From the main wall, it's obvious that there should be a route on the far left of the Hogs Back S. face. The cracks and slabs are messy, but surely it will go - we'll be up and down quickly and back in time for tea...

The first pitch leads up and slightly right before the problem starts to appear. The flake / crack system leading to the obvious anchor vibrates ever so slightly when you hit it. Some bits are worse than others. There's just enough decent places to put pro, and you continue up and left onto the flake curving up to a small roof, where you there's enough cracks to feel good about building an anchor.

From here, go slightly left, and up a small flared crack. There seems to be no easy way out here, but as the crack runs out, you can shuffle left over the ridge (great feeling of stepping into the unknown!) to find some bulbous features and an easy scramble up to the top, past a dead tree bent over in the shape of a Japanese Tori (watch out for rope drag here).

Worth climbing? Sure, but only if you like easy climbs on vibrating flakes; mostly it was fun because it was new and unknown. Not found in any guide book or on the web, so let me know if it has a pre-existing name / FA date.

Peanut Brittle

Raspberry Bypass

Strawberry Overpass

Granite Pancakes & Scrambled Eggs

A Spirit of Adventure

A steep face 15 feet left of Peanut Brittle leads to a left slanting ramp. Stay left of Peanut Brittle all the way to the top.

Starts at the leftmost bolt of the south face of Hogsback, and works up a short, technical slabby face section, culminating in the crux move(s), over the first twenty feet and two bolts. Mind the ground fall potential on a move or two.

From there all the guides are vague about the finish. I followed my leader's wandering line up 5.7 to 5.9 rock (depending on the variations chosen) following adequately protectable cracks and features. If you meander as we did, also mind the rope drag. This influenced us to break it into two pitches halfway up a 60 meter rope, although we had enough rope to top out (certainly the route is less than 200 feet tall total).

All routes on Hogsback south go to the same largest tree described as a landmark in the Falcon guide. From the tree, they scramble up lower angle class 4, perhaps easy 5., to the level top of the formation (which is also the top of the rarely climbed fifth pitch of Better with Bacon on the north side of the Hogsback/Hogwild).

None of the Hogsback south stuff gets much action,  so expect much more lichen, moss and loose rock than on the training lines and classics.

Got lost and was running out of sunlight on a December day. We were just looking for a route that was warm enough to do in 40 degree weather.  A very mild slab route that some would possibly consider to be a scramble. I think it is a good route for learning trad, as there is a near infinite amount of placements for a full range of gear.  The plus of this route is that you get to summit of the Hogsback as we were trying to get to Hogswild and the North face.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in South Face