Mt. Kinesava, Arrakis. In early October, Dan Gambino and I climbed a new route on the southwest face of Mt. Kinesava. Arrakis (V 5.8 A2+) is ten pitches long and took three days to complete. Located about 600 feet left of King Corner, the route follows cracks and dihedrals on the last section of clean face before the wall breaks up into comers and arêtes on its left side. This face is plainly visible at sunset. The flat pillar at mid-height offers a superb bivy; the sloping ledge system at three-quarters height is not so superb. Descent was made by rappelling the route (this required the addition of an extra set of anchors to the left of the sixth belay). All belays have at least one bolt; those on the upper half of the route generally have two. All bolts are 3/8" × 3" except for the single 3/8" × 2 1/4" atop the final pitch. Sixty-meter ropes were used, but the route could probably be done with 55-meter ropes. Gear ranged from birdbeaks to large tube chocks. In a fit of genius, the first-ascent party failed to take free-climbing shoes. These would have allowed most of the lower half of the route to go free at 5.11 or less.

Joel Nolte, unaffiliated