The Grack, Center

Route

The Grack, Center

Page Type: Route

Location: California, United States, North America

Lat/Lon: 37.74000°N / 119.58°W

Route Type: Technical Rock Climb

Time Required: Half a day

Difficulty: 5.6

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- 6 Votes

Page By: rpc

Created/Edited: Aug 5, 2003 / Oct 20, 2004

Object ID: 158450

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Page Score: 86.57% - 3 Votes

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Table of Contents

Approach

The route is located on the Glacier Point Apron - a one thousand foot high and a quarter mile wide smooth slab of granite. Drive 0.2 miles east of Curry Village to a 3-way stop. Go straight at the stop and turn right into the parking lot right before the road barriers (no private vehicles beyond this point).

From the northeast corner of the parking lot, walk 100 feet on a hiking trail and turn right onto a climbers trail (or go cross country) and head uphill towards the slab. Once at the base of the slab (foot of Glacier Point Apron), turn left and follow the foot of the slab (uphill). Hike several hundred yards till you see an opening in the forest and a massive rockfall visible further to the southeast. The second pitch of The Grack, Center - a beautiful splitter crack in a low angle smooth slab - should be visible above.

Route Description

The route is east facing and gets VERY hot on summer mornings. It becomes pleasant by early afternoon. According to C. McNamara of Supertopo.com, this is the best 5.6 in the valley. The route begins in a 4th class gully and heads up toward a "bulge" or a notch in a roof above the gully (see photos).

Pitch 1: 5.6, 160'. Climb up 4th class gully (with some small vegetation) toward a bulge. Traverse right (6 feet) under the bulge and climb past the bulge via a notch (crux - thin for 5.6). Keep climbing for another 30 or so feet until a pod is reached at the base of the beautiful splitter crack. Gear anchor.

Pitch 2: 5.6, 150'. Follow the beautiful splitter crack as it moves up and right on the low angle slab. Protection is abundant; climbing is nothing short of pure joy. Blay in one of the shallow pods. This is THE reason to climb The Grack, Center. Gear anchor.

Pitch 3: 5.6, 140'. Continue climbing the splitter crack as it moves further up and right. The crack becomes more shallow on this pitch (and has the occasional patch of grass in it) until if finally vanishes about 15 feet below the top of the climb (an obvious shelf). At this point, move directly up toward the ledge. This is the psychological crux of the climb as there's no protection. Climb either by edging on "credit card edges" or pure smearing (it's quite easy!). The route ends atop the ledge.

Descent:
Rappel straight down using TWO 60m ropes. You will see a bolted station near the end of your ropes. Do another double 60m rap to a tree below a small roof. Either downclimb the 4th class slabs from here to the ground or do another single rope rap.

Essential Gear

Two 60m ropes are required for the rappel. A full rack from micro-cams (for near top of pitch three) to about #3 Camalots (got to place a #3.5 and a #4 Camalot near beginning of pitch 2 though that probably was not essential); complete set of nuts. A short pieces of webbing might be needed for the final rap from the tree (depending on the condition of the existing ones).

Miscellaneous Info

If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.

Images