An easy ramp leads to a ten foot long steep face that's the crux.  The lone bolt is rather low, so there is a potentially bad fall on the crux.  The moves are steep and balancy.

I Can't Believe it's a Sandbag

Zap No. 4

Girdle Crossing

Safe Muffins

Fat Freddie's Escape

I Can't Believe It's a Girdle

This route is called Zap #4 in Bartletts Wonderland book, not Zap Number 4, but mountain project won't permit the pound charcter in the name.

This is a really varied climb.  Start into an outward-flaring chimney/off-width with lots of crumbly, chossy rock, and work your way halfway up where the route turns into a completely different climb.  Burly awkward chimney moves give way to big platy holds, but the crumbly rock never really goes away.  Be careful, a really solid hold might be right next to a ten-pound heap of crumbs just waiting for you to touch it and send it flying down.  Even downward pressure only on many of the ledges is not solid.

From the top of the climb, downclimb to the right (south) or scramble to the top of the dome on your left (the middle dome) where there's three bolts with tatty slings and rap rings for a two-rope rappel.

Scramble up to the upper right end of a large fallen block below (and once part of) the large roof on the middle formation.

Cruxy face (5.10c/d) past 2 bolts (1st may be doubled) next to an arete lead to the dike of I Can't Believe Its A Girdle. Head left (clip 3 bolts; but maybe unclip the 1st and runner the 2nd). Then head straight up on classic Josh friction (5.10c) past 3 more bolts to a 2 bolt belay.

Though you can rap from here with 2 ropes, the rope drag (pulling the ropes) can be pretty bad.

Like many Joshua Tree "offwidths," grainy rock allows a mix of techniques to get up pitch 1.  When you reach the dike of "I Can't Believe It's a Girdle," belay.  On pitch 2, traverse left about ten feet and climb up past two bolts to the top.

Scramble up past stacked blocks at the start to reach a short clean section of lower-angled offwidth and then dive into the steeper chimney above, wiggling your way to the top.

The route

Safe Muffins

starts the same as this but then breaks left midway to a belay on the dike; the upper portion of this route is the "escape".

This 4 pitch route provides an excellent excercise in traversing along a thin dike that runs about mid-height through all three sections of the formation. The 2nd and 3rd pitches are scarier for the second than the leader. The route was put up over a number of years, with the 1st pitch being the last one established.

Pitch 1: (5.10b) Start off a small ledge near the left end of the west face, (near a small Yucca). Tricky and thin face moves up and left (5.10b), past a bolt, then straight up past 3 more bolts and a horizontal (medium cam) to a bolt belay on the left end of the dike. (You can traverse in from the left onto the dike to the belay -- avoiding 1st pitch -- as was done on the first ascent of the 2nd pitch).

Pitch 2: (5.9++; Scary for 2nd) Follow the dike right (3 bolts) all the way to a 2 bolt belay in a recess. Second should avoid falling after unclipping from the bolt protecting the crux -- it would be a long swing. From the end of this pitch, you can escape up easy cracks (5.6).

Pitch 3: (5.9) Keep heading right (above dike), then downclimb onto the dike, which at this point actually forms the lip of a very large roof. Well protected (but airy) moves lead to another recess and bolt anchor.

Pitch 4: (5.7) A last traversing pitch, past a single bolt (and optional gear) leads to easy climbing up to a large ledge. Scramble down right to the ground.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Freak Brothers Dome