Rear End Rock Area Miniguide

This area can be described as a small cluster of abrasive blobs located a hard stone's throw from Cloudshadow Wall. Two of these blobs are worth clambering around upon and - when viewed from the south - one bears a remarkable resemblance to a well-rounded posterior while the other resembles a dead elephant. Rear End Rock is smaller and possesses a few problems, one of which is not to be missed. The Dead Elephant is well featured, larger and lower-angled, yielding a number of more moderate lines. Both are worth visiting someday when the scene at Cloudshadow is more than you can bear or you want to play on something different. FWIW, I named all the problems on The Dead Elephant, although I was probably only first for a couple of the stupid sit-starts. Where: The best way to approach these boulders - from a social trail and user impact perspective - is to head up Flagstaff Road and park on the left 1.2 miles after passing over the Armstrong Bridge at Capstan Rock. Walk up the road 50 yards to the guardrail at the hairpin turn. Step over the guardrail and drop down the steps for 15 yards toward Cloud Shadow Wall. As the Cloud Shadow Wall comes into view, turn back to your right and walk 25 yards west-southwest to a small boulder nestled in the pines ... this is Rear End Rock. The stuff worth climbing faces south, but there is one easy line on the west side. The Dead Elephant is the next boulder downhill next to the East Flagstaff Trail. Worthwhile problems can be found on the south and west sides right off the trail.

REAR END ROCK
1. West Wall VB ... FA: Unknown
A vertical warm-up problem before venturing around the corner to the skin-shredding bulge problems on the south side.
2. Hip Check V5/6 sds ... FA: Chip Phillips, 2000
Begin from a sds on opposing edges very low on the corner. Work your way up small sharp features to a blind RH slap into a dish way up and right on the slab. Work your feet up onto the ledge, pull onto the slab using small features and dance to the top.
3a&b. Left Bulge V4 (a) / V6 (b) ... FA: Pat Ament, 1967 / Direct Start: Christian Griffith/Harrison Dekker, early/mid 1980's
This problem - although relatively short in stature - is pretty damn good. Climb the bulge staying left of the seam. The trick is where to start. The lower you move your hands to start, the harder it gets. The old school V4 start (a) utilized a cheatstone to access holds at the lip. Get there today by stacking pads or Gill-starting off a good RH crimp up to a decent LH gaston at the lip. Once there, match, smack up and left to a LH sloper where judicious use of your feet will allow you to reach for higher crimps and the top. For the V6 (b), start LH on the huge slopey undercling and RH on the aforementioned crimp. Now do the dynamic move to the lip, fighting to stay engaged and finish. See #4 for the low start.

4. Tongue in Cheek V9 ... FA: maybe Marcelo Montalva, 2006

The low start to #3. The obvious thing to do for the low start is to begin matched on the slopey undercling and pull on really hard, going RH to the crimp if you can and then doing #3b. An inobvious way around this is begin LH on the slopey undercling and RH on a LOW crimp undercling way down on the face that requires that you use entirely different feet. It is still very tricky to get your feet on and powerful to go get the RH crimp, but when the hopelessness of starting on the sloped undercling of doom hits you ... check it out.
5. Rear-End Rock Jam V3/4 ... FA: Pat Ament, mid 1960's
Start in the crack under the small overhang. Reach high up into the sharp, awkward and flaring seam and painfully head for the top. Consider taping up. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
6a&b. Gluteus V6/7 (a) / Gluteus Maximus V7 sds (b) ... FA: Will LeMaire, 2006 / Sit-Start: Chip Phillips, 2006
Ascend the bulge using features right of the seam only. For Gluteus (a), begin under the overhang on opposing high sidepulls at arms length and have your full bag of tricks ready. The first move is an unreal toe-hook layback maneuver to a sloper that will blow you away. From there, use awkward crimps and pimp the tiniest of pebbles right of the seam to the top. If you are bored, add a contrived sds (b) that off-routes the huge feet out right. The 2 or 3 moves don't add that much difficulty, but your precision on the higher moves will suffer.
7a&b. Project
Start under the overhang on the right side and pull straight out the right side of the bulge onto the slab. Weird, tricky and hard. If you can do that, add the contrived sds for full value.

THE DEAD ELEPHANT

8. Tail Feathers V0 ... FA: Unknown

On the west side of the blob - about where one would expect to find the elephant's tail - start on abrasive edges and battle through a thin section for the feet before it eases up at the top.

9. Elephantitis VB ... FA: Unknown

On the southwest side, start on high edges, make a long pull into the remnants of a well-featured and large solution pocket and continue up and over.

10. Hind Quarter V0 (a) / V3 sds (b) ... FA: Unknown

Start high on matching edges (a) or add the sds (b) which begins down and slightly left on a small RH edge and LH sloper. Get into the highest jugs, then make a long pull up the slab to the left to a pocket-like feature in a seam and top it out.

11. Mortal Wounds V2/3 sds ... FA: Unknown

Begin from a sds on 2 obvious matched edges. Bump to better holds without dabbing, reengage the feet and reach for better holds. All that's left is pulling a bulge onto a slab that leads to the top. Starting on any other holds makes this VB.

12. White Hunter VB ... FA: Unknown

Start below the remnants of another high solution pocket. Climb straight up to it and pull up and over.

13. Tusk V0 ... FA: Unknown

The best line on the boulder. Just left of the rounded southeast corner, start via incut crimps and pull up to attain a stance. Now dance your way up the vertical bulge to the top. Could be a nice tall line for beginners, but not if they blow the topout.