Lane and I planned on two days of climbing. On day 1, Sunspot Dihedral (5.11b, 7p) on the Incredible Hulk. On day 2, Free Radical (5.12b, 7p) on Regge Pole on the other side of the valley. But it had rained hard the day before, and we arrived at the base of the Hulk to find it streaked with water. We looked across the valley at Regge Pole basking in the morning sun and decided to swap our itinerary.

The Regge Pole is the tallest and most striking of the Little Slide Spires. With sheer walls on three sides, it offers no moderate passage to its summit. Free Radical (5.12b, 7p) ascends the east face in a modern alpine style—well protected, approachable at the grade, and defined by bouldery cruxes. The line was established by Brandon Adams and Roger Putnam in 2023.

We climbed the route in fix-and-follow style, with Lane leading the first four pitches (1–4) and me taking the final three (5–7). The route includes four 5.12a/b pitches, which we found sustained, challenging, but well protected and enjoyable. Neither of us managed an onsight; I pulled through three of the four cruxes and found Pitch 5—one of the 5.12 pitches—particularly tough on lead. Lane did excellent work on his leads, and figured out the cruxes. Apart from the 5.12 cruxes, there was still plenty of quality 5.10–5.11 climbing on this route.

This page includes a route overlay, map, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos from our climb.