★★★ Angel's Crest 5.10b

Angel's Crest is a classic 5-star multi-pitch route that is one of the longest and most adventurous 5.10 routes on the Chief. This route ascends the "north arete", the entire ridge to the R of the North Gully.

1. 5.10b Up a slab past a few bolts and over a bulge (crux). Clip the rap anchor and continue around to another slab with 4 more bolts to the base of Angle crack

2. 5.10b Angel Crack. A L-leaning fingers to hand layback crack with good rests. Finishing with a short hand traverse L under a block before moving up to the belay ledge.

3. 5.10b Out L and up face to a groove, then up and R back to the arête.

4. 5.6 Easy scrambling up the slabby arête.

5. 5.10a Steep Face - Up steep face. Move R below a bulge, then up easier through a R corner to a ledge.

6. 5.5 Easy ground to a small ledge with trees.

7. 5.10a Up two ramps and R. Finish up a L facing corner to reach the ledge.

8. 5.9 (alt. 5.10a) Up R, and then up through the trees to groove. Follow up R, then up to the ledge with trees. Alternative pitch - An off-width on the L (5.10a).

9. 5.5 Acrophobes Traverse. Follow trail and scramble L and up to the base of the Lower Tower. Up diagonally, then hand traverse the ridge to the summit of the Lower Tower. Note there are alternative routes here The Acrophobes Towers, A knife edge over which you climb to eventually rappel off the back side.

10. 5.8 Through the notch, climb back to the west, across, and up to a fixed-line. Downclimb to a small dirt ledge. Scramble along the ramp into a gully to escape the route.

11. 5.7 (alt. 5.10a) Up and L through the easy ground until the Whale-Back arête leads up and R to a small stance. At the top of the arete, move R to belay from a piton above the twisted cedar tree. An alternate pitch - The crack on R (5.10a).

12. 5.10a Climb the crack system above the gnarled route and over the piton. Sustained climbing takes you to a big ledge and a bolted belay.

13. 5.8 On the R of the ledge, a crawl space on a sloped ramp leads to a rock mount, from where you can step across to the far face of a deep chimney.

The original final pitch moved up the face directly above and behind the crack of the previous pitch, avoiding the chimney.

Alternate start to get around people:

1. 5.7 Step up R for a few metres to a small ledge, then up a dirty vegetated corner to a larger ledge.

2. 5.8 Starting on R. Blocky moves lead up to an obvious crack system finishing at base of angels crack.