Pinnacles:  Condor gulch  1/3/99  with Dennis

Dennis was climbing for several days with Brad Young over
Xmas - New Years, and had spied some climbs when bagging
routes in Condor Gulch with Brad.

1. Dutch Goose 5.10b  (FFA)
Dennis had followed this nearly free, when following Brad's aid
ascent.  He had to hang when trying to remove a pin; eventually
he just left it fixed.  This time he led it free.  Sometime ago,
I had looked at this from the trail and thought it would go free
at 5.9.  It starts by stepping out of a bush and liebacking a
hanging flake (5.9, TCU pro, but flake could in theory detach).
Then a few feet up a shallow chute to place a #4 Friend and .75"
TCU at the base of the main bulge.  Stand up tall to clip the
pin and contemplate the thin crack crux.  After a couple of moves
the footholds are good and the crack is better for jamming.
When I followed, the crux was dirty, and this made my jams feel
like they were going to slip out.  Above the crux, the crack
widens to a shallow chimney (5.6) and then a narrow easy chimney,
above an old bolt on the left side.  We rapped from a tree,
although you could scramble upwards to the overlook.  I cleaned
the crack out a bit more on rappel, but there is much dirt in
the upper chimney/gulley that feeds down into it, so likely it
will remain relatively dirty if others attempt to free it.

2. Wild Turkey 5.10b R  (FA)
Dennis had his eye on this right-slanting crack/pillar, 50' left
of Dutch Goose.  It's the right side of a narrow pillar.  When
we first got to the base, I thought it looked to hard to do clean,
as the crack was mostly closed in the lower section.  But Dennis
was able to lead it, finding some marginal pro, and some decent
pro.  He cleaned all the loose holds on lead, so it was quite
a sustained effort.  Since the top of the pillar ended below
the top of the cliff band, he diagonalled out right up a moderate
but unprotected face to the top of Dutch Goose.  I was sort of
chuckling while belaying from a small tree at the base, out of
reach of the falling holds.  I was thinking of Brad and his goal
to lead all Pinnacles routes under 5.12.  This would be a stiff
challenge, even though most of the loose holds have been removed.

3. old Holmgren route 5.10?
Dennis had spied another possible FA, further south on the
north face of the Hippopotamus.  It's a "lightning bolt crack",
and I had also drawn it in my notes from some years ago.  He
led up it without much trouble (it's 5.8 or 5.9), and since he
encountered very few loose holds, I suspected it had already
been climbed.  The pitch ended on a big ledge, and I spotted
3 bolts in the face above.  They were of the variety used by
Jack Holmgren on some of his Pinnacles routes - 5/16" buttonheads
and Star Dryvins with brown painted hangers.  Dennis led up
to the 3rd bolt, but the climbing got harder above that, and
the 3rd bolt did not look too good.  (5/16" buttonheads are crummy
at Pinnacles).  So we will be back later to replace the top
bolt with a better one and explore further.