Cracks are for Kids

Clean rock is for kids? The dirty and treacherous start and shortness of the route more than makes up for the decent hand-jamming on the upper half.

Rossiter says first ascent unknown, perhaps c. 1982 and perhaps named then Dogge Doo Buttress. The climb was named Cracks are for Kids by Elaine and Erik Chandler after an ascent in 1988.

Approach: from left of center of the main face, scramble to a grassy ledge and then up left towards a steep gully just left of a bolted arête. The bolted arête is

No Man is an Island

, 11a. Cracks are for Kids is the obvious crack system to the left.

The climb: sketchy moves off the ground standing on grass bogs and finger jamming on lichen get you to some Alien placements. Wriggle up a little higher to a jug and the base of the hand crack. From there it's straightforward to the top of the pillar.

Getting down: Rossiter shows the route scrambling up and left, but that's a long way. Instead, set up a trad anchor in a crack above the pod above the right side of the pillar and lower down clipping the bolt anchor of No Man is an Island (hard to see on the right side of the pillar). You can't easily just run the rope from the top of the crack through the anchor bolts, because that would form a double right angle bend across the top of the pillar. The second can clean the trad anchor, climb down to the bolts and lower or rappel from there.

Doubles from green Alien to hand-sized cams. Some of this is needed to set up a trad belay at the top of the pillar.