Hidden Cracks - 5.7 popular

This was our last climb of the weekend. It was a very pleasant, moderate route that I had been wanting to climb for awhile. I lead all four pitches.

The start is not that difficult to find. You have to climb up to a small dirt ledge that begins with The Wasp on the left side. This route starts on the right side of the ledge at a low angle section. The cleanliness of the rock makes the line quite obvious. If you look down to the right, you can see the start of Cornsnake Crack. The climbing gets steeper rather quickly and heads up and slightly right through some cracks. There are ample opportunities to place gear along the way. The climbing is not very difficult so I didn't bother placing much gear. However, you will need gear as the first bolt is up fairly high. The next two bolts come quickly and are slightly left of the first. The double bolt belay is very easy to find, all you have to do is follow the clean rock. I found the pitch to be longer than the 100' listed in Selected Climbs. The second pitch just goes up to the right side of the tree ledge at a double bolt belay. It is quite easy and doesn't require further description.

The third pitch is the most fun. It begins above and to the right of the belay rings. You can see a bolt just to the left of an arete above the ledge. Clip this bolt and move just around the corner to the right. It is very steep but the holds are great. Move up over the roof and stay slightly left past two more bolts. You will not be able to see the bolts at first and you may want to place additional pro. Follow the cleanest rock to the double bolt belay. I didn't find it tricky at all to gain the belay ledge.

For the fourth pitch, head left from the belay and climb up a corner into horizontals. Just take the path of least resistance and the cleanest rock. Follow the horizontals to the top and there is indeed a two ring belay. This is the upper end of Lightning Ledge, so we just finished walking to the top and took the hiker's trail back down to the parking lot.

climbed it twice. nc selected climbes 2002 is better.

Start is sort of hard to find - don't get suckered into the 5.5 The Wasp, the "hidden" crack is the FAR right side of the start ledge up some easy unprotected slab. Can't see the first bolt as it's over the first bulge.

First pitch was nice and long with the harder section kicking in around the bolted part. A small amount of pro scattered between the bolts. Second pitch was just sort of a low angle scramble (5.4 or so?) to the tree ledge to bolts on the rock face on the right side of the tree ledge. Third pitch was my favorite with awesome exposure, great position and views (that roof looks pretty intimidating as you head up towards it!), although it had some rather "alpine" rock (ie: loose/friable) in places. Keep going up and left on the licheny slab after the roof and eventually the bolts appear. Fourth looked manky, short and reportedly no bolts up top so we skipped it and rapped.

Rapped from top of P3 w/ a single 60, although P3 to P2 required a little exposed pinestraw covered scrambling and we ended up a ledge that looked similar to the start ledge but wasn't it. One more short rap from there got us down next to Peek-A-Boo.

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My first time climbing at Table Rock. My partner (John) led the 5.7 pitches and I led the 5.5 and 5.6 pitches. Reminded me of Wailing Wall at Moores, with lots of horizontal cam placements. The highlight was my first time trad climbing with my daughter! The route seemed mellow for the grade, maybe one 5.7 move at the beginning, and the second pitch should not be more than 5.4 at best.