A Road to Nowhere

First off, we are hesitant to call this a new route because it seems likely that pitches of this climb have been done before (for instance the huge L-facing dihedral on the NW Face has bolts leading up to it from Flash Flood, which is undocumented except for a one-sentence mention in the Kelsey guide (such is the nature of the Winds!)), however, we feel that this particular route links up some quality pitches and provides a long day of adventurous climbing that is worth documenting. If anyone has information concerning prior ascents, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. We are posting this route simply because we want it to be climbed and enjoyed by others.

Pitches 1 and 2 share the same rock as "Caught in the Act", and then the route diverges up and right towards the base of the North Face.

P1: Romp up a slab to a ledgy L-facing corner, pull over the top and continue up slabby R-facing corners overcoming a bouldery chest-high overlap (5.7) and continuing up R-facing corners to a large grassy belay ledge. (5.7, 190')

P2: Continue up the corner system on moderate terrain to a huge grassy ledge and belay at the base of a wide crack in a R-facing corner. (5.6, 150')

P3: Off the grass, climb straight up on a slab aiming for a small R-facing overlap, plug some gear and then move up on slab moves to easier terrain. Scramble over broken terrain to another R-facing corner which leads to a few juggy moves to gain a big sloping ledge. Belay at the top of the ledge below the roof (look for a fixed pin below the lip of the roof). (5.7, 210')

P4: Climb straight up to the lip of the roof, clip the pin, reach high over the top for good holds and pull over to another slab. From here, look up and right to see low-angle grassy cracks leading right towards the North Face. Climb up and right on good cracks and belay where the cracks turns vertical towards the top of the shoulder (5.10, 200')

P5: Climb straight up the splitter crack to a L-facing dihedral, which you follow to reach the top of the shoulder (5.8, 200')

From here, parties can easily scramble up to the grassy shoulder and descend OR walk up and right to start the next pitch on a large ledge directly above the top of Flash Flood.

P6: Traverse up and right, placing gear when you can, to a ledge and dinner-plate sized chickenhead. Sling the chickenhead and then quest out on unprotectable 5.6 slab, aiming for a ledge system directly to the right. Gain the ledge system and continue along it, working right towards the huge L-facing corner. Eventually the ledge peters out and become a spicy but protectable hand traverse to a belay stance in the big corner. (5.9, 220').

P7&8: Climb straight up the dihedral on flaring jams until you can step right onto a big ledge. Then climb featured face climbing to a stance below the main corner (5.9, 50'). We belayed here because we ran out of gear, but a better equiped party could link this into the next pitch. From the stance, climb straight up the amazing L-facing corner, which features every size of jamming and takes finger to hand sized pieces. This pitch features A LOT of licheny smears on the face which add to the adventure. Belay in a vertical crack below a roof. (5.11, 70')

P9: After investigating several different ways to pull the roof (looks hard but protectable), we traversed way out left along a finger rail below the roof, turning the roof at the first obvious break. Pull the roof on finger and hand jams and then make a traverse back right to gain a nice belay ledge below an arching R-facing corner. (5.10, 80')

P10: Climb straight up the R-facing corner as it arches over into a roof. Undercling straight right along the roof with feet on small smears (crux) and turn the corner into the vertical crack. Follow this to a highly-featured pinnacle (with a nice little chickenhead) and belay. (5.10+, 90')

P11: Make some difficult-to-protect moves right off the belay (5.9) up and right, then straight right to a nice vertical crack. Go up this crack and then pull some layback moves up and right when the crack splits into a Y. Follow this crack all the way to the top of the ridge and belay off some boulders. (5.9 PG-13, 140').

From here, you can scramble/simul-climb up low 5th class rock to the summit of Haystack. To reach the North Gully descent, traverse hard left directly across the face for several rope-lengths. Otherwise, go up and over the summit of Haystack's North Tower to reach the large bowl above the Grassy Goat Trail and descend.

The start of the route can be found by identifying the large cave/overhang at the base of Haystack's North Shoulder.

Full rack of nuts (offsets helpful), Doubles from C3's to #3, optional #4. Triples in #1s and #2s may be helpful in huge L-facing corner up high.