Sandy:

After climbing six Apron routes (Long Time No See (5.9), Rock On (5.10a), Born Again (5.10b), St. Vitus’ Dance with St. Bernard and Vector Variation (5.10a), Diedre (5.8), and Read Between the Lines (5.10-)), I highly recommend the first four pitches of this line for new trad leaders instead of Diedre. This route offers better protection and a variety of techniques, unlike Diedre’s long runouts and laybacks.

Pitch 5 is a real brain teaser and felt more like a 5.10b or 5.10c, best climbed as a mixed route for leader’s safety. The rest of the climbing experience and gear tips are in the image captions.

Pitch 1 (5.7, 45m): This pitch has a couple hand jams, toe jams and many finger locks. I felt that the friction on both sides of the crack is good for smears. Protection is solid with a .5, #1, .75 and so on. You can belay from the tree or link the next pitch if you like to space out the pro.

Pitch 2 (5.8, 45m): This pitch also protects very well with .3, .4, .4, #1, .5, .75 and two more finger cams before the crack ends and leader makes thoughtful slab move for about 4 feet. I stayed left of the crack which has good chalked friction. Belay from the tree.

Pitch 3 and 4 (5.5, 10m and 5.7, 27m): I linked pitch 3 and 4 and just slung a tree for pitch 3. Pitch 4 is hand size and finger size lay back, jam back crack for 27m which was super fun climbing. It can be protected with .75, .5 and .2 to the bolted anchors.

Pitch 5 (5.10b, 7 bolts, totem .5, .4, .5 and .3 before the bolted anchors, 30m): This pitch, along with Pitch 3 of Angel’s Crack (5.10b) and Groovy Guru (5.10c in Murrin Park), are the three most nerve-wracking 5.10s we climbed this season. While leading Pitch 3 of Born Again, I saw a leader take a 20+ foot fall just before clipping the second bolt, right above Rick in the picture.

So, I suggested cam sizes to Rick as he led, and surprise, both my guesses were spot on! The .5 and .4 cams after the first bolt are crucial to prevent a long fall. After placing the .4, you have one tenuous stance to clip the second bolt. Once that’s clipped, at least the leader won’t deck with force on the slab. There are two bolts on the vertical slab and a few edges to work with.

Pitch 5

Upper section of pitch 5

Pitch 5 finish where Rick is at the bolted anchors. You can protect the upper section of pitch 5 with a totem .5 and .3 right before the traverse to the bolted anchors.