Perfect beginner trad lead. Plenty of gear and easy climbing. Climb a R-facing dihedral, slab, then move up and right over blocks. Edit 2021: Chains up top.

This climbs the dihedral left of

Daffy's Shaft

, traversing a bit right at the end to climb the roof through a weakness. The route is not difficult to climb or protect, with some slabby sections where the crack helps and other areas, that you really don't need the crack. The rock is rather good, and the climbing varied.

Playing In The Sun

Frozen Stool

Fool's Paradise

[Redacted]

Great Grebes, Batman!

Ruddy Duck

Megadeth

Pied-Billed Grebe

Dark of the Moon

Bull Dykes and Biker Ducks

Daffy's Shaft

Why a Duck?

Western Grebe

Walking the Duck

Via Duck

Duck Waddle Variation

Slayer

Western Grebe Mantel Var.

Duck Soup to Missing Duck to Cooter to Father's Day

Duck A L'Orange

Better Than Bikinis

Sportsman's Paradise

American Coot

Pitch 1

- From the belay boulders climb up, then right around the edge of the first steep wall.  Move back left and set up a belay with gear. (5.6)

Pitch 2

- Climb a steep boulder problem near the right edge of the next steep wall splitting the slabs.  Above the boulder problem bulge, easier climbing leads up a right leaning dihedral.  At the top of the dihedral, move back left on easy slab to a belay anchor below the next thin roof crack.  (5.11)

Pitch 3

- Climb the next roof using the thin crack which widens slightly at the lip.  As it says in the Ruckman Guide, "a mini separate reality".  Above the roof, I continued up and right past a bolt to a belay anchor on a slab.  (5.10)  -the original belay atop this pitch was in a group of trees.  Those trees are now dead and could probably be easily pulled out.  Better to belay up and right at the bolt anchor.

Suffering from frozen stool?  Perhaps cruxing on an old manky pin will solve your blockage.  Frozen Stool is a fine post-graduate exam in technical(?) chimneying (or stemming) up a steep corner on the east end of the Black Arch- the line beckons while en-route to the western side of the Black Peeler.  Start off the sloping ledge that forms the foundation of Black Arch. Corner jams and feet smears amid the Arch lead to a powerful move around a small roof and into the corner proper.  Establish yourself in the corner, make a somewhat tricky clip of an old pin and wiggle your way upward and onward.  The crack in the corner thins and the rusty pin at your feet instills little confidence.  Eventually the crack 'widens' and some horizontal cracks appear, leading to fun hands and a two bolt anchor (Met rap anchors) at the end of Batwalk's first pitch.  Somewhat delicate, occasionally bold climbing makes this a keeper.

Great 3rd pitch var. for Western Grebe.Climb up a good corner with a crack that protects well, pull the small roof up onto a slab that follows a bolt protected dihedral, pull another small roof onto another slab and up to a great ledge, then run up some more easy slabs to a 2 chain anchor shared w/Western Grebe.

Pitch 1:

Climb off the anchors at the top of the 2nd pitch of

Western Grebe

.  It works right, past the left-facing corner beginning of

Fool's Paradise

, and works a roof with a pin.  After this roof is a slab with 3 bolts and another pin.

Pitch 2:

is the west-most of the four bolted routes above the chain anchor.  Flaky rock leads past two bolts to more flaky rock etc.  Get to a ledge and continue up the 5.8 arete or just finish off to the left.  This should clean up if it were climbed more.  Come on all you slabbers!!

Prepare the

utility belt

. Excellent slabbing up a "connect the dots" face. A slab of big and small crystals,

Great Grebes Batman!

is exciting. With multiply cruxes, the nature of this line lends some great rests between eerie movement! The crux lies high in an obvious blank section.

Begin about 7 feet right off the third belay of

Western Grebe

. Aim for the bolt about 12 feet off the ledge. A set of serious, committing moves gets you off climbing. Pass a few big chicken heads, pull a mantle and bounce around a bit. Work your way through a small crux and aim for the obvious line. Slab out the finish on easier, low-angle terrain. Finish at a chain anchor.

Hand drilled on lead, this route will not disappoint.

Classic Little Cottonwood - Classic Bill Robins.

This is the center bolted (lol) line.  Very runout with big tumble potential, so be careful on this lead.  This climbs up to and just left of the reddish streak on the rock.  The reddish streak seemed to be more flaky than the rest of the face, so I stayed on the left side of it.  Again, it is not a hard route, just runout and more of a head game.

On pitch 2 of

Western Grebe

, after clipping the 1st bolt, traverse right until you attain that lone bolt clip it, and then keep on climbing.  It actually eases up with some nice patina (The Egg style), runout but easy.

Dark of the Moon

climbs the east-most, nicely bolted route from the base of the last pitch of

Western Grebe

.  Solid slabbing, probably one of the best on the Peelers.

R of Fools , mantle into the scoop , then up to a peg.

This route was really cool.  On the left end of the slabs is this bolted line.  The first bolt is low and easy to get to.  The second bolt has a thin slabby area to work with.  The pin between the two is missing.  Climb to the roof, protect it, and surmount it.  It is easier than it looks.  Place a piece in the crack to your right, and run it out to the next mini-roof.  pop this and head to your last bolt.  The crux is protected by an old angle piton.  I was able to slot 1 brass and 1 BD micro to help with the load.  I am not sure which was the worst piece.  The crux is reach and it is also very flaky again.  What makes this rooute so good IMHO, is that it has 3 distinct and different areas of 10'ish climbing.  The 2nd bolt slab-work, the roof after bolt 2, and the moves around the pin.  Enjoy.

On the slab above and just left of

Via Duck

are 2 bolted routes.  This is the right one.  Fun moves up the slab get you to a large ledge.  If linked with

Via Duck

it gains 2 stars.

Pitch 1:

Climb the left route on the slab just above

Via Duck

and directly left of

Why a Duck

. Bolts to a chain anchor.

Pitch 2:

Head for the roof, angles around it to the west, and then slab up that face passing four bolts. Finish at an anchor below a tree.

Pitch 3:

Climb up to the roof system just east of the belay station.  It avoids the roof by going left and works up too and past a small bush.  Here work left towards your only bolt (hidden until you are on top of it).  At this point start angling right until you attain some ledges.  Place your final piece and run up the 30 foot runout but easy face.  Rope drag can be a problem on this pitch and is especially hard when you are runout on a slab. Use your runners. Finish at a chain anchor on a ledge.

Pitch 4:

This pitch clips the lowest bolt of the east-most of the 4 bolted routes that come off this station.  You can place some small to medium gear in the flake system first.  Clip the bolt and continue angling right until you attain a nice layback flake that you work for 60 feet.  Turn the corner and scramble the easy and dirty v-slot.  (Hate those bushes!!)  Finally the anchors are to your left.  2 good bolts, but whoever was replacing the bolts must have run out of hangers, as one of the bolts has the original home-made hanger on it still.

Descent:

2 double rope raps or 2 singles get you down.  Beware of the bushes that WILL snag your rope as you pull it down from the second rap.

A nice route with some nice sections, however it suffers from inconsistency, a bad line, and a really ugly finish.  The 3rd pitch also bites most of the way.  So, having said that, there are other pitches to substitute for P3 and P4.  Pitch 4 substitution:

Great Grebes, Batman

or

Dark of the Moon

.

The right-facing dihedral/slab with 2 bolts to the right of

Daffy's Shaft

. Start the climb up a small ramp to gain the corner. Touchy climbing up a lie-back crack turns right towards a bolt and up a dirty flare. Finish up an overlap with a small crack. End on a comfortable ledge on top of the buttress. Walk to the right and descend using the

Duck A L'Orange

anchors

Good and mostly adequate protection, expect a little space between gear. The R-rating is debatable.

5 mintes west of the group of 4 slab routes that you will see from the trail, just right of a large right-facing corner is this short 2-bolt slab.  Good slabbing that leads to a good ledge.  This route better serves as a direct start to either Why a Duck or Western Grebe.  Too short in and of itself for more than 1 star.

Climb the short but steep offwidth crack, then continue up, staying left of a tree and finishing up a delicate right facing flake to a belay anchor on the slab above.  Above this is the 3rd pitch roof of

Sportsman's Paradise

.

The second pitch of

Western Grebe

can be modified with a hard mantel thrown in.  It is a nice move and definitely committing.  Instead of traversing all the way left to avoid the roof.  About 15 feet before the main route is a solitary bolt a-top a mini-flake.  Do it, just do it!!

The Peeler has some truly fantastic rock, broken up by a maze of ledges, big granite features, gullies and slabs. A friend showed me this linkup and it's worth posting. Be sure you take a photo of the topo in the Granite Guide to bring with you because although this is relatively mellow, it is a relatively convoluted outing by LCC standards. You can break up these pitches and/or link these pitches but the following description seems to give you the best belay stances.

Pitch 1:

Duck Soup

starts on the first slab off the trail about 100' to the west of the huge Slayer/Megadeth arch/roof thing. Horned Greebe is on the left side of the slab but you're heading right, clipping 2 bolts, passing a ledge, a right trending crack system, a couple of bolted belays and eventually landing on a big flat ledge with natural gear.

Pitch 2: The topo shows Duck Soup sticking in the back of the dihedral and/or climbing the unprotected patina. We chose to walk across the outer edge of the giant crack near the lip to it's end. Place some gear, head up the slab to a break with a crack straight above you. Pull the .9-ish mantle and get established on the Missing Duck ledge. Look straight left and undercling, squat, step over the seeps and hand jam a foot or so of moss. (

Super weird

but totally works.)

Pitch 3: Leave the bolted belay, heading straight left pretending you're climbing a 5.7 version of Sticky Fingers and with a piece or two of gear. Keep going left to the bolts of the

Cooter

arete. An early season venture on the Peeler is a great way to get yourself back into a slab climbing mindset.

Cooter

will get you there. The good news is that if you blow the crux, you're at a bolt and it's easy to mantle the bolt at 5.7,A1 and keep heading up and left on easy ground to the top of the first pitch of

Father's Day

. (Anytime Tyler P calls something 5.9- you know it's sandbagged. Felt like well protected, early season .9+)

Pitch 4: While at this anchor, gaze around at the (no crap) 5 bolted belay stations that have webbing on the bolts. Then look straight down at the very cool looking first pitch of Father's Day, which is a 5.5 slab full of cool patina that is strangely un-bolted. Link the next 2 pitches of Father's Day on good slab and/or cracks with bolts/gear, stopping at a 2 bolt anchor. (5.7)

Pitch 4: We thought we could head west to Dark of the Moon from here but it didn't work the way we tried. Instead, we headed straight up towards a big juniper on the skyline, passing low angled slabs with occasional bolts, a belay station and cracks. 5.5?

You'll probably never come up here again, so be sure to bring plenty of foot and water and your approach shoes so you can hike up to the incredible Ducks in Bondage slab.

Descent: Allow yourself plenty of time because the broken nature of this crag lends itself to a lot of smaller rappels. The good news is that all the stations are on good foot ledges. We used a single 70 for all the raps.

On the far right side of the slab with

Ruddy Duck

and

Walking the Duck

is a bolted line.  It starts on the east end of the ledge system past a couple of trees.  It is hard to pick out, but look for a bolt beyond where you think it should be.  From that bolt it hits a ledge and then an easy clip, followed by another bolt, and a dirt/grass filled crack where the pins used to be.  I saw one scar.  Probably the one from the pin sitting on AC's dash.  Couldn't see any others.  A couple of pieces here go past the dead stump, to the last bolt and then slab it out.  The last section is very flaky.

A well protected Tony route? Yup. This is just left of Western Grebe and climbs for 5 pitches total (if the definition of "pitch" includes steep walking heh heh).

I'd recommend pitches 1 and 2 with P2 being the $$. The others aren't as good as P3 and P4 of WG.

P1: Pad up to 2 bolts and maybe a cam until the angle eases. There's a 2 bolt anchor here for some reason (to rap with a 60m?) but it is lacking chains. Keep going until you are just below the obvious ledge and clip the chains. 5.7. This made more sense than what the topo shows imo.

P2: Best pitch by far. This is the R-facing dihedral on the same slab as WG P2. All gear; micros to #2 C4. The book shows 2 pins, I saw none. I used a #2 Lowball on one stretch where the crack was too thin/parallel for anything else. Corner can be a bit wet. 5.8?

P3: Look for a bolt at a weakness through a roof. The rock is pretty grungy here and there's a loose block that can be easily avoided. Clip the bolt and make an awkward move right. Ramble up to a bolt, gear, then chains.

P4 Option 1: 3 bolts/gear straight up. When you hit a dirty ledge, cut left a bit for 20 more feet of 5.7 slab with a bolt. Look for a rusty anchor sitting in a water runnel. This anchor would be much much nicer if it were 2 feet higher. Weird.

P4 Option 2: Cut hard left to a slab with a lone bolt. Join the above option at the dirty ledge.

P5: Kinda silly really. Walk (class 5...I guess) straight up low angle slab. Kinda tempting though as it's good rock versus the last 2 pitches.

undercling along dirty slab to dirtier corner system with bashies before and after the double bolt 1/2 way anchor , crutial yellow alien sized placement at the second bashie . Bring a wire brush!

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in South Face