mountainmatt

Awesome! The effin hard OW protects with a #4 I suspect? .

Looks like a great trip! As I haven't made it up there before, I appreciate the informative TR! .

Awesome Stewart and Courtney! You have to love all the old skool ratings in the area. Sounds like a fun adventure for sure! Sorry we didn't touch base when we were out there, but we headed back a little early to break the long drive down into a day and half. Thanks again Courtney for all the hospitality in Tuolumne!

Sweet! Good job on avoiding that monster at the top of the mountain as well! .

Thanks y'all, it was a great trip. Definitely not a relaxing vacation, but I feel like we both know the Tuolumne area pretty well now. Next time I think we will have to get on some of the harder lines and decrease the overall pitch count. Yuppers. We had thought of the idea the day before, but figured it was a long shot. We finished Matthes crest faster than we thought we would and got to the base of Cathedral at about 3:30 or so. Since there were no crowds and the sky was clear we went for it. Definitely an enjoyable way to end the day.

Trip: Yosemite - Tuolumne - Some Classics Date: 7/24/2010 Trip Report: Summary: Evan and I just returned from a weeklong trip down to Yosemite. Normally we end up in the valley, but due to the high levels of snow, we decided to postpone climbing our projects there and investigate the runout domes and alpine climbs of Tuolumne. Since neither of us had ever been there before, we decided to not focus on ratings, and rather just try to get on as many new and old classics as we could in a week. Big thanks to Courtney and Deana for helping us out with getting a campsite ☺ All the notes on the routes below are based on the Super Topo guide to Tuloumne. The list of routes: Great White Book, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.6 R, 5 pitches Northwest Buttress, Teneya Peak, 5.5, 14 pitches West Country, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.7, 4 pitches South Crack Splitter, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.8 R, 6 pitches Zee Tree, Pywiak Dome, 5.7, 6 pitches Regular route, Fairview Dome, 5.9, 12 pitches West Crack, Daff Dome, 5.9, 5 pitches South to North, Matthes Crest, 5.7, 18 pitches Southeast Buttress, Cathedral Peak, 5.6, 5 pitches On the Lamb, Lamb Dome, 5.9, 5 pitches West Ridge, Mt.Conness, 5.6, 12 pitches Shagadellic, Medlicott Dome, 5.8, 4 pitches Holdless Horror, Dozier Dome, 5.6, 4 pitches Day 1: Great White Book, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.6, 5 pitches We only had an afternoon available for climbing, so Stately Pleasure Dome fit the bill perfectly (1 minute approach). This was one of the best routes we did the entire trip, a great way to start for sure! The route has a reputation since it suggests you rack 2 X #4, 2 X #5, and 1 X #6 on your rack. Although we didn’t intend on doing the Great White Book right away, it was the only route that didn’t have 10 teams of beginners on it. The crux is well protected and comes on pitch 1, with the runout pitch 3 climbing fairly easy for ~40 feet before you can place a #6 and walk it with you for the next 40 feet or so. The remainder of the offwidth climbing is fairly easy involving more slab technique and laybacking than any offwidth climbing. The descent involves a single rappel and a long slab down climb/walk. Day 2: Northwest Buttress, Teneya Peak, 5.5, 14 pitches This was one of the easiest routes we did, very straight forward once you are at the base of the route. We climbed the route quickly as a thunderstorm was brewing over our head all morning (it started raining just 30 minutes after we finished the route at 10:30 AM). For the approach, walk to the end of the lake, go left for 300-500 meters, and then follow one of many climber/deer trails to the base of the route. The entire route can be simul-climbed, with dozens of route options the entire way up (the topo is more confusing than helpful, just climb what looks fun!). The guidebook makes the descent sound hard and scary, but really its fairly straight forward. Day 3: West Country, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.7, 4 pitches South Crack Splitter, Stately Pleasure Dome, 5.8 R, 6 pitches Zee Tree, Pywiak Dome, 5.7, 6 pitches We started early on West Country to avoid the crowds. The route is nothing particularly interesting, pitch 2 is an awkward mix between slab and laybacking. South crack splitter was a good route overall. Pitch 4 has 5.7 R, but the climbing is straightforward and the runouts were only ~30 feet. Pitch 5 has a 130 foot runout, but the climbing is only 5.3. We ended the day on Zee tree which was going to be a warmup for the classic dike route later in the week. The rock was quality, but the route was not particularly memorable. The bolts are nearly impossible to see on lead (we ended up missing a few as we went). The best pitch of the route was the final 5.7 layback/OW section to the top. Day 4: Regular route, Fairview Dome, 5.9, 12 pitches West Crack, Daff Dome, 5.9, 5 pitches We got up early to be the first party on the regular route since it’s a 50 classic of North America and seems to always have a line on it. We were successful in being first on the route, but a team showed up shortly after us already racked to go so we begrudgingly let them go first (they turned out to move fairly fast so we didn’t get slowed down too much). Note: if it rained in the last couple of days, expect to find several of the cracks still running with water making the polished rock on pitch 1 spicy for sure. Can link pitch 1 and most of pitch 2 together, then after a short pitch, you can link pitches 3 and 4 (just save that small gear for the whole pitch). Pitches 8-12 can be simul-climbed fairly easily as well. We originally intended on getting on Lucky Streaks after this (5.10d, 6 pitches) but there were 3 teams on it already moving painfully slow. We opted for plan B and moved to Daff Dome to climb West Crack. Pitch 1 opens with a tough slab move above a bolt, followed by a long and sustained crack. Pitch 2 was particularly memorable involving a chimney/jug/overhanging pitch. It reminded me a little of the final pitch of the west face of Colchuck Balanced Rock. Day 5: South to North, Matthes Crest, 5.7, 18 pitches Southeast Buttress, Cathedral Peak, 5.6, 5 pitches We left the trailhead early to do the long hike out to Matthes Crest. One note from the start is that you want to leave the trail after 15 minutes (not 8), and counting granite steps as a marker for when to leave the trail is useless (there is a large carin anyways). The cross-country portion of the approach is easy and there were water sources everywhere on the approach. This route was a great deal of fun and the views were fantastic. We pitched out the first two pitches of the route, and then simul-climbed the remainder of the route looking for the easiest route on the knife-edge. From the top of the north summit, you can descend using a single rope by doing 3 rappels from three trees. The ridge keeps going, but Super Topo does not describe the route. After this we hiked back towards the car and decided we had enough time to try and get on Cathedral peak to end the day. Easy cross-country hiking takes you straight to the base of the route. There were a couple of parties still on route (on pitch 4 and 5) that we later learned had been on route since early in the morning (eek! note to start early if doing just this route) Pitches 1 and 2 were easy and straightforward. Pitch 3 wandered some and required a lot of long slings. Pitch 4 was one of the best pitches of the week, involving a fun chimney that you start by laybacking and squeezing into, finally going inside the chimney where you are inside a small tunnel of sorts. Evan led the pitch and didn’t place any gear in it since it would be nearly impossible to fall out of it. From the top you can scramble down 3rd and 4th class to get to the trail at the notch (there are roughly 1,000,000 carins on the way down incase you get lost). Day 6: (“Rest day”) On the Lamb, Lamb Dome, 5.9, 5 pitches We were fairly exhausted from climbing 23 pitches the day before and doing and climbing for 5 days straight so far. We decided to have a “rest day” allowing ourselves to sleep into about 8, make a pot of coffee, and relax in our camp chairs for a few hours. By the early afternoon, we were both antsy and decided to go and climb the classic route, “On the Lamb”. This was one of my favorite routes of the trip, but Evan did not like it as much. The crux of the route is finding the start. Once that is complete, you climb 250 feet of easy fifth to a ledge; traverse another 100 feet right to the start of the crack feature. From here, the route traverses straight to the right for about 600 feet, following a crack/dike feature with a knobby slab for your feet. For the pebble wrestlers out there, you can think of it as a 500 foot V0 traverse that is about 200-300 feet above the ground (you might want a big crash pad). Chris Mac suggests bringing a double set of nuts for the route, but you may as well leave them in the car. The crack gobbles up cams the entire way. Day 7: West Ridge, Mt.Conness, 5.6, 12 pitches This route was really not high on our original list, but after talking to several people, we pushed it up to the top. The approach is classic PNW style: long, loose scrambling, exposed positions, trails that are partial waterfalls, and lots of mosquitoes. We hiked in and treated some water at the bench above the high lake. We scrambled up about 400 feet below the summit only to hike down to a notch on the south side of the summit and drop ~800 feet vertical through a mix of loose class 3/4 and talus. This route was fantastic, full value climb for sure. Pitches 1-3 were harder than any pitch on Cathedral Peak. The remainder of the route can be simul-climbed with the most exciting climbing right on the ridge proper (you can always escape to the left for easier 3rd/4th class climbing). The climb had yellow-bellied marmots everywhere, which offered fun surprises on route and on the summit. Day 8: Shagadellic, Medlicott Dome, 5.8, 4 pitches Holdless Horror, Dozier Dome, 5.6, 4 pitches We only had a partial last day before we needed to start the long drive back to Seattle, but we also realized that we were close to actually climbing 100 pitches for the week, so we decided to add in two more new routes. Shagadellic was up first, and provided fun slab/knob climbing on pitches 2 and 3. Most people rap from here, but we completed pitch 4 to top out on Medlicott dome. The views from the top are fantastic, including views of the Cathedral Lakes and the backside of Cathedral Peak. From here, we climbed down and around to Dozier dome which was supposed to have a horrible approach and terrible mosquitoes. Neither of these facts were true, and instead we were greeted by ~10 parties of new climbers. We dropped our rope in line and rested in the shade for the next 4 hours waiting for a 3 teams to climb the four-pitch route Holdless Horror. Although the route name makes the route sound terrifying, its really well protected with a large off-width going most of the way and knobs everywhere. The Great White Book (right) West country (left) Lines galore on West Country Great White Book, pitch 3 Teneya Peak from Teneya lake The dozens of possible starts and lines up Teneya Peak Heading up the second simul-lead of Teneya Peak Summit of Teneya Peak Thunderstorms galore on day 2 Looking down at Pywaik dome Pywiak dome, Zee tree goes up the center, passing the single tree on the slab Fairview dome, Evan rocking out on Fairview Dome, the regular route goes roughly up the center Four days straight and I was exhausted! (top of Fairview) Daff dome, west crack goes up the center of the slab on the left side Lamb dome, On the lamb traverses the horizontal crack in the middle of the face Matthes Crest, start on the right side, head towards the left, staying on the ridge Simul-climbing Matthes Crest Summit of the north peak of Matthes Crest Great views on the way to Cathedral Peak Cathedral peak, Eichorn pinnacle on the left Evan exiting the chimney on pitch 4 of Cathedral Peak Looking down from the summit of Cathedral Peak Route for the west ridge of Mt.Conness False summit of Mt.Conness Descent gully down to the west ridge of Mt.Conness Start of the West Ridge of Mt.Conness Simul-climbing the ridge of Mt.Conness If you want to lead Peace (5.13c/d) or the Bachar Yerian (5.11c R) they are on Medlicott dome Shagadellic Great views from the summit of Medlicott dome (half dome in the background) Evan works on his pebble pinching and slab technique Holdless Horror, pitch 3

Awesome! .

Awesome guys!

Awesome Tom and Tim! .

Awesome guys! That bivy looks absolutely painful to sleep on! .

Awesome Marc, one hell of a link up for sure! .

Nice Bram and Matt! Way to get after it in a day I love the description of the block (a popcorn ball resting on pebbles). I still need to get on this route, hopefully this summer... .

Nice work! .

Hells yeah! Way to get after it! .

Awesome pictures, looks like you had a good time! .

Trip: Enchantments - Black Pyramid, Prusik Peak, others Date: 7/11/2010 Trip Report: Stewart (OlympicMtnBoy) and I just finished a great five-day trip in a less traveled area of the enchantments. We started from snow creek TH, headed up Nada creek, climbed a couple of unknown peaks, the Black Pyramid (the NE face?), the south face of Prusik (Beckey route), and exited down Toketie. Overall we had a great time, but we were both pretty happy to see a normal trail after four days of mostly off trail hiking. Day 1: We hiked up to Nada lake early in the morning to try and beat the heat. After a dip in the lake, we headed up the hill for another mile or so (mostly class 3/4) in the hot ass sun to get to the entrance to the Nada creek gully. The route is not particularly hard to follow, but I understand why some people chose to rope up on a few of the sections. After setting up camp and taking a rest, we headed up to the start of the Temple ridge and climbed two small peaks (Nada Creek Crags). One was 4th class (climbers left); the other peak was 2 pitches (5.easy, 5.8). The second peak was fun, with the last pitch requiring climbing through a hole, a chimney, and an OW mantle finish. As would become the norm, the descent took a while. We had an awesome bivy site, good views, with a nice running stream nearby. Day 2: we got up late and went to the Black Pyramid. True to its name, there is a fair bit of lichen on the wall, and since it doesn’t get a great deal of traffic, a descent amount of loose rock. The wind was blowing sustained at about 20, with gust well into the 30+ range. The wind was coming out of the west, so we went to the NE side to get on the "5.6" route. The winds were strong enough that we would be hypothermic after belaying the leader. The gusts also forced the leader to occasionally just stop and try not to be blown off the wall. It definitely makes for exciting climbing. We are not totally sure that we identified the correct line as the pitches went at ~5.7, 5.8 (loose stemming), 5.9 (hard offwidth/chimney), 5.8 super mossy face. Again, I am sure someone has done the route before, or at least many of the pitches, but it doesn’t meet up with the description of the NE face route in the Beckey guide and we didn't see any gear of definite piton scars. The descent off the Black Pyramid took a couple of hours with some raps and down climbing. Day 3: we wanted to do Prusik on day 4, so we moved camp further up the Nada creek basin, we moved it 0.5 miles, it took ~1.5 hours to walk there (bush whacking, rock pulling, pond avoiding fun). We found an awesome bivy site and the mosquitos were not really out yet (that would change the next day). We even took a dip in the lake and dried out in the sun! After setting up camp again it was 1 PM, so we did a little hike to scope out the approach for Prusik from that direction as well as the way we wanted to hike out (down to Toketie wall). Day 4: Up early to hike to Prusik. We had to side hill a large section of snow that was hard in the morning, making the crossing really sketchy with just hiking boots and a trekking pole. After a few hours, we were at the base of the south face of Prusik. Luckily the winds were gone now, but now it was super hot! We started up the Beckey line by hiking a snow mound at the base. We started the line on the correct pitch 1, but definitely were wandering for pitches 2 and 3. We figured out where to be by p4 and did the rest of the route as usual from there. The best climbing started on pitch 5, where Stewart cruised a nice hand crack with interesting features. However, this is where things went wrong for me. When seconding, I fell. As a second, this is not much of a problem, but we were using his thin Joker rope, and the stretch in the line allowed me to take a long fall. I went 15 feet into a ledge, smacked both of my legs pretty hard, and then flipped upside-down and traveled another 5+ feet below the ledge. It was perhaps the scariest fall that I have ever had (and it was on TR!). I was shaking pretty hard from the adrenaline, but I finished the pitch, scared as hell to fall again. When I hit the belay, I crashed. I was tired, hot, and super sketched out. Stew did a great job of calming me down and forcing me to rest. After sitting there for a half an hour waiting for the adrenaline to wear off, we determined that luckily I just had some bumps and bruises. As I was still shaking some, Stewart took the final crux pitch, and we topped out at about 5 or so. We rapped off, headed down and did the hike back to camp. The mosquitos appeared that night, but luckily a couple of cigars scared them off. Day 5: we headed out of the NW end of the Nada creek valley, up to the ridge, and dropped down into the Toketie lake valley. There is a "trail" that goes through the area that we luckily found, but there is so much vegetation, blow-down, and snow that it was really hard to follow for more than 50 feet at a time. After an hour or two we arrived at Toketie lake. Toketie wall is awesome. The wall is huge with lots of route potential. There were lots of good bivy sites and the views are out of control. New route development would be a major undertaking though. We made it to far side of the lake, filled up with water and then started the rest of the descent. The route heads straight down for ~2800 vertical in about 0.8 miles where you intersect the Snow Creek trail. Again we luckily found the "trail", but the whole thing is basically loose dirt, rocks, and tons of blow-down the entire way. To top it off, it was insanely hot. This section of hiking took us a little over 3 hours to come down, I bet it’s a pleasure to hike up. We hiked another 1.5 hours back down to the snow creek wall baking in the sun, and headed home. Nada lake looking up the Nada creek valley When you near the end of the boulder field, you cut right and up this: Three musketeers Beginning peaks of Temple Ridge Summit of unknown peak #2 Gotta bring the horse cock along for the trip Black Pyramid, Comet, Meteor, Professor, and friends… Pitch 1 of the Black Pyramid: Matt on pitch 2: Matt on p4: Rappel off the backside (south) of Black Pyramid Descending the Black Pyramid: Black Pyramid routes: Camp for nights 3 and 4: Day hikin’ Lighthouse tower, Comet, Meteor, Professor, and friends Temple peak The west end of Temple ridge, we approached Prusik by side hilling in the snow Edward’s platue: West face of Prusik (a party is starting p1) Stewart loves chimneys! Stewart starting pitch 3: Stewart coming up Snafflehound ledge: Stewart, the High Priest, Matt Temple ridge from Prusik: Approximate trip route: Gear Notes: Bring a thicker rope, gear to 4” took care of everything we did up there. Ice axe would have been nice in a few spots. Approach Notes: While we were able to follow portions of trails some of the time, these trails are definitely not well defined and you can expect lots of downfall, bushes, and for us, snow sections.

Awesome as always Tom! .

Hells yeah! Nice work Max and Sol! .

Awesome! Gotta try those routes next time I am up at the dome.

Good times guys! Glad to see the two of you guys both in the United States at the same time for a little while

Nice! We did the same set of routes a few weeks ago. We started by trying to do Restless Native, but p3 and higher was underwater. I agree that Sisyphus was a lot better than Prime Rib as well. Too many loose rocks... .

Some pics of the link up... http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=56333

I heard a story about FA party actually use a large board or hockey pads or something like that to protect the belayer. Sounds like a steller climb!

Sweet! It is one fantastic route for sure! Looks like its still full on winter up there! The key for me on the chockstone pitch was to attach my pack to a daisy and drop it below my feet. Once you make it through, just pull it right on up onto the platform.

I made this a while ago, and I don't have the guide in front of me, but Beckey mentions a route heading out from there described only as snafflehound ledge. Anyone? Bueller?