Page Type: | Route |
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Lat/Lon: | 36.52330°N / 118.238°W |
Route Type: | Trad Climbing |
Season: | Summer |
Time Required: | A long day |
Difficulty: | IV+ or V, 5.9 or 5.10A |
Number of Pitches: | 15 |
Approach from the Stone House. To reach the Stone House, make a left turn on the only light at Lone Pine and drive up the Whitney Portal Road to Horseshoe Meadow Rd. Make a left onto Horseshoe Mdw.Rd and follow it to Granite view Rd. Make a right turn on the road. Drive the slightly uphill road till the only structure/dwelling around. Just before the structure another dirt road branches right and uphill. There is a nice parking area about a mile or so along this road (for cars). If you follow the road up (high clearance might be required) in about one more mile, the road ends at the un maintained trailhead to the famous Stone House, a structure in the Tuttle Creek Canyon. About an hour walk gets you there. From the Stone House take the left, South fork of Tuttle Creek. An old, indistinct trail leads to Keyhole Wall ( see Secor's 2nd Edition). The trail ends at Keyhole Wall. Cross the creek to the south and climb up talus and slabs to the base of the North Arete.
Miguel Carmona and I did the First Ascent of the route in 1999 after looking at it for over 15 years and talking about it every time we drove through Lone Pine to other Sierra destinations.
July 10, 2013- Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright soloed the arete as part of their successful technical solo ascent (mostly 5.10 and harder) of all the California 14ers in one push (10 days) while unsupported and approaching all of them on a mountain bike. This might be the third ascent of the route and the first solo ascent. August 23, 2015- Lone Pine and Bishop locals Amy Ness and Richard Shore climbed the route on August 23rd. This might be the Fourth Ascent. Richard sent me a short note about their climb which I reprinted below. Amy Ness and I climbed the route yesterday, Aug 23. A bit loose and gritty but there were also some good quality pitches (Yellow wall cracks, brown corner crux). We swapped leads the whole way. At the start of the fourth pitch, Amy was checking out different options to gain the traverse ledge and accidentally dislodged a 100+ lb block that slipped onto her hand. No broken bones fortunately, but some pretty deep flesh-wound gobies on her wrist and palm. She insisted we continue and wrapped it up with some tape and a painkiller and called it good. 12 more pitches to go! We hiked up Saturday morning and set up camp alongside the creek directly below the Tuttle Obelisk. We did the Alan Bartlett - Schools Out III 5.9 route on the Obelisk that afternoon. Left camp for north arete of Langley 0630am Sunday, base of route/notch 0830, climbing 0900. Summit of Langley 4pm, back at camp 6pm, and all the way back to the car by 830pm. I have some good pictures I can send to you if you give me your email address.' -Richard Shore Regarding the above August 2015 ascent: These two individuals are some of the strongest alpine climbers presently active in the High Sierra. The times that Richard posted are very fast and unless you are truly first rate alpinist, your times will be much slower. |