East Face

Overview

The stunning East Face crack on Monkey Face was first ascended during the summer of 1964 by Kim Schmitz and Gerald Bjorkman. Once a thin nail up, this route now goes free, and recently just received its first true redpoint ascent, and mabey 2nd overall. Alan Watts first freed it in 1986 at 5.13d on preplaced gear and by adding a couple bolts through the crux. Recently Sonnie Trotter freed it placing gear on lead and supposdly not clipping the retro bolt! For any solid clean aid climber this is a fun steep and sustained aid route up the monkey. Great exposure on the 2nd pitch.

Getting There

Follow trail signs to Monkey Face. Head to where youd start the Pioneer Route.

Route Description

From the short 4th class move at the beginning of the Pioneer route head down the ledge to a belay bolt and the stunning east face crack.

P1 - C2 - Aid the thin splitter past a fixed pin to a two bolt hanging belay. This pitch eats nuts.

P2 - C2+ - Keep going up crack passing a cruxy section, before hitting the first bolt and where the crack starts to head right on pinscars. Belay from 2 bolt anchor at a stance. This pitch is steep!

P3 - 5.7 C1 - Aid up 2 more bolts before making a mantel onto a small ledge, follow a few more bolts off to the right and around the corner to the dirty slab. Make an akward exit move onto the slab make a few moves clip one more bolt or aid off it and hike the dirty slab to the top. Belay from multiple anchors. A litte run out and dirty.

As of 3/2007 The belay atop P1 is bomber. The protection bolts on P2 are the original 5/16" with SMC hangers. Jim Anglin and I replaced the Belay atop P2 with brandnew ASCA hardware. All the bolts on P3 are still original 1/4" with old hangers. I plan to get up there soon to replace those.

Essential Gear

1 Set Tcu's
1 Set cams to 1"
2 Sets of Nuts, 3 ea. of #3-#5 BD size (offsets helpful)
1 Grappling hook

External Links

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Images

View East Face Image Gallery - 13 Images