Bustle Tower, Beppin, New Route, Previously Unreported. From late June to mid-July, 1999, Makoto Kuroda and I were in the Circle of the Unclimbables. On July 2, we found a beautiful crack line in the center of the southeast face of Bustle Tower, and we attempted a new route up the crack. The next morning we started climbing and finished fixing rope on the first three pitches of slab and chimney climbing.

On July 5, we jumared up the fixed line and tried the fourth pitch. The beginning of the pitch was an easy, grassy chimney, but above, in the middle of the pitch, we used three points of hooking and did delicate face climbing. The fifth pitch and beginning of the sixth contained very loose rock and expanding flakes, so much time was required. Above, in the middle of the sixth and and on the seventh pitch, we enjoyed serious aid climbing with hooking and nailing, include birdbeaks. On pitches eight to ten, we climbed a beautiful crack that varied from thin to fist width. But since we had to climb while cleaning mud and moss, we had to aid it with cams and nuts. I hope someone will free climb the beautiful crack next time. We called the vertical pitches from pitch seven to ten “The Headwall.” Above the tenth pitch, the inclination became gentler. We climbed in a chimney and easy face for the 11th and 12th pitches. The 13th and final pitch, a corner and overhanging crack, led us to the shoulder of Bustle Tower. We found a route that was possible to easily climb to the summit, but we decided to go down because we expected it to storm soon.

Naturally, we didn’t fix any protection except for each belay anchor. We stayed two nights each in the portaledge at the end of the fourth and eighth pitches. We rated the difficulty 5.10a A3.

Shogo Kada, Japan