Little Hunk East, 5.7-5.10d

Overview/Approach

Little Hunk (a take on Big Hunk, the candy bar) is a significant granite feature located between Echo Rock and Bighorn Pass in Joshua Tree National Park. They call this section the "Candy Bar" and thus most features in this area are named after well known and sometimes obscure candy bars. Due to Little Hunk's size, it is broken down in Miramontes’ guide book into several sections. The southeast corner offers several unique and large (but low to the ground) roof climbs put up by Tony Yaniro in the 70’s: Monkey Business (5.8) and Roofing Company (5.10a). It also offers a spectacular 5.7 traverse that takes off west from the Roofing Company: Right Between the Eyes. Both roof cracks are wide.   

Obviously Monkey Business (5.8) is less wide than the Roofing Company (5.10a). Monkey Business starts out requiring a few hanging fist jams but mellows out quickly. Another route that gets a star in Miramontes’ book is the Maw (5.10a), but I found this line to be one of the worst in all of Jtree. It was put up in 2003 and is basically just a bunch of bolted short faces running alongside a beautiful arête. From below it sucks you into thinking you are going to climb on the arête itself, but you don’t. Instead you are stuck worried about ankle busting fals at approximately three poorly placed bolts on short faces to the left of the arête.

Park at the paved parking area at the Echo Rock trail head. Head north on a well marked trail circumventing Pope’s Crack to the right. Eff Eight is on a singular mound of granite straight north. Circumvent it to the right and aim for a feature known as the “Chair” on Little Hunk. You sort of go through a small slick rock pass. The two roof climbs are quite easy to identify (photo).

Route Description(s)

Routes Listed Left to Right as you Face the SE Wall of Little Hunk