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Peak Mountain 3

Aspenleaf Dihedral

FA Mike Brooks (free solo)
CREATED 
UPDATED 

Description

This climb is a flake and crack system in an open book dihedral. The line is attractive, but short and tweaky. The initial section of the route does indeed look like a 30' tall Aspen Leaf.

Aspenleaf Dihedral is directly above the route

The Scared and the Profane

. Few climbers would approach the route by this pitch, so consider getting there by going up and right of

Blows Against the Empire

(5.11) or

Peanuts

(5.9) or down and left of

Just Another Girl's Climb

(5.12) or

Your Basic Lieback

(5.6), or a scramble to the right of

Your Basic Lieback

(5.Easy).

Set a belay on the ledge from gear or the bolt anchors above

Just Another Girl's Climb

(up and right of Aspenleaf's start).

Place a few small pieces on the right side of the aspen leaf and step up off of the ledge into the slightly overhanging route. This is the first crux (balancy 5.10). Continue up and left, crossing the dihedral at the leaf's tip to flakes on the left. Place gear whenever possible, as there will be places where it is not so good. A fall should be plenty safe if this is considered. From the top of the leaf, climb easier rock (lower angle) up and left near a crack to reach a ledge with a tree and belay.

From the belay, one can scramble up to the summit ridge or move over and finish on

Wired

. To descend, get to the bolt-anchors of

Forbidden Planet

and rap down to the starting ledge, and then from the bolt anchors of

Just Another Girl's Climb

to the ground.

Better yet, do

Forbidden Planet

too - it's a good route and you are up there anyway.

Protection

Thin gear behind, with a few pieces in behind some potentially breakable rock. Overall, the route is safe, but you can not count on every piece, so a lot of pumpy gear should be placed if you are not solid at the grade. Medium HB offsets were overhead crux pro for me.