Angel’s Landing, Mostly American Route. It’s getting harder to find a new route on Angel’s Landing. This face inspired some of the first big routes in the park and contains the park’s greatest concentration of wall routes. We had eyed a route on the north face for years. We debated whether certain features would go, and how many features would have to go for the route to be worthy. Eventually we (Bryan Bird, Nate Brown, Eric Draper, Jon Sedon) climbed the route (V 5.9 A3+) in May 2001. Some of the features were climbable; some were too thin and delicate, and we drilled. We consoled ourselves by noting that our route had less than half the holes of the popular Prodigal Sun and by comparing it with Valley standards. And the route turned out to be good, climbing a steep, beautiful section of wall that was previously unexplored.

After climbing the first two pitches of the Swiss-American route, we went left and up into a pink corner. We followed the crack until it disappeared. We climbed rivets until a new crack appeared, then hooked out left to a belay. We climbed the Cyclop’s Eye to a right-leaning beak and RURP crack. The last pitch, out a roof, makes it all worth it! Our route then rejoins the Swiss-American route.

Eric Draper