Nodes in Naita Rock

This incredible granite plug is a bit hard to reach, but once you are there, you'll be happy you came. Only trad climbed once, so a chance for second ascent and new lines abound.

Take all your big cams for this one.

1. North face: (30m 18) Follow the left hand side of the partially attached broken pillar, which is actually a large flake. Make about three moves up to a chair-sized ledge with a tree that can be slung for your first piece of pro. Climb the crack, or just left of the crack to a small roof. There are excellent feet on this face and it is nice climbing, but there is no pro on the face itself, so stay close enough to the crack to get a few cams in on your right. When you reach the small roof, delicately traverse a couple meters left, around the large block and then above it for a comfortable belay. We placed four huge cams on this pitch (Black Diamond 4,5,6 and a large trango similar to a BD 5)

2. North face: (15m 14) Could easily be combined with the first pitch and is barely more than a scramble. Follow an obvious system of boulders and pillars up to an enormous ledge. There are plenty of places for pro along the way. Rope drag is the only good reason to do this pitch on it’s own. The top of pitch two is a great place to explore around the rock and search for possible lines to the top. We saw several lines, but chose to move around to the west face on our way to the top.

3. West face: (20m scramble) Scramble up and move around to the west face, anti-clockwise. We did this un-roped.

4. West face: (25m 15) Belay from the lower shaded boulders for a comfortable stance. We setup a directional about 2m above the belay and then traversed right to the crack, up the crack and on top of a broken pillar. We managed to get in a couple pieces of pro during the traverse and a couple more in the crack. From the top of the broken pillar, there is no pro, but the climb is fairly easy at that point. There were good feet placements, so we just went for the top. Congrats! Enjoy the view. The aerial view into the manyatta is extraordinary.

Rappelling off: (one pitch) There is very old bush with a large trunk near the east face. We left a piece of tack behind and rapped of there. About a 25m rappel gets you to the enormous platform on the side of the manyatta, from which you can hike/scramble down. We moved about ten large flakes that could have fallen during the rappel as they sat near or under the rope, so be very careful with these. You should see the path we cleared. We saw a 1m coppery brown snake and some lizards up there. Several large owls make their home on this rock as well. There is lots to see from this summit. Check out the manyatta. The view inside is incredible. Also, you can see all the other plutons in Naita's row. There is much potential climbing in this "rim".

Hike down: You’ll see a narrow chimney from which we could squeeze down, but you could also rap down to the ground. From there, the path moves right along the edge of the main rock. Finally, scramble down a couple of ledges until you reach solid ground. Well done, you have made it back.