I had my eye on this line for years but never had the courage to go ground-up until today. Not sure this is a first ascent and will happily change the info. This problem in some ways marks my return to climbing after a 8 year hiatus and return to establishing tall problems in my hometown.

Begin standing with good edges and poor feet (avoiding a detached rock on the right). Throw up and left to good pockets, and make a cruxy sequence past a mono. Beyond the mono the climbing heads slightly left and is committing, and care is needed moving past a juggy, yet thin crimp.

Gently overhung the whole way, with graceful movement on bomber rock.

The Return of the Native

Junc Town Delinquent

Ulrikke

The Immortal

The Book of Sand

The Circular Ruins

Two Kings, Two Labyrinths

Ephedra (Center)

The Lottery in Babylon

Tertius

The House of Asterion

The Garden of Forking Paths

Ephedra (Left)

The Shape of the Sword

The Secret Miracle

Orbis

The Other

The Zahir

Ephedra (Right)

Averroes's Search

Uqbar

Blue Tigers

Tlön

The Aleph

This is an overhung, compression line.

Stand start, at the bottom of the overhang, put a foot up, and squeeze. Heel hook, toe hook, and scream like a banshee - whatever. Just get out around to the lip. Continue to compress (maybe double heel hook), and go up to a trick topout.

Ulrikke is a nice moderate angling up the west face of another detached boulder along this wall. Plenty of variations could climb this face, but I recommend this longer line, and the rock is better topping out on the left.

Sit start at the SW arete, just left of an ephedra plant one move up. Then start traversing left, following juggy features, and wait to top out until you are on the far left side of the West face.

Take care moving over the lip, the rock is good but not amazing.

The Immortal is the best arete in a zone full of aretes. If you stay true to the line (

i.e.

don't bail out right), there's a hard move pretty high on this one, so be ready to stare down infinity.

Begin with a cruxy move right off the deck, establishing both feet above the low roof, and making a static move with your left hand up to a sidepull. A jumpstart to this hold greatly decreases the grade, and a sitstart would be a proud addition to this problem.

Higher up, the arete blanks out a bit, and some compression footwork sets up a committing deadpoint up to a pocket for the left. Trust yourself. Do it!

The Book of Sand is 4 stars if you like OW and zero stars if you don't...!

This is the obvious wide crack in great, dark rock on the right side (east end) of the cliff band (Wandering Wall).

A perfect spot to learn how to climb #6 size offwidth, there are many hand/foot holds to gradually be eliminated as you dial in the technique.

The Circular Ruins has sustained edging and sidepulling up good rock. It is definitely worth doing on the Wandering Wall Circuit.

Start in the center of the face, and climb straight up aiming for some sidepulls. I pulled some choss off the top after the FA, so everything is pretty solid up high, but climb carefully!

Sit start matched on an okay edge, and throw straight up (crux). Our line moves up and slightly right on jugs.

This ascends another piece of extremely good rock up here. There are several more variations and separate lines on this giant boulder, all around the same grade ("

Ulrikke

" on the west face).

Ephedra (Center) has amazing rock quality.

Gently step over the namesake vegetation at the start. Begin crouching with two horizontal pockets. The center line heads straight up with some balancy slab technique. This is really damn good.

This is another very approachable, tall problem with terrific rock.

Climb a sharp arete, stand on its crest, and climb the blunted arete above.

Climb the arete. The wall to the right was not used.

Nice climbing up the arete on the lower left side of the south face leads to shallow corner. Pull gently on the top out holds....

This has a sketchy landing and less-than-ideal rock at the top, but I've cleaned it pretty well, so everything is fairly solid.

The Garden of Forking Paths has phenomenal rock and is a classic at the grade. It can be started (and finished) one of two ways: starting on the arete with a low left sideull, or starting on the calcified face to the right on an obvious big edge (maybe a little harder).

Either way, great movement follows generally good holds up the arete, with your body staying to the right side of the edge.

At the top there are two finishes, each on different ends of the VO range. Staying right, with your body on the SE face, is harder, more committing, and awesome (Check the photo of Julian topping out). Pulling onto the slab to the left up high is a bit less scary but still rad (Look at the photo of Haley to see a climber on the left exit).

It is a must do on the cliffband circuit!

This is the easiest of the three lines, but great rock still makes it worthwhile.

The hard move might be getting off the ground avoiding using detached rocks at the base. We climbed it purely using the arete and thought it was another nice line along this stacked cliff!

Granted it's a bit contrived to avoid the right wall and the blocks at the start, but the problem is not that good if you use everything, and it's actually pretty cool as a pure, sharp arete problem.

Okay, I'm probably guilty of over-hyping routes... but I think this is a classic, beginner highball.

Climb the featured east face, using the arete to the left for some juggy sidepulls. V0+ (it might be V1) doesn't get much better ;)

It's a little heady hitting the lip at the top, but stay with it, and you'll find where the name comes from (aside from Borges).

Also FYI there are two really nice V0's staying on the left side of the arete aka the West face.

Harder and better than the left variation, this is a must do line along the cliff band.

Do the same start on the obvious, bad sloper. This time move out right utilizing sidepulls and creative beta. Do not go as far out right as the arete, since that can be considered a distinct line.

A powerful sit start off two good edges moves straight up through sidepulls and edges. Unlike "

The Immortal

," the climbing slowly eases off the higher you climb.

If you're taller than 5'9", this may not seem like a classic..., but everyone else will have to discover some creative sequencing up this beautiful arete, leading to a great and committing dyno!

Start crouched with a right crimp and left sidepulling the arete (a sit start would add a couple number grades). Climb with body on the right side of the arete, and make a huge move from the obvious jug to the lip.

This is the hardest of the three lines going up the slab. It is a little spooky at the topout, but it is a great problem.

From the big calcite edge that marks the right variation start to "

The Garden of Forking Paths

," make a big move out right (

Garden...

goes left to the arete) to a positive, but reachy edge. From here, go straight up, if slightly left, topping out just a few feet to the right of "

Garden...

")

This is another great moderate on bullet rock. There is a big foot hold out right that could be eliminated for a more bouldery feel, but even using it still makes for a pretty sustained problem. The topout feels exposed at committing and overall felt a touch harder than

Garden...

.

Stand start on an obvious, bad sloper. Move up and left to good, diagonal edges. Take care passing a solitary patch of bad rock (I pulled a dinner plate flake off here with a light touch and nearly decked), and top out straight up (going left makes the problem easier).

Although shorter than pretty much every other problem at the Wandering Wall, Blue Tigers packs a punch.

Powerful and sequential compression moves off the sit lead to a powerful throw to a sharp pocket. A couple more moves lead to a crimpy top out that's a little delicate due to a pebbly edge

Start on a jug on the left side of the face, just right of a splitter crack. Move up and right slightly, and sidepull the edge of the crack higher up.

The Aleph is another really good arete problem, though the top mellows out considerably... possibly a good route for someone trying to get into highball bouldering, but needs an easy topout ;)

This problem is interesting in that there are two completely different styles possible on the same terrain. I climbed it as a compression problem, but my buddy found a series of small crimps that I totally missed. I am not sure which way would be easier. Either way, it has really great rock.

Begin crouch/sit on the left side of the blunt arete on a big edge, and choose your adventure. I'd recommend keeping the body on the left side up high as a better finish, if you move right, it's considerably easier.

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Routes in Wandering Wall