Good footwork will let you reach the holds that sloppier climbers won't see.  Angles are kind of weird.  This climb is the first you come to on the 5.2 slab that The Millstone climbs above.

Intelligient Life Form

Yuppie Love

The Odd Get Even

Strong Arm With the Lads

Tie Die

Stone Ground

Personal Jesus

Earthling

Millstone Slab

Stick Figure Stays Home

Eraserhead

Angle of Repose

Private Hell

Cat Juggling

Against the Establishment

Blockbuster

Moon Walk

Calling All Karmas

Unknown Crack

Bush Doctor

Pencilneck

Miller Time

Milling About

Surfing on a Rocket

Hollow Excuses

Lead Balloon

The Maize

The second bolted line from the start of the slab, Tie Die was a rather easy 5.10.  The book calls it a 5.10c, I will drop that down to 5.10b.  The lower half was fun and technical.  The upper half was easy and lichen covered.  Hence the 1 star.  Still not a bad route for the Millstone area.  The crux wa an awkward sidepull around bolt 2/3.

Fun route that will keep you on your toes as you pull the buldge.  Good warmup route for the area.

This climbs up and over one of the more attractive features on the Millstone, a left-leaning, left-facing corner reminiscent (at least to me) of similar features in Eldo.  I think this is among the top 3-4 routes on the crag and a good precursor to getting on the more difficult lines of

Stone Ground

,

Moon Walk

, and

The Maize

.  In the narrative for this route in their guide, the Ruckmans comment, "Some sort of vindication"?  Uh, if the odd are the Ruckmans, I'd say yes, and then some.

Strong Arm with the Lads is the first line of bolts after the large boulder as the trail progresses westward up the trail.  If you're looking for a climb with fun powerful moves, this is your ticket. Two good roofs and slab in-between, who could ask for more? It could probably get three stars if it weren't for the messy anchoring system at the top. We need it replaced with chains.

The route is the second line of bolts as you work your way up the steep trail and over the obvious boulder that is in the middle of the trail.

Fantastic climbing with a little bit of everything: Jugs, sidepulls, crimps, underclings, technical reachy moves it's got it all. Watch the footwork!

The last line of bolts off the ledge.  Personal Jesus is an awkward climb down low, with the arete (I assume it is on) forcing you into reachy slopey sidepulls.  Once you hit the horizontal crack, it becomes more straightforward technical face climbing.  I felt the crux could have been at bolt 2 or attaining the anchors.  There is deck potential on blowing bolt 3, so beware.

Among many other things,

Earthling

also happens to be an electronica/rave album from the late 90's by the artist

David Bowie

. Unlike the album, this climb is actually good.

Whether this has anything to do with the route's name or not, i can see some similarities. Like

Bowie's

album,

Earthling

will start you out feeling in the

groove

. Move your hips left and right over confident ground though a small roof. Continue from here to a clean, blank face. Climbing into

alien

terrain seems to be the crux and like

Bowie's

album its going to only gets worse, before it gets any better. Remix your feet a few times to gain a good side pull and edge. Pull the bulge and get back into the

swing

of things by shifting right through some less demanding and more rhythmic rock. Finish up and right at a two bolt anchor.

Approach: Follow the standard approach to the Millstone climbing area. Take the trail towards Lake Blanch, following the pavement trail out of the parking lot, then the dirt trail up Mill B South. Instead of crossing the creek, take the well worn trail which stays on the west side of the drainage. This trail eventually leads to the large talus cone coming down from the Millstone climbing area. Follow the talus up, until just below the bottom of the steep, east facing rock climbing area (50-80 foot vertical wall). Cross over towards the base of the steep wall, and, short break in the wall should be visible. Climb over this, onto the low angle, well featured slab, and, either cross over and climb onto the main slab (about 200 feet above the very bottom of the slab), or, carefully down climb the narrow slab (short 3 to 5 foot east facing wall on the narrow slab's right side) to the bottom and cross over to the main, unbroken slab for the full meal deal. Pick a line up the smooth slab, start up. Voila.

Compared to the West Slabs of Mount Olympus and the Mineral Slab, this is sustained lower angle, but, much less featured and fairly polished in most locations. My guess is the angle is from around 30 to 45 degrees is all, but, the rock in most places is smooth and slick. Good route finding required to piece together a reasonable, safe route. Not much loose rock. The wall

rolls

like a wave in places, where it gets low angle enough to traverse or walk, and, high angle enough to get

interesting

. Traversing off if weather or conditions change may be somewhat difficult in the first half or two-thirds of the slab.

The slab gains about 700 feet of vertical and the ridge above can be followed to a nice high point yielding fine views of the Sundial and the upper Mill B South drainage.

Descent: follow social/game trails down and eventually hook up with the Broad's Fork trail.

Scarecrow style climbing up a slightly cryptic, tight, and tense face. A seemingly harmless, left leaning route that follows questionable flakes and sharp, crisp, edges. Thin and sustained,

Stick Figure

is pumpy for its size.

A typical Millstone route, Eraserhead climbs a fun edgy wall, which is crossed by a pair of cracks.  The cracks grant a reprieve from the thin holds.

This line of bolts is the second line of bolts as you continue around the corner from Blockbuster.  It has 3 bolts a huge ledge and three more.  The crux is down low, but getting off the ledge can give people trouble too.  Beware of ankles from falling at bolt 4.

Fun traversing line. Third fully bolted line on Millstone (counting from the bottom). The crux is around the first bolt. Edgy face climbing that ends by wrapping around a corner to the anchors, which feels pretty exposed. Fun, and the follower can take some big swings if they pop soon after unclipping a bolt.

The bolt spacing between the 3rd and 4th bolt is a little awkward. The traverse can safely be protected with pro if desired.  The view from the top is well worth the climb.

Another solid Millstone route. Thin edgy climbing that requires some patience, creativity, and technical movement.  The crux is around the third or fourth bolt.  A good climb that stays interesting start to finish.

On the Northeast face is one steep, bolted line.  Blockbuster climbs this line until the bolts end and then it can be protected with gear.  A very insecure route with a mean pump and technical climbing as well.  The major negative of this route is some considerably loose rock.  The crux is after bolt 2, but the entire bolted section is tough, either reachy or technical, and the rock surface down low is polished glass.  After the bolt, you are still looking at 5.10 climbing, and kind of pumpy still.  The book called this one a 5.10c, but I am saying 5.10d/5.11a, this route is hard, really hard.

A near impassable variation to

Angle of Repose

,

Calling All Karmas

is a short and intense, balance fest! Bouldery in nature and lacking left sided holds, the biggest crux may be finding a good sequence that doesn't pitch you off the arete. Starfish-magnet your way up the first three bolts using what ever you can; in other words, cling to the wall using all four points and hold on tight!

Calling All Karmas

is the short route on the arete and just right of

Angle of Repose

. A boulder problem with bolts, if you enjoy brainy climbing you may just enjoy this.

This route starts with an acute right-facing corner for about 20 feet. A thin crack continues from the top of the corner and goes all the way to the top of the cliff. Follow the crack which offers good pro and an occasional finger lock, but jugs abound, making it uncommonly easy for such a steep trad line.  Nice place to hang out on top.

By the amount of cleaning that was required, it didn't seem to have any previous ascents. However, it's a pretty obvious line so we aren't really sure. It is in great condition for climbing now.

If anybody has FA info and a name, please share.

If you brought the gear, why not?

The appropriately named

Bush Doctor

follows a right angling flake through what feels like unchartered territory. Climb the obvious crack system past the token bush and up to the top of the buttress. Expect funky movement with less than obvious gear placements. Tactical climbing through the dirt, i mean crux, oddly makes this a worthwhile venture.

A crack system with a traverse, Pencilneck starts off with a flake that doesn't feel too solid, then crosses right into a thin vertical crack.  This crack does protect acceptably, but climbs well.  At the top of this crack it changes to an exceptional but short, finger/hand crack that traverses right.  Follow this up to another short crack, this one a left facing dihedral.  Finish up.

This is the next climb up from the big 5.9 flake, about midway up the wall.  The climb is well bolted with no runouts, except for the very easy top portion.  The climb is really pumpy, with a few technical moves at about the fifth bolt.  Really fun. Somebody should consider adding some chains at the top.

Yeah, go ahead and lug the cams up, this route is worth it -- an unusual (for BCC), two-part, right-facing dihedral with a sweet fingers-to-thin-hands crack in the back.  From the ground, either climb a somewhat licheny face to gain the ledge from which the first part of the dihedral begins, or maybe better, start up

Eraserhead

(clipping its first bolt) and step right to the first part of the dihedral.  One of the first routes put up on The Millstone.  Ruckmans: "Strenuous and Canyonlands-esque."

Reminiscent of Cross-eyed and Painless, but shorter and easier.  The first two thirds of the route is bouldery sport climbing past 4 bolts up the initial steep face and arête.  After reaching jugs under the roof, the angle eases, and the remainder is gear protected 5.10.  At that point, loop left around the blank headwall and climb diagonal cracks and edges up to the chains.

Climb the prominent flake system. The big hollow tooth at the beginning slightly rattles. That, and some loose blocks above, makes this a spooky lead. The left angling section of the flake high on the route is solid and has some cool climbing which somewhat redeems the overall experience.

Tricky crux that will leave you gasping for air if you blow the sequence.

There is a little more suspect rock on

The Maize

than on the other three-star routes at

The Millstone

, but I wager there isn't a route on the crag that has more continuously difficult and technical climbing.

Moonwalk

comes close, but the crux section of that route is much shorter.  Particularly if it isn't chalked up, expect a pumpy brain teaser from the time you leave the second bolt to the jug below the fifth bolt.  Kudos to the Haze and the other strong-armed lads for envisioning this line and the judicious placement of the bolts -- enough to be safe but sufficiently far apart to grab your attention.   The fourth bolt is a spinner and can be difficult to clip.

Description

Protection

Routes in The Millstone