This truly iconic route ascends the back-bone of Triton Tower, threading a series of huecos into a knife-edge arete above. It was featured on the cover of Rock and Ice in 2005 and is worthy of all the praise it has received since then. After falling prey to a rather prolific bolt chopper, the route was graciously re-bolted by Mike Maiden and Gordy Schafer. For a route that has been called "the best pitch of 5.12 anywhere", Resistance sees much less traffic than you'd expect.

According to Randy Leavitt:

"

[Pockets of Resistance] is a brilliant combination of huecos, pockets, cutter edges, gastons and arete climbing. It is varied, exciting, technical and a little pumpy. I believe it is the best rock climb in San Diego. If you aspire to climb this grade, you should get on it. I originally rated 12b, but I am getting enough 12c ratings (and rave reviews), that I think 12c is closer to the grade of the climb

"

The best way to approach the bottom of the route is to climb Supply Line to Not So Grassy Ledge, then hit the anchor just right of the Swiftness. It is also possible to climb Triton Tower and continue the traverse to the appropriate anchor.

To work the route from the top down, the best method is to climb the first two pitches of Triton Tower with a 70m rope, then Climb the next pitch, traverse over to the anchor for Pockets of Resistance, clip in and lower as you hang the draws and figure out the sequence.

Pockets of Resistance

Halcyon

Swiftness Direct

Spitfire

Triton Tower

The Swiftness

From where the

Swiftness

crack jogs left, 4 or 5 bolts lead straight up into the body size hueco above.

Swifts inhabit the crack, hence the name(s).

Straight line up the face between triton tower and swiftness.

The route follows the corner that divides the tower from the main headwall.  Start up the crack and huecos, staying in the corner and climbing past two bolts on 5.8 liebacks.  Lieback and jam up the steepening corner and pull on slick jams into a pod.  Place some good gear and pull the crux moves into the 5.9 corner above.  Fun climbing in the clean corner leads to the top of triton tower.

Climb that climbs the obvious tower of the left wall. The first pitch is 5.8 and goes to the base of the big roof. The second pitch goes out the roof to the right via bolts (10d). The third pitch goes up and left up the Triton Tower (11a). The Third pitch has a very short crux which is well protected.

Hand crack on the right side of Triton Tower.  30' of jamming and thin hands leads to a 20' traverse up and left that eventually leads to easier ground.  Most of the climbing is vertical so have some energy to climb this somewhat pumpy route.  Nice jams in a parallel crack and some stuff on the face for your feet and hands too.  After the traverse, finish up and right at the end of the traverse on an easy ridge following 2 bolts to a bolted anchor.

This is definitely a classic crack but rarely gets done due to having to haul gear up the trail pretty much for this climb alone.

Description

Protection

Routes in Triton Tower