An elegant changing corner system up a clean panel. The route character changes dramatically as the corner changes, providing a distinct rift between the two incongruous parts although they are bound together in the same system. While the moderate upper corner offers great climbing still, it feels a bit anti-climactic after the awesome, burly start. However, if you are the type of climber who thrives on distinct cruxes and withers under sustained endurance route pressure, this should be high on your list! A heads up to any fat-fingered folk out there that the crux section features very tipsy locks that certainly suit small fingers much better. It will almost certainly feel a good bit harder without fairly slender digits.

Stick clip handy for the first bolt, as the landing would be terrible. A bit of face and slightly crunchy tight handcrack leads to the clean, overhanging, right-facing dihedral. Breathe deep and pay attention to sequences and potential stemming onto micro-foot chips as you layback your way up the tips pods and hope you hang in there until the crack opens up to some more solid fingerlocks. This section was bolted, as the crack between the pods is very thin and has a gritty surface inside the crack making gear somewhat sketchy; a gear ripping fall could lead to a very bad landing. From the good locks, sink in some good tips gear and make a couple more moves into a pod with hands in the back. As the corner changes here to left-facing, the angle changes from overhung to slightly less than vertical and you can breathe easy with the difficulties dispatched. Continue up the fun moderate (5.9) corner with a medley of fingerlocks, handjams, and faceholds to a shelf and the anchor. This upper corner was scrubbed hard, but still holds some of the tenacious high-alpine perma-lichen that doesn't want to part from the stone.

Marriage of Convenience

Sine Wave

Flaky Flake

Steps To Enlightenment

Bahala Na

Stolen Crown

Maneater

The Queen of Shangri La

69th

Muli Made

One for the Pot

Shantaram

Lost Horizon

Totally Topless

The Trials & Tribulations of Margaret Hastings

Sumpit

High-Hanging Fruit Snacks

Cannibalistic Tendencies

Headhunter

Sigurd

Replete With Gremlins

Not For The Faint Hearted

Thin Red Line

The Shangorilla

Deep In Shangri La

Arete a go-go

Candy for Breakfast, Candy for Lunch, Breakfast for Dinner

Something on the Side

Rose Hip Corner

Bourbonic

Shambala

Rose Hip Face

The Short Forever

Murut

Birdseed, Bourbon, and Bolts

High Little Thing

Being Boiled

Holidays in the Sun

Vanishing Half

Utopian Lamasery

Rose Hip Crack

Scorpion

Portal To The Infinite

Gremlin Special

Prisoners of the Sun

Sunday Roast

If you find that the moderate climbing of the upper corner on Marriage of Convenience is too milquetoast to keep your interest, perhaps it's time to dabble with this tantalizing little morsel. This hanging splitter variation is on the panel just left of the upper corner of Marriage, and like a mistress, sits just out of arm's reach of the main system.

Burl through the awesome power layback/stemfest of the lower corner on Marriage, and ramble up the moderate left-facing corner a bit. Reach left and clip a bolt, and execute a delicate traverse on small edges to fall into the thankfully offset, tight handcrack. Jam up this toothy splitter for 20' on mostly tight hands to an anchor jug. This variation provides a more balanced finish for Marriage, and clocks in at 5.11-.

The hanging splitter continues below the entrance traverse utilized here, but a low traverse looks much more difficult, there are some large dubious flakes guarding the splitter, and the crack starts as steep .2 sized splitter. Some ragingly hard person should check it out, it could provide a stout line!

Touchy moves on gritty rock get you past the first bolt (may want to stick-clip or come in from the right), in an out of a short dihedral with great edges, and on the face immediately left of the arête.

Move up this steepening feature until the holds disappear around the fifth bolt then unleash your inner yoga master and bust through the crux, a strange transition around the arête and onto a cracked slab to your right.

Compose yourself and launch up this tasty panel, using small edges later supplemented by a thin vertical curtain (pull down, not out). An awkward mantle caps the slab, depositing you on a small ledge. Cross the arête again and continue up the steep left headwall on good edges until you reach the last bolt. Shuffle around the corner one last time to reach the anchors on the right headwall.

Despite periodic oscillations around the arête the rope runs straight and never crosses sharp edges. The rock quality goes from OK to impeccable, the movement is thought provoking (especially on the OS), the route is long and sustained, and the distance between bolts always in the back of the mind. All of the stars but it's the style I prefer so take it with a grain of salt.

Climb perfect hand crack for 15-20 ft to face protected by one bolt.

This line took a bit of cleaning but turned out well.  Plenty of intriguing  moves throughout.  Halfway through you will take the steps to your enlightenment.

This line takes gear well and provides several crack climbing type moves in a relatively short distance.

Continuing with the theme of tasty high-hanging fruits and 4-stars* mixed 11c lines, here's one which had somehow escaped the keen eyes of other choss-munchers. It is rumored that an illustrious and prolific Brit noticed it in the early days of Shangri-La, rapped in to check the features, and decided to leave it alone as the top looked too thin. Not being one to pass on others' scraps I decided to have a look for myself and, as usual in the Jungle, ended up with a gem of a route once lichen and loose rock had been dealt with. I initially put in a low anchor to avoid the hard upper third of the route, got called out for skipping the best climbing cause it looked tough, pulled my weaksauce bolts, and took it to the top. It makes for a MUCH BETTER climb (thanks for not letting me get away with it AR).

Scamper up easy moves on blocky holds to a bolt which protects the entry in the dihedral. Small gear and good stemming lead to solid holds below the second bolt (beware the large flake guarding the top of the dihedral, it's not helping the sequence and it sounds like a drum). Shuffle right across a cryptic bouldery section aiming to get your mits into a gritty hand crack which quickly thins out to tips. A few balancy moves with bad feet will see you past the last bolt, into a steep juggy staircase (pumpy gear placements), and finally to a rest atop a pillar where you'll have ample time to come up with a plan for what's to come: a perfect offset crack in an open dihedral.

Stem and lieback this feature until the offset disappears and the crack pinches. Set a solid piece (or three) and fire up this technical and balancy crux using glassy feet and the occasional tips lock. Once you reach the inverted staircase above a combination of pumpy liebacking and creative stemming past good placements will see you to the anchor.

* 3.5 stars rounded to 4. The top section climbs the coolest feature at the crag but the lower section is just OK with slightly crusty rock and unremarkable moves. The no-hands rest in the middle also detracts from the overall quality.

The wide chimney system separating the pillar with Cannibalistic Tendencies from the adjacent wall provides a wild cragging odyssey. It offers pretty clean rock, adequate pro for a chimney route, and some unique positions where multiple chimneys converge and pillars diverge. We trundled anything that we could get off by hand on the ground-up FA, which included some big blocks. There are probably some small bits remaining to be aware of. Worth a spin for the chimney connoisseur.

We started with the 15' fistcrack (5.9) immediately right of the start of Can. Ten. to get to the large rubble ledge which is the shared start with Queen of Shangri-La. However, Roy installed a via ferratta access to this ledge the next day, which starts

just right of the fistcrack. The ferrata and a high belay on the ledge probably makes the most sensible option. From the rubble ledge, burrow into the chimney system, tunneling under a large chockstone, and follow a short handcrack corner near the outside of the chimney for a bit. Once the handcrack ends, burrow even deeper to a major dihedral which is the juncture of a couple of chimneys. There is a handcrack in the dihedral which is followed to the top. About a body-length below the true topout, where the rock becomes the typical Jungle-top shattered blocks, a tiny ledge can be traversed toward the outside edge of the chimney (facing Queen of Shangri-La)

to anchors. I placed them here for rope-pull (which worked well) but they aren't comfortable to belay from, so I recommend the leader lowers to the ledge/ground.

A gorgeous and sustained line that keeps you engaged from start to finish. A difficult sequence right off the ground that requires technical footwork while following the arcing finger crack. The gear is good but strenuous to place so move quickly through the lower sequence and keep a strong head. Continue up the wide crack until you reach the top where you will find an anchor. This line will make you work for it but will leave you satisfied!

The direct start for The Queen of Shangri La follows the right arcing finger crack. The Princess of Shangri La is an easier variation that follows the left crack.

Start up crack to the face. Then move right and pull the overlap to the anchor.

Boulder up some blocky edges and set your first piece.  Shift left in to the hands crack and sprint for the chains.

Start by stemming up chimney until you can step right on to the arete by the 2nd bolt. Great moves all the way.

This line is on great rock and has good movement.  Trouble is, I can't pull those thin edges any more ( I lost that horizon).  Balancy moves gets you clipping the 2nd bolt.  Then a lot of core strength and big throws will get you past the last bolt.  Have at it!

Fun and featured with lots of good movement. Don't miss the clip on the 5th bolt.

I am still conflicted about making this a 1 or 2 pitch climb.  Most certainly there are two very distinct sections separated by a ledge.  Each pitch is 4 stars but the ledge gets a bit loose and drops those stars.  However, the climb will still rock your Jungle boat.  The variance in the type of climbing, as well as the majority of what you touch being of quality rock, will put a smile on your face as big as Margaret's.

Do the difficult off-width for six feet to start the romp, then run the enjoyable hands crack (60 ft.) to the ledge.  Rest here!  While gazing up, do not be discouraged!  It climbs way better than it looks and takes gear in good rock.  You will do a lot of stemming, some chimney moves, as well as crack climbing, all the while marveling at the head blowing exposure.  AND, if (like a similarly rated climb in Ten Sleep), you do not at some point, end up facing out, you didn't send it! The labyrinth of free standing towers. walls, chimneys, and varied climbing will most certainly put a big Jungle grin on your face.

Up the thin crack passing bolt to a ledge. Some various sizes of crack with awkward moves gets you to the anchor.

We showed up a week too late in Shangri-La to pick much of the low-hanging fruit, so we focused our attention on a few of the remaining lines that looked tasty, but required a bit more work to come into fruition. With some bolting, scrubbing, and choss sculpting on the lower arête, we gained access to this tempting hanging splitter; it was worth the effort for sure and turned out to be a great line with lots of variety and engaging terrain!

Stick-clip recommended for the high first bolt. Pull off the ground just right of the blunt arête and weave up this feature on cool, "ghetto granite" like features and technical climbing. The rock through here will continue to buff out with traffic. The face crux comes with a slight bulge that guards the entrance to a left-leaning flake/block traverse to a stance where the splitter starts. Plug some of your tiniest cams into the very clean and parallel crack, and stand up to a 2nd stance. Place some more finger-sized gear and launch into the interesting crack crux section that succumbs to somewhat inobvious sequencing. Pull into the crack once it gets to tight hands (emphasis tight) and swim up the awesome splitter as it quickly widens to baggy fists. There are face features through the widest section and a decent anchor jug.

P I   This may just be one of the best lines in the Jungle!  Start in .75 crack at about 10+ climbing and move up progressively placing larger and larger gear.  This pitch "EATS" gear!  Great movement on superior rock.  Finish with a BD 4 and top out on a comfortable ledge to end the first pitch.   There is a two bolt anchor here if what you see ahead is disconcerting.

P II  Move off the ledge traversing left and up easily avoiding a few blocks in the crack.  Place a BD 6 prior to being "CONSUMED" by this chicken wing 9+ chimney.  As many chimneys go, this is a bit run out ( BD 6 X 1, 1 X 1, and .4 X 1, and a runner to sling a horn for about 60 feet) but you could always inhale to stop your fall.  You reach a two bolt anchor and good stance to enjoy an absolutely breath taking view.

It would be easy to link these pitches if one wanted, but it is also fun to share the wild ride by trading leads and using the large comfortable ledge.

This line went up ground up and all concerned are quite proud.

Climb the bolted arete with some tricky moves here and there.

One of the best 5.10s at the Jungle.

This mostly shady crack has some suspect rock, hence three bolts.  Upon first appearance the fingers look good up the splitter, but it has not yet cleaned up despite the considerable effort.  The movement is good and on a hot day this line is cool except for when the sun is directly above..

Judicious, tentative  face climbing for the 5.11 climber seeking anxiety.

Nice finger crack with a few choice moves.

A striking, narrowing splitter that is mostly offwidth, but climbs much more friendly than it looks from the ground. In fact, it can be scaled using very little stacking or thrutching thanks to good face features--a sport climber-approved wide crack!

Surmount some boulders and step into a bulging, tight handcrack in a right-facing corner immediately left of the offwidth splitter. (If you are a true gorilla, and overhanging tight #1s are terrible for you, you could start up the OW proper instead).  A couple strenuous jams get you past the start, followed by a bit of stemming, before committing to the OW. The initial section of OW is a bad size (large #6 C4) for a bit, but faceholds keep it reasonable. The crack then progressively pinches down to hands and a great jug to clip the anchor.

Bermuda Tower is just far enough away from the main wall to form this chimney.  As is often the case with chimneys, you will be sputtering expletives each and every time you manage to clip something.  This was Leila's first foray with a drill and she did a superb job placing hardware just where you need/want it the most.  Gear placements are critical and creative (the crux) prompting the deepest of thoughts as you move through dark and troubled recesses of your mind and this maw.

This crack takes you face climbing for a bit.  Where the fingers are only good if the gear wasn't there, you step right on small edges.  Then a series of hard pulls on crimpers past two bolts.  These are the crux moves, though topping out on this pillar guarding Gremlin Gulch is a challenge especially if you want to do it gracefully.  A demanding line with a mix of moves on great rock.

Climb corner until you can move right to Rose Hip Face anchor.

Just outside the labyrinth that defines "Man Eater" to the left, this line stays outside and turned out to be quite good.  Start is the same as Man Eater up on the high shelf reached by way of via ferrata.  Face moves to a high bolt.  Then a wide stem box where several 360 spins will swirl your mind prior to the chimney.  Gear is all good in the cracks both front and back of the climber.  There is a # 2 placement on a runner between bolt 2 and 3 that needs a backward glance.  Other than this, everything is straight forward except for the exposure.  Plenty of this.

The top is the most fun.  So high in a chimney with such good gear in such good rock.

Start in  chimney, stand on boulder to clip bolt two, climb crack seam.

Get up on the block (tried to budge it but it would not move) with bolt for pro to the right. Move up the shallow corner to rest, then crank the crack to anchor.

Has a few burly moves at the start and finish. Good rock.

Set up to reach a better line to the right, this turned out well.  The off width in the corner is a bit chossy (belayer beware) but the face has good edges and the are many opportunities for back steps and stemming.  The crux will be your ability to use your right foot in varied off width technique.

Climb crumbly pedestal with bolts on face to gain crack.  Climb crack.

Scramble up left until you can clip the bolt, then in to the crack and off you go. Nice climbing, great pro and plenty of rest's on the way.

Start up easy corner to ledge. A few moves up a short crack, then move right and follow bolts up the nice face with a few tricky moves here and there.

Slab to corner and bulge Then pillars above.

Shingo said it best, "I have never been worked so hard in just 45 feet".  From the very first moves climbing is full of big throws and balance challenged arete climbing that will pucker all of your personal orifices.

Monkey up to the roof then tricky moves left. Blaze up the headwall to the sting.

The crux is negotiating the talus of Gremlin Gulch. Follow the bolt line, avoiding lesser quality rock to the right and left. It is a well protected chimney with fun moves and some face climbing. It is possible to top out and walk down Gremlin Gulch or back to parking. There is ascension through the darkness into the light of another realm.

After finishing the crack cut left and clip the last bolts on the face route to the left.  Those moves will be your special dark moments.

Super route with a few hard moves here and there, steep with great pro.

Don't find cracks like this very often.

Start on the left wall by One for the Pot to horizontal (1" piece). Dance up the arete then move left and finish up the pillar with difficulty to anchor.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Shangri La