Beta disclaimer: in the process of trying to sort out the difference between the Beeline, the A-Line variation, and where we went, I decided to just put some of our photos online in lieu of calling up the A-Line guys whom I don't know and having one of those conversations that don't really matter because, after all, it all boils down do finding one's way up a beautiful chunk of High Sierra granite. This TR could spoil that experience for you, with all the photos and what not, so if you want to have that experience, I'll give the bottom line and you can skip all the blather below.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Keep going up near the arete after the hard part of the big corner and you will find your way to the top on a bit of 'grungy' and a lot of 'stellar' at a grade that is no worse than what you did to get there.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------OK, on with the spraydown.


My buddy Rich drove out from Colorado to see what climbing under sunny blue alpine skies was like this week. Neither of us had been in to the Hulk but all reports were that it was one of those places. The new TR for the Beeline sweetened the deal a bit, since we were unsure of our ability to fire anything harder than the Red Dihedral and I would be climbing in Rich's size 15s (I'm a 10 1/2) until my resole came through. Further research on the Beeline revealed that it was, in fact, not quite the intended path of the FA party and there was an A-line that straightened out the top pitches. This bore further investigation:


The grungy first pitch is best forgotten, but the climbing above makes it pretty easy:


The big corner of pitch 5 is the route's most distinctive feature, easily visible from the descent gully. It tapers down to intermittent tips that take excellent tiny gear, pushing things well into the 5.10 realm for a couple of moves. Above this crux things open up again for another 40 feet or so and a major ledge is reached. Rich gave 'er a go but decided that the thin stemming exercise at the top was better suited to someone with fingers that fit in the blue Alien slot:


Here's where our line perhaps began to diverge from the A-Line photos. Atop this obvious feature, a big ledge system extends out right beneath a lower-angel, furrowed red face. Left of this is a huge RF corner system defining the right margin of the central face beneath the summit blocks and register. The red furrowed stuff looked grainy and weird, as did exiting onto the ledge, so I remained in the tips corner (let's call it 'A-plus') until it deposited me on a ledge out by the main arete.

Here's Rich following in the big corner...


...and heading upward above:

Big main corner is just visible on the right. We didn't see the nice stemming corner described by the A-Line team, so I assume it's in there above the ledge system. Rich reached a junk-strewn ledge in 120 feet or so, after some grainy corners. This pitch was nothing special, but did grant us access to the exposed, clean aretes and dihedrals above. A shiny, coffee-table sized block marks the spot in the bottom left in this photo (taken from the shoulder on the descent):


Above the coffee-table things looked a bit junky, but a 1' deep fingers corner to the right of the belay got me up to a point of decision about 40' up: either continue in the current system on stout-looking, thin changing corners, or peek around left under a chockstone and see what happened. 11+ wasn't in the game plan that day, so under the block I went. As it happens, you can step out onto a pillar here and really suss things out.


And things are pretty good:


I'm kind of a lead-hog, but figured I should save a bit for Rich to enjoy. He fired this bit right off the ledge and cruised up the final arete to the summit block in yet another clean, exposed handcrack (yawn).



Does this look familiar? "Straight-A Student?" "A-Plus Line"? ... it was pretty good....


Thanks Hulkster!