Learning to Crawl

Face climbing in the desert! Watch out!

This is the leftmost detached tower in the Bridger Jack group. Kind of looks like a thumb, has a twin called Sparkling Touch just to the right. The trail along the bottom of Bridger Jack is obvious - go all the way left. The route starts in the obvious wide crack that leads to the left arete of Thumbelina. We belayed below the third class leading to this wide crack, but whatever works best for you. If you have a 50M rope, you probably want to get right up to the crack to belay.

The route is very obvious - follow the arete and bolts to the summit. The initial wide crack goes at 5.6ish, but the face to the right is climbable as well. As the leader I felt more secure wedged in the crack. The route has many rests and several bouldery cruxes. Two cruxes in particular will probably get your attention. The lower crux (10+/11-) was slightly burly but had positive holds and a nice new bolt just below. The upper crux is the business. Most people describe it as quite desperate. Personally, I describe it as A0, but my partner got it without a slip. This crux is at the last two bolts - one of which is bomber. Once past this, head left then up right to the final mantle onto the summit, or step right to the obvious steep crack and follow that to the summit mantle. If taking the steep crack, maybe include an extra hand sized piece or two in the rack.

Soft and precise shoes will undoubtedly help the struggle. Good luck.

1 each cams blue TCU to #3 Camalot, 1 set nuts, 8 2 foot runners, 8 QDs