Ascent Notes for: Tricks of the Trade (5.11a C2 V) - A2 Average Rating : 5.00/5

Pretty damn good route. Honest, hard wide cracks and chimneys...forever! Climbed in two days w/ Cullen Kirk, hauling to the ledges and then scrambling w/ the haulbag to pitch ten (the bivy.) Tried to get a headstart and fix a rope but I did a variation to avoid the offwidth at the base of the headwall (as described in Bjionstad's book "Desert Rock") and had to downclimb the 5.10 hands pitch as it was a dead end atop a pillar. Nine pitches up the headwall, a scramble to the summit and Rappeling the route brought us to the base right at dark the second day. Awesome. The rap anchors are great and have been set up perfectly...no stuck ropes for us! we pretty much brought the same rack as described above, but added some slider nuts (VERY useful on the C2) and some hybrid aliens and offset nuts, all for the aid.

What a killer day. Got to the summit a bit late, but managed to rap the route (including a heinous stuck rope) before it was fully dark.

Rather chossy, but unique. Many novel pitches. Definitely more adventure climbing than anything. Fell once on the final fist crack. Had a thunderstorm ~10 miles away that sprinkled us and made us nervous at the halfway bivy ledge. The halfway ledges could use some fixed rappel anchors.