Charging Rhino (5.10b/c)

The author completing the crux after the first overhang	The author completing the no-hands second crux after the second overhang
Photo courtesy Sue Cashman	Photo courtesy Sue Cashman

I was 5.8 on-sight climber when I started working on this route. It took two and a half years on and off to be able to redpoint it. I probably learned more from this climb than any single obsession in the years since I started climbing, and by the time I finished, I could on-sight the occasional 5.10a.

The ascent begins up ten feet of brittle thin face block, to short eighty degree slabs of smooth grey traprock crystals that hide in the hollow under a three foot roof. There are deep dented incuts on a shelf under the roof. These often collect water and I usually call them the fingerbowls. An undercling on a down-pointing pentagonal crystal the size of a hand on the underside of the roof, and (perhaps) a knee bar under the roof frees the hands to reach up over the roof and grasp a marginal dent with the left hand in a ring grip, then the tiny triangular base of the incut dagger with the right. Out from the knee bar, walk the feet up high to balance toes on the lip of the fingerbowls. An insecure layback on the edge of the dagger lets the right foot be lifted up into a crisp triangular pocket on the face of the overhang at waist level. Then a careful reach up right to palm the edge of a down pointing block (the "buttress") followed by a layback against the block and the foot pocket lets you pull the left foot up onto the other side lip as well; from this unstable squat, a reach left pinches a thick sloping crystal and, straightening carefully, the right hand comes up to an undercling on a sharp incut where the buttress joins the rest of the smooth orange crystals to complete the first crux. A duckwalk step or two, and you get a "rest", leaning any possible way off the buttress for as long as you can. The first thirty-five feet are over.

It took me four months initially to get this far. At the time, I was still calling the thing Ice Station Zebra (it was a direct variation on Zebra, and I started it in February (very cold), naming it after the movie); in the spring, I got a copy of the addendum to the guidebook and found its real status as "Charging Rhino".

The next section is the second crux, and it took another two months to get past it. Week after week, visualization, attempts, falls, swinging out five feet into space to hang, slowly swinging, watching the spiders sit on their door steps in the rock, unaware of my envy.

The crux starts from standing in a hollow of smooth and massive traprock crystals, average angle - eighty degrees. The rock boils out into another two foot roof, surmounted by a smooth, but crumpled and complex surface. This thing is pushing at your chest.

You start with a right hand sloping block undercling at the lower edge of the bulge. The right foot goes high to toe edge a tiny notch on the arete of one of the crystals. Then the left foot goes out to backfoot stem on a crumply bulge to the left side. The left hand goes high and onto a slim, dead flat hand hold like the lips of an emaciated fish. You have to use a ring grip to stay on this hold. The right foot moves up to an insecure smear on a bump above the large crystal. The right hand finally emerges to head for a hold no better than the left hand hold. Another ring grip. This move has to be essayed very carefully, or the left hand will rip off its marginal hold, and you'll be in space. The left foot twists to a harder drop knee stem position to torque the body and release the left hand for a reach to a sloping triangular pocket you have to crouch below to make work. The right hand moves up six inches to a slightly better hold. Now the left foot has to be brought out and up to crotch level to stand on a half inch ledge. Then a deadpoint no-hands lunge for the hook of a down-pointing horn on the left makes for the most exciting move on the route. To complete the crux, the right foot must come up and accurately stem against a pimple far right, or the torque swings you barn door off the hook and away into overhung space. You can, once complete, again (ha ha) "rest". The terrain is now overhanging face, about ninety-five degrees.

The holds now are good; weird pods clinging to the surface, with a smooth but welcoming texture. But you may be too pumped to really use them. Reach right for a good hold, and now you are in cross position. The right foot centers just above the left for a swift push bringing the left foot high. A deadpoint to the right gains a ginko tree leaf shaped flake, then, desperate, high left, palming a block, feet smearing on a blank, wavy face in a swift step right. Then a cluster of rounded, tear drop blocks extruded from a crack, begging to be grabbed and hauled on. The angle is steepening. A sharp V on the side of a round blimp block is the bomber hold you need, but if you don't see it, you may be tired and out of there again. A tempting incut above beckons, but you have to work your feet up first, or you'll pull off and be hanging from your hands. A lunge to the left to latch a flat mouth-like hold. Then, a little leap to switch your right foot onto the large step hold your left is using. I spent months thinking I didn't need to make this move, or failing to make it carefully enough. Then you have to go left a bit. It's buckets on overhanging terrain to the final edge (ten feet or so), and topping out... what a feeling that was on the redpoint day, after so much frustrating effort.