Ascents in The Portal

Amazing! Super steep on massive jugs

I only half assed this climb on one go as there was a sizable line and i was pooped from Thin Ice, but from what i did, it was cool movement. Made it to the 5th or 6th bolt? dont really remember. This was was a harder Starry Night for those of you familiar to the climb. There was a fun V3/4 boulder right off the bat, so maybe bring a stick clip if that intimidates you. after that, the crux is the pump.

Let me start off by saying this is a beautiful area. you walk up to this and there is this pictured circular slab slab center about 50ft tall and its surrounded and framed by these flakey jug riddled walls that launch up and form a frame surrounding the entire circle. hence, where it gets its name. The climb starts on the left side on the slab of the portal face and climbs about 15ft up to meet the frame of the portal. the framing is this jug haul of flakes and crimps. there is nothing spectacularly hard about this section other than you are cruxing vs the pump. It goes like this until the keystone of the portal. strewn throughout are several baller no hands rests to recover on, the last being the last clip before the crown of the portal. That one was great. Directly after is the crux of the route where you traverse over to the huge iron flakes that litter the ceiling of the portal and climb completely horizontal for a good 15ft feet at least. directly after this you climb out to the edge of the portal where you hit the chains. This was an amazing route.

#2go

A fun, pumpy warm up for the rest of the climbs here

Steepest 10d in Red River Gorge. Lots of fun to climb.