Premier Route 5.10c or 5.8 A0

The climbing only warrants two stars. Its all pretty easy, then out of nowhere is a single difficult slab move at the 5.10 bolted headwall. The single hard move can be French Freed at 5.8 A0. I give it an extra star for a combination of the FA team (Beckey deserves respect) and for the views you will encounter along the way.

I was able to do this climb in three pitches with a 60-meter rope. The old topo shows it done in five, so any combination can be had. There are no fixed anchors until the end and many places to belay.

The strategy I followed was climb until there was about 5-10 feet of rope left and then belay. It worked out that with my 60 meter rope, I found excellent belay ledges using this strategy, but if you don't have enough gear there are plenty of other viable belay locations.

Pitch 1, 5.6: Traverse right into a rotten off-width crack and climb the OW past a small bush. From the bush, follow an obvious low angle splitter finger crack. There are a few more bushes to pass and more cracks to climb, and eventually there is an excellent ledge in a sort of an alcove at 190 feet. Sling a boulder for the anchor.

Pitch 2, 5.7: Starts with a left facing corner with a tight hand crack that splits off to the left. I took the right crack over the bulge and upwards from there. This led me to a cool juggy flared chimney and then to a lieback flake. There were a couple of face moves to gain a boulder that can be climbed on either side. Belay on the top of the boulder with 1.5-3" cams. 195 foot pitch.

Pitch 3, 10c or 5.8 A0. From the belay, you can see the steep headwall above. One bolt leads to a hollow hanging pillar. At the top of the pillar is the bolted headwall. Its not quite the bolt ladder I was expecting. There are some mandatory free moves between the bolts even if aiding. I can't honestly rate the free move since I couldn't do it cleanly. The Bartlett guide rates it at 5.10c, but it may be harder. Four close bolts lead to some easier slab climbing, then another bolt, and finally a bit of a runout to the bolted anchor. 120 feet with 6 protection bolts and a couple pieces for this pitch.

I rappelled from here. The original route continues on to the top of the formation with a walk-off descent.

Starts about 30 feet up the left hillside from the lowest point of the buttress. There is an unknown route that starts at a grungy looking groove on the toe of the buttress. THAT IS NOT THE PREMIER ROUTE. Head up and left from the grungy looking groove, look for an obvious splitter finger crack and head for that.

Thanks to SP Parker (from the local the SMC guide service), there is now a rappel route and all new bolts. To descend, rappel 120 feet, staying right of the edge to a bolted anchor near the start of the final pitch. Another 120 foot rappel will take you to the ground and an easy walk back to the base.

I speculate that the rappels could be done with a single 70 meter rope, but I cannot verify that, since we had two ropes.

I recommend double cams from .6-3" a set of nuts and some slings. At least 6 quickdraws for the last pitch. The final pitch has a bolted anchor, otherwise natural gear anchors are necessary.

All bolts are modern 3/8", replaced by SP Parker.