Temple Crag and the eastern...

Eric O - Aug 11, 2005 1:19 am - Hasn't voted

This ridge is a fun and involved traverse, though not too committing (you can bail to the north fairly often, and there are some opportunities on the south). Lots and lots of pinnacles and notches, usually with fun solutions on fairly solid rock. Amazing fun solutions (creativity is needed and greatly rewarded). There are several places where it all comes down to an apparently 5.10 pinnacle (or giant boulder in some cases) looming ahead of you, and you're not sure you want to tackle it. Then you get right up close and find the previously invisible mantle-to-chimney-then-tiptoe-around-the-corner-ledge, duck into a cave and tunnel through to the other side of the pinnacle, then stem across a notch from this pinnacle's summit to a series of 5.6 knobs on the face of the next pinnacle... You know, magical BearCreekSpire-ish stuff like that.



If you stick to the crest line very strictly but avoid the downclimb after the one most difficult pinnacle, it gets to 5.9. If you're willing to do a few rappels you can keep a strict ridgeline traverse to 5.7 (i recall the only 5.8 and 5.9 parts being downclimb sections when traveling from Temple to Gayley). It can be anywhere from there down to 3rd class depending on how much you drop down to the sides (mostly north side) to avoid the sharper features.



If you're attempting Templey-Gayley-Sill in a day, you probably don't want to go for the religious stick-to-the-crest-line approach because it can triple the time you spend in this area and leave you late for Sill.