Southwest Face Midsummer's Dome

A moderately sandbagged route on the southwest face of this classic rouche moutonee situated in the middle of the East Fork Valley. Lots of good belay ledges, a bit wandering at first, not much loose rock, and a bit (200+') of fourth class at the top all combine to make this a good route.

I did the route in 6 pitches, with the first two being about 57 meters long. Many options exist for weaving your way up the SW face. (Following Kelsey's description, I found a move of 5.8 and 5.9, but have stuck with his rating in the book) Here is what I did.

P.1 Start below and left of large beautiful right facing corner 200 feet up the southwest face. Climb up and trending left for about 200' to a sizeable ledge. Belay here

P.2 Continue up, trending left and aiming for a ledge with krumholtz on it. Move left to the trees and belay at a crack that trends up and rightish (200')

P.3 Climb up crack, trend right, traverse to big ledge and belay (75')

P.4 Climb up cracks above moving onto a sloping ledge. Climb some flakes and corners up until on a small ledge with some small blocks below a funky looking section of crack. (100')

P.5 Climb short funky section of crack to sizeable ledge below a right facing corner and a set of double cracks to the right (50' 5.8)

P.6 Step right and climb double cracks that are just right of a black water streak. Climb double cracks to a right facing chimney. Belay at top (150' 5.9)

Top out by continued scrambling over 4th class terrain.

The route is located on point 11,172 on the Mount Bonneville USGS quadrangle. This outcropping of rock likes in the middle of the East Fork Valley.

To get to the valley one could do many things. I suggest hiking the Fremont Trail from Big Sandy Opening Trailhead and then taking the Pyramid Lake Trail to Pyramid Lake. This is about 11-13 miles. One could camp below Midsummer's Dome or at Pyramid Lake.

To find the bottom: From the south face and its grassy base, move left until below and left of a large corner 200+' up (this corner is part of the South Face Left route (III 5.10a)) Scramble up some fourth class terrain and belay.

To get down from the top, scramble down 3rd class terrain to the NW to gain easy terrain on the north side.

Standard Rack. Set of cams, stoppers, tri-cams