Squeezeasy

This is an obvious line on the left middle face of Gem Lake Wall. It certainly could have been climbed previously. If it is your route, let me know and I'll fix it.

From a distance, the right side of this modest wall has some prominent chimneys. As you look closer, you see a few discontinuous lines and a pair of cracks on the left middle face. This line is the right of these two crack. Its off-verticality adds to its climbability at a reasonable grade. This line is generally much more sustained than

Exemplary Behavior

and thus probably deserves its 2.2 stars.

P1. Start of less-than-beautiful rock to gain the obvious crack. Dance up the crack until it gets wide ~100' up. Then you can do some offwidthing or face climbing around the offwidth. Belay on the left on a decent stance. Double #1 - #3 Camalots are useful. 5.7, 130'.

P2. This pitch starts off in your face with some 5.8 crack. Move up into a pod below the squeeze / offwidth. A #1 Camalot below and a tricky yellow Alien on the right at the crux make it feel doable. Bigger folks may have to face climb around this squeeze section. Slender folks may get deeper to the point where one's helmet may get in the way. A #3.5 Camalot comes in handy above the crux. You may be so relieved to conquer the crux that you don't place any more gear until the belay, but there are placements. 5.9 PG-13, 100'.

P3. You may (we did) belay a 5.5 exposed section to get to the top of the formation and belay behind a thread. 5.5, 50'.

To descend, we scrambled with climbing shoes on east-north-eastward to gain a ramp that led skier's left. Cross a chimney. Continue northward quite a ways until you get cliffed by the far north end of the Gem Lake Wall. There is one spot where we jumped down to a ledge. You may figure out a downclimb down the north face, but we headed down a 3rd class gully eastward until you are within a short distance of the trail.

This is the right of a pair of cracks on the left middle face of the taller section of Gem Lake Wall.

A rack to #3.5 Camalot with extra #1 - #3 Camalots.