Approach
Take the Granite View Road from the Whitney Portal road to the parking area (4wd helpful). From there take the Tuttle creek trail to the "Stone House" via a good trail. From there descend to the right on ill defined paths to cross the creek. Make your way through the thick brush (is there a trail?) bushwhacking towards the foot of the South Face. Access to the South Face routes all fairly accessable from here except Direct South Face.
Route Description
Find the large chute towards the left side of the face. It's not very distinct, and there seem to be several variations in getting into it. We traversed the foot of the face from high, then traversed into the chute. This required one short rappel but no other technical climbing. We began the climb from a large step up a left facing dihedral for about one pitch (unroped). From there easier climbing up the system leads to a notch with the view opening up to the south. Climbing up and right across slabs with one short rappel into another gully, continuing up that one. A short distance later a fork appears- take the left one. Climb slabs and chutes to it's end at a steeper wall which forms a notch. At the notch, head up (right) joining several other routes to the top of the wall. From there an easy walk leads to the summit.
This seems to vary from the skimpy description in Secor and from the marginal picture in the book. Did we climb a variation? Maybe. There wasn't much technical climbing requiring a rope, and only a few rappels to facilitate progress. As with any wilderness climb across a large face, there is a measure of route finding and self sufficiency.
Essential Gear
Light trad rack
Lots of water later in the summer
Miscellaneous Info
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Images
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Sierra Nevada
