Strange Science

I'll stick my neck out and give Strange Science three stars (at least by Boulder Canyon standards). The climb is pretty obvious as you hike up the faint trail to Avalon. The route follows a line of small flakes up the center of a beautiful forty-foot high scooped face, a pleasingly natural and independent line.

The right arete,

Free Fall

, is bolted and (5.12a?) has a steep bouldery look, with a seam and closely-spaced bolts.

Right again is a steep, short face then a short, scruffy, easy dihedral (also bolted) leading to an expansive, low-angle slab above.

The climb starts off easy, past jugs and a couple bolts, then as the angle steepens, the reaches betwen the flakes get harder. The crux move, at the fourth bolt, is a powerful long reach problem, but after this there is no let-up, but a pronounced pump as you struggle up some more perplexing moves, with little for the feet, before you lurch onto the obvious easier ground up and right.

Though short, this has all I look for in a sport pitch, a Gritstone-like series of cool and sustained and yet entirely logical moves, with no filler, which steadily builds up to make for a great experience.

6 bolts to a 2-bolt anchor.