The Enigma 5.10a

Gary Carpenter and I went up on Friday night and slept at Hardin Flat by the side of the road on the pine needles. It was a beautiful night with stars and coyotes.
In the morning we ambled down to the Cookie with the intention of climbing Enigma 10a and Cookie Center, 5.9 or 10a.

Here's an overview of the routes.

By about 8:00 we were starting up Enigma 10a. The first pitch starts with a cool chimney/crack combo to a short 5.8 squeeze and a newish two bolt anchor.

Here's Gary leading the chimney/crack.

Here's looking up from the top of the crack toward the anchor.
You can just see the squeeze and also Enema, which is the overhanging crack above.
Supertopo re-rated the squeeze to 5.9, I think just because of the grovel factor.

Pitch two is an unprotected forty foot slab, which caught my attention but proved mellow.

Here's Gary Following

Here's the old three bolt rap station at the top of the pitch.
There are plenty of good placements for building an anchor.

P3 starts with a thinnish move into a flare, a 5.7/8 chimney in the middle and a grovel move to the anchor tree.

Here's Gary up in the flare somewhere.

Here's looking down the 5.7/8 chimney.

The next pitch is a 5.4 chimney which in some sections is no easier than the 5.7/8 chimney below. You end on a broad sloping ledge under the two possible finishes.

Heres' a picture of the standard finish.
The crux is supposed to be a 10a lieback on the flakes near the top but the climbing below is similar in difficulty if different in detail. There is a very thin move off the deck that I was able to protect with a #4 stopper after some dirt removal. After that the pro is good. There are some cool hand jambs and stems in the middle. The rests are pretty good. If you can manage to avoid zee clipping the final lieback is pretty reasonable. Still I made it.

We stayed roped up for the walk off because we had heard it was exposed and people had died on it. There is some exposure but mostly you are in the brush and trees. Next time we would probably unrope and just be careful.
This is a great climb, fun and varied.

Next we went down to Cookie Center. I took the first pitch which is fun 5.9. Gary took the OW P2. He cruised up to the roof where he attempted the tunnel through. He decided it was too small so he did the 10a OW rooflette. We had brought the #4 bigbro just for this move. He did a great job of it.
I had followed this roof clean before but couldn't get it this time. You better have a little gas in the tank when you go to do this. Or be bad to the bone on OW like Gary.

We took doubles to #3 camelot and one #4 on Enigma. We didn't use the #4.
For Cookie Center you need singles to #3 with one extra #1 and #2 and two #6, a 9 valley giant or #3 bigbro, and a #4 bigbro. Another #4 bigbro wouldn't hurt if your OW technique is like mine.

I'm hoping Gary has a few more good pics to add.
See you on the rock.
Zander