Guidebook: 'Gunks - Trapps: Moonlight (5.6), Snooky's Return (5.8)

'Gunks

Trapps

Moonlight (5.6) - Two pitches - Trad - Tree anchors:

Approach: The path to Moonlight is a long way down the carriage trail toward the end of the Trapps. Follow the path for about 15 minutes until you come to the Andrew Boulder, a large, roof-life boulder that hangs above the trail about seven feet off the ground. Head up the path after that and find a tree at the base just up left of the top. This tree will be below and left of a wide, left-facing flake that is at the start of a long, left-facing corner.

Pitch One (5.6) - 130 feet: The start of this climb is a bit tricky. There are two ways to gain the wide flake: either climb up right and traverse left to the "point" with large gear, or climb left to an easier but committing and unprotected face and step right so that you nearly backhand the point. From there, fade right with the corner straight to the top. Either trust the tree anchor here or build a gear anchor with slim options.

Pitch Two (5.6) - 100 feet: At the top of the corner, walk right toward the right side of the ledge. There are two large, long boulders (about 7-8 feet in length near the edge). Find a left-fading ramp that goes up between two bushes. Go between the bushes on loose rock to the right side of the lower, left roof. Don't go up to the roof itself, but instead stay about three feet below and traverse left on sparse and committing hands until around the corner. From there, climb the exposed face and crack up to the right-facing corner at the top.

Descent: Walk on the path to the right, keeping close to the edge. Upon seeing a dirt ledge down a semi-difficult (but safe) scramble of about seven feet and head toward the stout tree that seems to be right on the edge of the ledge. Once down the scramble, turn right for a bolted anchor. Rap in one go with two 60m ropes, or rap past the GT Ledge to another set of bolts on the left.



Snooky's Return (5.8) - Three pitches - Trad - Bolt / Tree anchors:

Approach: Take fourth path on the left from the carriage road after the Trapps Connector Trail, which goes down to the road on the right. At the top of the path, walk left a bit to find a few trees surrounding a thin, jagged crack.

Pitch One (5.7) - 95 feet - Bolted anchor: Follow the crack straight up, moving onto the face on either side where it seems appropriate.


Pitch Two (5.8) - 80 feet - Gear anchor: Climb the left-facing corner to a small roof, then traverse left about 10 feet and follow the path of least resistance straight up to just before the GT Ledge. From there, step right to a clearing in the vegetation of the ledge and belay from there.


Pitch Three (5.8) - 50 feet - Gear anchor: To climb this pitch, walk left to a left-facing corner below a roof. Start about five feet left of the corner on a smaller left-facing corner / ramp and move up to the point where the smaller corner and roof meet. Then hand-traverse right out to the arrete, using a key foot-hold on the arrete itself to rock up to the face. From there, head straight up the face and fade right near the top to a tree with rap anchors that are high up on a branch.

Descent: Rap straight down off the rap anchor at the top. We rapped in two raps with two 60m ropes; the first rap goes down to the bolted anchor at the top of the first pitch. While I'm sure there are intermediate anchors in between the top tree and the first pitch anchors, I am not sure how the descent can be done here with only one rope.