Dow Williams - Jul 14, 2015 5:59 pm Date Climbed: Jul 13, 2015
Serrated Edge
With Steph A. The crux of the first pitch is the flaring hands through the 2nd roof. It protects well. I chimney’d up facing out, then turned to face the slab via a hand jam to finish. The 2nd pitch is by far the crux of the climb and sandbagged by Tuolumne Meadows standards. Jam up to the off-width section which was wet in mid-July during a relatively dry season. The biggest lack of beta I found on the entire route was the need for C4#5 at this spot. A C4#4 will be mostly tipped out=easily kicked out. Place the large cam and lay back the wide section until you can throw your right leg into the off-width and face out. The gear is bomber in the roof. Jam the roof out right to the vertical hand crack. I faced out on the traverse and hung on one jam as I turned around at the corner to gain a foot rest. Pull the roof by jamming and placing a piece to try and keep a potential fall from slamming you into the wall below the roof. Because of a huge knob up and left, I made the mistake of first facing left on the pull which is much harder than facing right and bringing your right foot up high to a knob in a dynamic move. Once your toe is on that singular knob on the slab out right, jam up another 20’ or so to another semi-hanging belay at a stance. The pro here is tricky. Save a C4#2 and #3 for this station. Reach high off the stance to find a parallel section in the crack, unless you brought hexes which would work right at the stance itself. Maybe it is the desert climber in me, but I have to give credit to my partner also who led this pitch and noticed the danger of the large block that serves as a roof for this 3rd pitch. You jam and jug this roof as part of the pitch. If you take the time to examine it once you are above it, this large block (roof) is completely separated and stacked in a series of blocks. Use caution at the roof section on this pitch. Otherwise, it is a fun and stout 5.9 hands and fists up the right facing corner with insecure feet. Once you get to the before mentioned roof, jam and jug your way over the roof and continue up an easy corner to a comfy small belay ledge with medium gear. My partner stopped and had me lead the last 100’ of this 4th pitch. The rock starts to deteriorate considerably. She went up through an easy roof and traversed left on some gold colored good rock into a right facing corner. Above the corner she backed off. What happens is after you climb the well protected corner, you get into gritty face climbing with precarious trust on knobs. I traversed right and went up a few exposed moves to eventually a bomber #1. From there sling the black knob and onto the summit. A burly route by Tuolumne standards
Dow Williams - Jul 14, 2015 5:59 pm Date Climbed: Jul 13, 2015
Serrated EdgeWith Steph A. The crux of the first pitch is the flaring hands through the 2nd roof. It protects well. I chimney’d up facing out, then turned to face the slab via a hand jam to finish. The 2nd pitch is by far the crux of the climb and sandbagged by Tuolumne Meadows standards. Jam up to the off-width section which was wet in mid-July during a relatively dry season. The biggest lack of beta I found on the entire route was the need for C4#5 at this spot. A C4#4 will be mostly tipped out=easily kicked out. Place the large cam and lay back the wide section until you can throw your right leg into the off-width and face out. The gear is bomber in the roof. Jam the roof out right to the vertical hand crack. I faced out on the traverse and hung on one jam as I turned around at the corner to gain a foot rest. Pull the roof by jamming and placing a piece to try and keep a potential fall from slamming you into the wall below the roof. Because of a huge knob up and left, I made the mistake of first facing left on the pull which is much harder than facing right and bringing your right foot up high to a knob in a dynamic move. Once your toe is on that singular knob on the slab out right, jam up another 20’ or so to another semi-hanging belay at a stance. The pro here is tricky. Save a C4#2 and #3 for this station. Reach high off the stance to find a parallel section in the crack, unless you brought hexes which would work right at the stance itself. Maybe it is the desert climber in me, but I have to give credit to my partner also who led this pitch and noticed the danger of the large block that serves as a roof for this 3rd pitch. You jam and jug this roof as part of the pitch. If you take the time to examine it once you are above it, this large block (roof) is completely separated and stacked in a series of blocks. Use caution at the roof section on this pitch. Otherwise, it is a fun and stout 5.9 hands and fists up the right facing corner with insecure feet. Once you get to the before mentioned roof, jam and jug your way over the roof and continue up an easy corner to a comfy small belay ledge with medium gear. My partner stopped and had me lead the last 100’ of this 4th pitch. The rock starts to deteriorate considerably. She went up through an easy roof and traversed left on some gold colored good rock into a right facing corner. Above the corner she backed off. What happens is after you climb the well protected corner, you get into gritty face climbing with precarious trust on knobs. I traversed right and went up a few exposed moves to eventually a bomber #1. From there sling the black knob and onto the summit. A burly route by Tuolumne standards
kovarpa - Jul 19, 2010 2:45 pm Date Climbed: Jul 17, 2010
Second timethis time with Matt R. Approached via OZ/Gram. Lead P1 and P3. Still a fun route, full body workout on P1...
kovarpa - Jul 27, 2009 3:28 pm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2009
A little treasureclimbed with Karen, lead P2 and P4, still have bruises to show for my efforts. I wouldn't mind coming back and climbing this again.