Keeler Needle, Australopithecus. Australopithecus was established by Ammon McNeely and Kevin Conti on October 9, 1999, after a week of establishing base camp and eight days on the wall. The VI A3+ route begins left of the Crimson Wall. They report it to be an excellent route on alpine rock, with 13 60-meter pitches, topping out at 14,000 feet. There is ground-fall potential from 60 feet up the first pitch. McNeely writes that this is one of the best routes he’s done and is possibly the most technical big wall route that ends near the highest elevation in the contiguous United States.

Ammon McNeely and www.rockandice.com (new routes page)