I am going to come out and say that this is one of the best hand cracks around WA. It starts out thin down low and widens to large fists at the top. A nice long route that gave me that great hand crack pump.

Straight Talk

Blue Moon

Fat Head

Double Crack

Ages of You

Fists and Stuff

Green Cheese

Lunar Rover

Bloody Knuckles

Comeback Crack

Internal Bliss

Moonstruck Pillar

moonstruck

Sacrificial Calves

Sharp, shallow, sustained finger pods with insecure stemming. What's not to love? Scramble to the top of the pillar below Straight Talk, clip the bolt on your left and set off. You will probably want to place a piece between the 2nd and 3rd bolt to prevent decking on top of the pillar. Grade backs off towards the top 30ish feet when the crack widens to tight hands.

Six bolts up the pillar with lots of good footwork and balance required. Really fun route and a great test of how well you and your shoes edge. The first bolt might feel a little high but the crack running up to protects very well if desired. Chains at the top.

Some dirtiness up to a hand crack roof (dodge the loose block) into knee bars, butterflies and hand/fist stacks. Top out, then climb a techy (and little dirty) crack above with fists to fingers.

Climb up the twin cracks using some good jams. Fun movement.

Climb up to and through small roof to a short off width crack (5-6") that narrows hands at break.  climb finishes atop broken column at rap hangers (no chains).

Climb past some brush in a double OW stem box to a small broken pillar roof. After reaching the roof climb the hand crack right of the roof up to where it widens to full OW range. There is a single bolt inside the top of the OW (unfortunate spot). Top out this pillar, then continue up the hand crack on the right. At the top of the this pillar is a set of anchors straight to your left.

FA Jim Yoder 06'

I am adding this even if I only TR'd it, because it is excellent.

If you are working on 12a trad lines this is great. It would be a tough onsight, I got it clean till the 5.10 R section 2/3- 3/4 way up. There are endless cool moves to good finger locks most of the way.

inside corner on right side of column with bolted 11c- Blue Moon.

Hands- OW- 5.9 to 10a till top of pillar, 10b fingers above using the right side crack.

The OW is grovely as they usually are, but some face holds and inside holds ease the pain.

starts on left side of Blue Moon pillar in a mossy groove, goes to cool chimney till pillar top on right, 10c finger crack on left side of pillar anchor.

A pretty cool and unusual climb that begins by squeezing through a wide slot and then chimneys up between a large pillar and the main wall. There is a crack for protection and hand holds. When the pillar ends climb about 30 more feet (a bit dirty but seemed pretty solid) to the top of the wall and set a gear belay. Definitely worth doing this route if you are looking for an interesting and adventurous 5.7 to warm up on.

Note: this route is incorrectly labeled as Dirty Thrasher in the picture in the guidebook.

moonstruck pillar is a pretty fun route consisting of the typical column/arete style climbing found in tieton.  begin up a slightly slabby start for approximately 2 bolts.  as the pillar steepens, better holds slowly present themselves.  fortunately it isn't very pumpy, as sometimes you have to feel around a bit for the holds. the crux felt like it was in the top two bolts, with balancy positioning.

definitely worth doing if you are in the area.

moonstruck is a fun, varied route.  begin in the flare that is immediately right of the right hand bolted column 'moonstruck pillar'.  typical flare action brings you to the top of the little pillar.  from there, finger jams and nice stemming on fun continuous climbing will bring you to the top of the route.  the routes in this area form a sort of ledge made out of columns at the top.  bolt anchors are on top of this ledge.

To the right of Straight Talk is a shallow corner with reasonable finger locks in either corner. Route is dirty as of May 2020 but once cleaned up a little will be really good. Pro is generally small though it gets quite wide at the top near the anchor, you might regret bringing a BD #4. The start is tricky due to dirt and moss right now but stemming back to the pillar behind you can make things feel more secure. Bolts but no chains at the top. The Tieton River Rock book has this as 10b but it felt very sustained and as hard as Pure Joy at The Bend.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Moon Rocks