Laughing at the Moon

This is a nice pitch of face climbing on the upper end of the West Ridge. It is somewhat runout, but the cruxy sections generally have a bolt or pin nearby.

Begin with the first pitch of Muscular Dystrophy. This can be found at the top of the West Ridge, down and around the corner to the right from the clean slab of Prince of Darkness. It is easily recognized by the short right slanting finger crack about 15 feet off the ground. Climb up to the slanting crack, and follow it to the right. Follow the corners up until you are below the steep and obvious crux corner of Muscular Dystrophy. Place some well runnered pro and head left and up on precarious looking flakes and blocks to a slot behind a large block. Belay here off a #3 and #2 Camalots (a #4 Friend is nice, too). You should see a bolt above you on the clean face. Now the fun really begins...

Climb past the bolt and straight up to a second bolt that is hidden from below. Head straight past this bolt over runout ground (possible marginal #0 or #1 TCU placements) until you can clip a pin in a horizontal crack. Hand traverse left past a second pin, but not so far left that you are on the arete. Head up and slightly right past another bolt and the crux moves to the top (climb the face, not the arete). There is a single belay bolt that can possibly be backed up with a tree or some creative cam/nut placements.

For Laughing at the Moon proper, only 5 or 6 QDs are needed (although a tiny cam or two might make you happier). However, bring finger through fist sized cams and a set of nuts for the approach pitch and belay.

Due to the runout nature of the pitch, and the fact that you need to place gear to get to this climb, it's trad not sport.