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Routes : North America : United States : Virginia : North Western : Old Rag Mountain : Whale's Lip

Whale's Lip

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About Whale's Lip:

The biggest single slab on the east side of Old Rag, with some excellent crystal-crimping/smearing face routes. Well seen from atop the Lower Ridge Trail Slab but invisible from the approach above. Another favorite area on sunny winter days due to its eastern exposure. NOTE: Two ropes are required to rappel down from atop these routes.
Approach: Best approach is to come up the Saddle Trail, cross the summit, and go along the Ridge Trail for 10 minutes, past the access trail to the Reflector Oven. Just a few meters north of where the Ridge Trail turns from going north/south to aiming west straight towards the summit, the trail goes along the west edge of a large gently-angled slab. Down at the southeast corner of the slab is a climber's trail heading east downhill, which quickly splits - stay to the left (the right fork is the approach from above to the various sections of God Crag). Bushwhack as best you can - severe thunderstorms in the spring of 2007 bent over a lot of saplings, blocking sections of climber's trail. Continue downhill, staying relatively close to the exposed rock on your left, past a small wall with vegetated gullies, to the base of the obvious bigger slab. Just past the rather open, left-facing, dihedral that is the start of "Crab Walk"/"Pincer Perfect", the bottom of the wall is severely undercut, forming an open tunnel tall enough to walk in.
Approach Time: 2 hrs
Latitude, Longitude:
Access Issues:
Rock Type: Granite
Type of Climbing: Trad
Sun Aspect: Morning Sun

Routes

SequenceSequence numbers indicate the left (L) to right (R) order of the routes. Rating Route Difficulty Ascents
5 Average Rating = 0.00/5 Autumn Harvest 5.10c 0
6 Average Rating = 0.00/5 Thar She Blows 5.11b 0
7 Average Rating = 4.00/5 Pincer Perfect 5.9 1
8 Average Rating = 4.00/5 Crab Walk 5.8 1
9 Average Rating = 0.00/5 Introspection 5.10b 0
13 Average Rating = 4.00/5 Another Green World 5.7 1
19 Average Rating = 0.00/5 Variation on a Buddha 5.8 0
20 Average Rating = 3.00/5 Sold to the Highest Buddha 5.6 1