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The Tree Route is cool I suppose, but it is really easy. I've done 4th class climbs in places which are harder. Also it is way over on the north edge of Dome, you pass it as you descend in to the main faces. Arch Bitchup, 5.8 is much better and is longer and steeper.

El Whampo on Tahquitz is an oft overlooked moderate with some excellent climbing. Another oft ignored Tahquitz moderate is The Error.

Black Magic and it's rarely done neighbor Sidewalk Magic in the Needles are classics. The routefinding is tricky to keep the climbing to a moderate grade of 5.8. If you go the right way, the 5.8 is one move off a ledge at the top. There is nothing over 5.7 the rest of the way up.

The Becky route on The Hermit (Needles Area) is a super mega classic 5.8.

Cosmic Wall 5.6, Mt. Hubris, Castle Crags.

I remember bomber placements and bomber holds just appearing right when you need them. The rap off the summit is cool too.

All good recs thus far. I'm surprised to hear that someone else has actually done the Beckey route (S. Face) on Hermit Spire. Pretty good climbing but more notable I think because of the setting and adventure.

Other good ones that pop into my head:

N. Ridge, Lone Pine Peak
N. Arete and NE Ridge of Bear Creek Spire
N. Ridge and W. Ridge of Mt. Conness
Charlotte Dome
Temple Crag routes
White Punks on Dope, Voodoo Dome
Fingertrip, the Jam Crack, Sahara Terror at Tahquitz

Never done it but the Obelisk in Kings Canyon is supposed to be fun. Crystal Crag near Mammoth looks like a blast too.

+1 on Matthes, N/W Aretes on Conness, and Moon Goddess

Also:
T-bolt to Sill traverse

Crystal Crag is a lot of fun - the knife edge traverse from the North Arete to the true summit is exposed and beautiful. The crystal pitch is wonderful -



Bear Creek Spire's NE Ridge makes for a nice car-to-car solo, really enjoyed that one (done it twice now).

Loved Hobbit Book (5.7 R) in Tuolumne Meadows too. Get one of your gym-climbing buddies to lead the runout pitch The length of the approach / descent can make it an all-day adventure.

Some others have been mentioned that are pretty close to the road. In that vein, here are some more -

- Tuolumne Meadows: West Country (5.7), Zee Tree (5.7), Bull Dozier (5.7)

- Yosemite Valley: After Six (5.7), After Seven (5.8 ) -- the C.S. Concerto start (5.6) is easier if the first pitches of those seem too hard.

Some routes with mixed bolted / trad that aren't so close to the road -

- Herring Creek Dome: Sea of Tranquility (5.7) or Jenn's Hooked (5.7)

- Elephant Walk at Tollhouse Rock. Some others to check out there are the Tollhouse Traverse (5.5) and Falling Star (5.8 ). Tollhouse is a great place to hone your friction / slab technique.

There is also a Tollhouse topo in Tom Slater's California Road Trip guidebook. A buddy said he got a copy of the Seki guidebook (out of print) from the AAC library.

I prefer Tollhouse in the late fall / winter / early spring -- it's at ~3500' elevation. That said, I also went in June and August last year during some abnormally cool spells.

Gary Schenk wrote:The Fingertip Traverse on Tahquitz is pretty cool.

Though it's only a 5.3, that has always been one of my favorite climbs. One of the best easy routes anywhere.

Also, someone mentioned the NE Ridge of BCS as a good solo. It is, but it's real easy to get off route onto harder stuff. The only time I climbed it was as a solo, when it still had the (Norman Clyde) class 4 rating, and I found myself on some insecure 5.6 in a pair of floppy hiking boots. Dicey.

fatdad wrote:Also, someone mentioned the NE Ridge of BCS as a good solo. It is, but it's real easy to get off route onto harder stuff. The only time I climbed it was as a solo, when it still had the (Norman Clyde) class 4 rating, and I found myself on some insecure 5.6 in a pair of floppy hiking boots. Dicey.

Good point. The first time I did it in 2007 I was wearing vibram-soled backpacking boots (I'd broken my foot about 5 months earlier and wanted something nice and stiff for the approach), and jammed my way up some cracks about halfway up the ridge -



It was a little sketch, but I survived Later I was looking through the supertopo guide and noticed that they rated this part 5.5 That said, you can go left around it and find easier terrain, which I did last summer .. I wore sticky rubber approach shoes this time. Where the ridge joins up with the N arete I switched to climbing shoes both times.

Another fun one I did last fall was Stemwinder (5.4) on Thor Peak, in the Whitney region. It's a long drive for westsiders, and you would need a Whitney permit. There are a couple of interesting chimneys, a long stretch of class 3-4 scrambling on funky rock, and then an exposed slab traverse. Some notes are here -

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_reports/thor_2.html
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21077
http://supertopo.com/tr/Thor_Peak_-_Ste ... t199n.html

Charlotte Dome. The greatest long moderate ever.

Broad question actually.

Moderate is and can be so very deceiving depending on the author of the route.

Here are some that none shared that I love taking "Moderate" folks on...








Many more.... just like this one which can be done in less than an hour and a half....:

I'll throw in the South Face Rt. on North Dome. Funky 5.7 in a great location.

Another Classic that will test the meddle of some "Moderate" folks out there.
The approach in itself will get ya ready for the sweet air between clip/pro on P2.....

It's occured to me that no one's mentioned Snake Dike (5.7) yet. Totally classic, amazing summit.

Fresno Dome's south face has a bunch of good 3-4 pitch moderates. Much info online and on this site. Included also in Slater's new NorCal guidebook.

Chief,
Love the Yawn pic, way to sandbag someone into some moderate 5.9 valley ow. The last pitch, though, is probably the best 5.7 anywhere.

Anyone mention Royal Arches yet? That's pretty adventurous for the grade (see any issue of ANAM), especially if used to approach one of the North Dome routes for a nice day out.