- Edit (TBD)
Description
Double Fantasy is a quality route with a unique and exciting first pitch (the crux). It's the left-most of Sheep Mountain's documented climbs and is distinguished by two opposing flakes which start about 50 feet off the deck.
P1) Find the best way through the bulge right off the ground and work your way up and right before heading back left to the base of the opposing flakes. Stem up between them (10a crux near the top) and traverse up and right to a belay below a small roof. ~130'.
P2) From the belay, head right past a short, left-facing dihedral and hand-traverse (5.9+) under an "overlap" or shallow roof until you come to another left-facing dihedral. Belay at the top of this dihedral or continue up the face with sparse pro and belay under a roof. ~50'.
P3) If you belayed at the top of the dihedral, you can either climb up and over the roof to the top (5.8), or head left and up towards a 5.7 crack system. If you belayed under the roof, you can traverse straight left into the 5.7 crack system or continue through the roof to the top. ~140'.
A word of caution: I'd strongly advise using Gillett's topo for this route as I got off-route using Rossiter's. They differ significantly at the start of the second pitch. Instead of traversing more or less straight right from the belay, I tried climbing the arching, right-facing dihedral directly above, which fades out into the face above (5.10+ s). Fortunately, I fell before I got too high (trying to stem from where it ends to the top of the the short, left-facing dihedral to the right), otherwise I could have hit a ledge below. Also, there's no protection on the steep face above it for quite a ways.
After topping out and soaking in the view from this rarely-seen perspective, head west until you find the descent gully. When you get back to your packs and you feel like doing another route, go check out the other area classic,
Glimmerton Corner
(5.10b).
Protection
Standard rack.
Addendum: a 0 TCU to #3.5 Camalot with doubles of #0.5 & 0.75 Camalots may be useful.
Routes in Sheep Mountain Rock
- 1Double Fantasy5.10aTrad