Yellow Ridge - 5.7

Actually I found this to be pretty good but the opening pitch was a workout! I worked the start up the crack to the right which was pretty tricky - the traverse from starting vertical->horizontal crack to the offwidth was exciting and is best done quickly with a couple #2 cams. I just about blew it b/c the feet suck and the hands aren't that great. Next, after clipping a piton I flailed up the offwidth until I could utilize the mercy horizontal crack to stuff in a cam (.75 in my case). After I swallowed my pride, and gave up the onsight to hang on this for a second I eventually started to recall offwidth technique and tried it out, more or less starting from the bottom and getting full value. After chicken winging, foot camming, leg and body jamming my way up I eventually topped it out and set up a belay. It would have been nice to have one more piece of gear in the offwidth but I'm not sure exactly what it would have required - maybe a #5? Anyway, nothing much else exciting to report until the start of the third pitch (I broke the main traverse into a separate pitch). I found the early moves getting to the diagonal left corner of the face and arete to be a bit tricky - there might be an easier line but i followed the chalked holds straight up to the roof and then made another sketchy bad feet/small hands traverse out to the corner and gratefully clipped the piton. The remaining roof moves were cake and protected fine but were pleasant and exciting.

Depending on the gear you have and a couple sparse spots plus some potentially strenuous gear placements, this could be a bit on the PG side, but is definitely worthwhile. Due to the burly start, I'm inclined to call it a bit more 5.8ish if you stay in the right crack and the offwidth. I don't know though - maybe it's just a Gunks 7; I haven't done that many routes in the area at this point. Harder than Alphonse (5.8) around the corner for sure though!

Pity the camera was acting up. A great climb from start to finish.

Climbing with a buddy who said lets start with a warmup and chose this. Very nice climb and my first at the Near's.

first pitch offwidth I thought was scary and I was only seconding, we linked the first two together. the second pitch traverse was scary as well and the arete climb exposed. fun climb though

Climbed with Ryan. Tried to combine pitches 1 and 2. Picked the wrong ledge on the traverse for the belay (no wonder the gear was 5 feet too high!), make sure you keep going to the second one. pitches 1 and 3 are great. The traverse pitch is ok. A piton protects both cruxes. You can back them up with gear. A #4 camalot fits at the very bottom of the OW, but isn't necessary.