Bird of Prey

Approach

"Bird of Prey" is located on the lower east face of the Warlock needle. From the Witch/Sorcerer notch traverse around the north side of the Witch and Warlock needles, then hike down along the east face of the Warlock. Go down all the way, passing "Imaginary Voyage" and "Repo man". Continue down about another couple hundred feet. The route starts in a short dihedral, about 50 feet up from the start of the "S-crack" route.

Route Description

Pitch 1: Climb the dihedral (5.7).Belay on the ledge, a long runner is useful to sling a big flake for the anchor.
Pitch 2: Climb up left then straight up passing two bolts to a thin corner/crack which requires stemming and face climbing (5.10b). From here climb the left facing dihedral up placing some gear and passing three more bolts. The crux is passing the last bolt and requires delicate liebacking (5.11b). Above the crux continue up the corner then face climb up and left when the crack in the corner runs out (5.10a). Belay at bolts.
Pitch 3: Climb up a crack to a bolt, pass the bolt (10.a) and gain another short section of crack then go up left to the second bolt (10b) then easy but run-out climbing leads up and right to the belay.
Pitch 4: Climb up the left facing corner (5.9) until the crack runs out and it is possible to face climb up left to a crack.(5.9)then up the crack. Belay in the crack when you run out of rope. (sling belay).
Pitch 5: Continue up the crack and corner to a ledge with a two bolt belay. It may be possible to link pitches 4 and 5 with a 60m rope.
Pitch 6: At this point the route joins up with "S-crack". This is the last chance to rappel the route. No fixed anchor's above here. Climb the 5.10 OW squeeze chimney to a ledge and belay.
Pitch 7: 5.9 crack climbing.
Pitch 8: 5.7 crack climbing. My recollection of these last two pitches is vague but the climbing is staight forward as I remember.
This route is not in the current Needles guidebook.
F.A. Mike Flood, Rob Brown, Troy Baily 1992

Essential Gear

Cams.
1/4"-3/4" 2 each
1"-3 1/2" 1 each
nuts 1 set, extra on small sizes.
50 meter rope. Two ropes are required if you plan on rappelling from pitch 5.

Looking up the first pitch

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.

Images

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