Rock Climbing in Little Cottonwood: Call it what you please

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I think this climb is considered one of the Little Cottonwood classics, but I am not sure. Regardless, it was a really fun route. It is located in the Gate Buttress within the Schoolroom area. To get to the climb, you follow a trail through the bouldering area and out onto a large boulder field. From here you move up the boulders. You will see a gully that you could potentially hike up. This is the Green A gully. A different climbing area.

Instead, move right toward the large granite face. There are several climbs in this area. You will go past schoolroom, schoolroom direct, and bushwhack crack before you get to the base of “Call it what you please.”

This route starts with a bit of a reachy move through some flakes and chicken heads to a decent ledge about 20 feet up. Traverse right along the ledge to a thin finger crack that moves up into a roof dihedral. Stay right of the roof in the crack that is now offwidth.

If you reach back into the crack, you can get good hand jams and smaller gear. Fight your way up the wide section to the steep final few moves of the route. Perfect hand jams take you to a large, slightly overhanging chicken head. Use this to mantle and pull over the steep section onto a low-angle slab where the chains sit about 12 feet away.

My friends said that they thought the crux was the last steep, awkward move, but I didn’t have too much trouble with it. I had the most difficult time with the thin section near the beginning, just below the offwidth portion.

I’m sure many people will tell you that the crux is the offwidth climbing. I thought that it was secure because you can get good hand jams deep in the crack and the angle is relatively low. If you were to fall here, you would just slide into the crack more.

Where ever the true crux is, Call it what you please is a great climb requiring a variety of techniques to make it to the top. It starts with face climbing, has thin hands / fingers, offwidth and steep handjamming to an awkward mantle to finish it off.

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