The Middle Way

This is for the semi-obscure aficionados. This is a feature that sees little traffic. This scar in the landscape has yielded a few briefly pleasant, 65-degree-angle slab climbs. Approach via the Mesa trail from NCAR or Chataqua. There is a faint trail to its base, not too far from the Mesa Trail.

This is the route up the middle of the slab, just right of

Non-Friction

. There is no fixed protection here.

Follow tiny edges and scoops up this smooth face (which apparently can get licheny with disuse) to a tiny seam higher up. You can belay off trees above.

2 ropes useful if you TR this, especially if you have 50m ropes.

Per

James Garnett

: Anchor possibilities are good. The tree at the top is currently alive and strong, and it's possible to fit some smaller nuts and even a #2 Camalot if you like triply-redundant anchors, which you do. A 60m rope is pretty much required, especially if you top-belay. It appears that there might be people rapping off a tree to the left; its trunk is fairly scarred. No reason to do that: the walkoff is loose, and there's a bit of scree rattling around, but it's better then killing the tree....