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2027 Hits
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74.92% Score
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5 Votes
Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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30.50900°N / 98.818°W |
Route Type:
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Trad Climbing, Sport Climbing |
Season:
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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter |
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Time Required:
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Half a day |
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Rock Difficulty:
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5.7 (YDS) |
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Number of Pitches:
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2 |
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Overview
Boston is a two-pitch sport/trad route on the Backside. In those two pitches, it has slab, crack, and an overhang; and the finish is on about 100' of completely unprotectable slab until you reach features where you can build an anchor.
You can lead this with a 50m rope if you intend to top out on the dome and walk off (you will have to angle over to the anchors for a neighboring route, though, as the second pitch will use up almost every inch of a 60 by the time you get to where you can build a gear anchor). If you want to rappel the route, though, you will need two ropes, or you can use a single 60 and head skier's left to the News Wall anchors, where a single 60 just works.
Other essential gear includes a set of cams and stoppers, plus slings and/or cord needed for a gear anchor.
Boston-- Locating the Start
Getting There
Set out on the Summit Trail and then take the Echo Canyon Trail. When that trail reaches a board with lots of information posted, head right on a good trail that follows the Backside and has several spur trails to various walls. Look for the Yellow Trail and take it to the base of the dome. The trail leads directly to the base of Cheap Wine Wall.Look for an overlap with a jagged-looking notch in its corner. The slab below that notch is the start of P1.
Route Description
P1-- 125'. Climb the easy (but often-slippery) slab to the obvious notch. About halfway there, there is a feature that will take a stopper or a small cam (I placed a #1 Master Cam), but this protection may be more psychological than actual because the placement is shallow and the rock isn't good. To protect the moves pulling the notch, you can place a horizontal cam, but the rock is pretty suspect here. Initially, I plugged in a #8 MC, but I ended up going with a #7 that went in deeper, which made me feel better. After pulling the notch, a couple weak flakes will take gear (passive recommended), and you clip two bolts as you climb more slab to the big ledge above, where there are two bolted anchors.P2-- 125'+. Things can get confusing here, as three routes share space at this location. The bolted line on the left is Newark, and the one on the right is Kracken. Boston's second pitch follows the crack/flake system to the right of the bolted lines. Place some gear to protect this, traverse right after finishing it, and, from the stump of a small tree, climb up easy 5th along a dark, unprotected water streak. Build an anchor when you can. You can also try traversing climber's right to the Hartford anchors, but that will add additional potential of wild swings for the follower.
 Boston P1 |  Boston P2 |  Boston P2 |