- Edit (TBD)
Description
Hammer ascends the very prominent off-width on the right side (when looking at the south face of Valley Massif). It is several routes right of
Screw
. The crack terminates just to the right of the right-most (and biggest) block resting on the summit.
From the trail, scramble up some blocks to the right of
Zipper
.
The first pitch is a nice warm-up for whats to come: climb a wide crack for 60 feet or so to a two bolt anchor. From the anchor, there are two cracks: Hammer climbs the off-width on the left. I thought that this pitch was very sustained and strenuous. The #5 gave me peace-of-mind while I heel-to-toed and chickenwinged up this on. Past the second chockstone, the crack becomes a chimney. There is a two bolt anchor with chains on the right side. I accidentally climbed way past these and had to downclimb the slab, which was not bad.
Protection
Bring a #2 Camalot on up. The #4 and 5 are very useful.
Per
Daniel James
: the bolt anchors on top
do not
have chains, they are just hangers. There are anchors at the top of the crack and on the slab below, only the slab below will get you to the first anchors on a 60m rope.
The intermediate anchor between P1 and P2 has hammer link rappel, and the left bolt is loose as it can be wiggled side to side with a finger. There are a pair of good looking bolts and hangers on this ledge far from the belay but without chains or anything else to rap off of.
Routes in Valley Massif
- 9Hammer5.8+Trad