Okay, I am confused on this one. My guidebook says, "Ascend the crack in the lower left corner of the upstream face for 15 feet, then traverse right to climb the flaring crack in the middle of the face."

So I climbed up, traversed right along the horizontal crack system, and then climbed up the vertical crack. No way was this 5.7! It was easier than climbing the vertical crack with the tree poking out of it was.

So maybe the 5.7 starts from the large, dirty crack to the left (not seen here), moves right, and then climbs the "tree crack" climbing straight up, which is supposed to be 5.4.

In any event, the whole system here is fun and suitable for challenging but reasonable free soloing.

Harder, and beyond my free-soloing abilities: the face left of the "center crack" (5.10) and the face right of it (5.8). The "center crack" must be the one I THINK is the true Seclusion route and which is the right-side one in this picture, because those overhangs must be what make the route 5.10. But I really don't know for sure.

What I do know, to repeat, is that the two vertical cracks and the horizontal one, at least one of which is on a 5.7 route, do not feel 5.7, as I do not consider myself a 5.7 free soloist.

Great Falls, VA-- May 2007