My Favorite Things

Every Tuolumne climber has eyed the huge face of clouds rest. Then, one day I found a description on the internet of an awesome sounding route right up the middle. With 2700 feet of 5.9ish climbing, it sounded too good to be true. Finally in 2009 we went out and did the route and it has become one of my favorite climbs in Yosemite.

Tom Harper

had

a great topo here:

(deadlink)myweb.cableone.net/tomharper/FTTopo dot html

My Favorite Things topo

The pitches are almost all 55-60m long, ending in two beefy bolt anchors, and the "official" ratings are:

1: 5.5

2: 5.8

3: 5.8

4: 5.7

5: 5.7

6: 5.7

7: 5.8

8: 5.9

9: 5.9

10: 5.7

11: 5.10a

12: 5.9

13: 5.7

14: 5.8

15: 5.9

I think these ratings are slightly soft, but considering the amount of climbing, you need to be solid at the grade to make it happen in a day.

With a 6 mile cross country approach, 2700 feet of climbing, 1200 feet of 3rd to the top and 7 miles back to the car, it is a burly, rewarding day.

All anchors have two bolts. Almost all the pitches require a 60m rope. The first 10 pitches can be rapped without leaving any gear. There are bolts here and there, but it is mostly trad gear, with emphasis on small to finger size.