful and powerful, so I committed myself to equipping and leading it. To be sure, there WERE old top-rope anchors on top of the cliff, so I can't prove the line was never climbed on TR, but I feel lucky to be the first person to have bolted and led Trebuchet. Is it 5.13? By my best judgement (which isn't always the best arbiter of truth), I think it might be, if maybe slightly easier. You could also think of it as a V6 or V7 boulder problem with a rope. Go, climb it, tell me what you think.

Here's the spray-down:

Start with right hand on a two-finger pocket undercling, and left hand on a open-hand pinch/crimp.

1) Hike feet, set up, and throw up and right for the jug at the apex of the arete.

2) Hold swing, find feet, then figure out how to enter horrendously flared finger crack.

3) Climb the crack system up and right via some insecure fingerlocks and deadpoints till you gain a sharp jug.

4) Shake out, then dyno straight up to a fairly bad edge. Punch through to the glory jug. Top out crag.

So insanely good.

The proudest and hardest line at the crag. Truly difficult. It was also the first line we even tried at Renaissance Crag. For some reason, we thought the moves would go quickly on TR. Wrong. The bottom twelve feet of this rig eluded me (and others) for the better part of three years till finally, on a hot March day, I made it happen.

Jens Amundsen, a long-time Rattlesnake compatriot, was belaying. I had planned to TR the route clean before putting in a lead bolt to protect the bottom crux, but my gut had other plans. I think I needed the motivation of leading to try harder, so Jens watched patiently while I added a fat lead bolt, lowered down, and psyched up. On my second ground-up go, I climbed through the crux and reached the flared cracka new highpoint for me at the timeand then promptly fell off in surprise. Third go wasn't much better. Then, with my tips super raw and the afternoon sun about to bake the tiny crimps, I gave it my best harumph.

Done!

Start out slabby rock to gain your first placement in a crack.  Follow this through a wash next to some oak tree branches to gain unprotected face climbing on good holds for about 20 feet.  Then you reach the crack for which the route is named.  The crux is right in the beginning of this crack when it is a little bulgy but it soon opens up to perfect cupped hands for about 25 feet until the summit.  There are holds outside the crack too so lots of variation to be done.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Renaissance Crag