Sand of TIme on Cal Dome

Can anyone tell me if 12 o' clock high ledge (or any other ledge) on Sands of Time on Cal dome is big enough for two people to bivy on?

csproul wrote:Can anyone tell me if 12 o' clock high ledge (or any other ledge) on Sands of Time on Cal dome is big enough for two people to bivy on?

Sure. If I recall correctly, 12 o'clock is pretty big (its at the minimum quite wide). Perhaps Salamanizer will pop up here and will verify my answer because I know he spends a lot of time up there. Just out of curiosity though, why do you want to bivy on Sands? The free climbing is great and easy to do in a day and hauling would really F that enjoyment.

Yeah, I know the route would be much better without the bivy and it's fully within my capabilities to do so. I'm really just trying to get my partner and I to dial in some hauling/jugging/wall bivy techniques. I am looking for a route that won't be too crowded and has a few pitches to get to a good ledge. I have been finding it too easy to blow off some of that practice in order to get more fun free climbing in, or on short wall it is just to easy to go back to the ground and the comfort of the bivy van.I'm certainly open to other suggestions.

Having just climbed Sands of Time two weeks ago (with no other parties on the route, I might add), I can say that the 12 o'clock ledge is definitely big enough for two people to bivy on, and would be reasonably comfortable. However, I don't know if I'd recommend SOT for hauling/jugging practice. Most of the route is rather slabby and/or contains features that could be annoying to haul over. You might try a steeper and more direct (though harder) line on the Cal Dome, e.g., High Times.

PS: If you're ever looking for a partner for a Cal Dome romp, I also live in Davis.

So we went ahead and did this as planned. The climb was awesome except for a couple of pitches that were clearly off route and had some very loose dangerous rock. The bivy was super nice and it was a glorious place to enjoy a hot meal and some scotch. We did a combination of jugging with the bag when the rock features dictated and hauling when it was convenient and safe to do so. As expected, we were slow and we did let 3 parties pass right after the first pitch. But all in all, it was super a fun experience.

David, or anyone else who has climbed this, I'd love to hear about the route you took just above 12 o' clock ledge. We got off route a bit an then clearly onto a different route that led to Warlord ledge, so I'd like to hear how others have done this section. I'd like to go back and do the route at once without the bag and figure out that section where we got off.

12 o' clock ledge bivy

I've only done the first Sands pitch above 12:00 Ledge. It's a long pitch directly up the face, and pretty scary. Then we bailed onto some bolt protected dike, which leads to Warlord Ledge. Here's my description for that first pitch:

From the 12 o'clock ledge, you'll want to move the belay up onto the small ledge above you. There is a brush-filled ramp that heads up and right and then walk back left across the ledge to belay below a white flake.

Pitch 8: Climb up the flake about 20 ft, place some gear and then make a cruxy traverse right. There is a slopey softball sized knob which I used as a handhold. You are aiming to get to the small corner/flake up and to the right. The first couple moves are the hardest (5.9) but it stays somewhat sustained in the 5.8-5.7 range higher up. Don't blow any of the moves or you will take an ugly swing back into the big flake below.

At the small corner you can get a solid .5" TCU. Climb straight up the face to another small left facing corner. The gear here is tricky (micro cams help) and the stances aren't very good for fiddling with gear. Climb to the top of the corner and then follow a dike up and left. From here you just wander up the face, taking advantage of the numerous knobs and features. There is no gear however, so don't blow it in the upper regions of the pitch or you will crater on the ledge 150' below. I found a way through that felt about 5.6, but there is potential to make it harder if you don't route-find correctly. Even at 5.6, it feels sort of "out there" as you pinch slopey knobs and smear your feet while looking at a death fall. The pitch ends at a ledge/ramp that diagonals up and to the left. Gear anchor.

From here, we got off-route for the next two pitches so I can only speculate at pitches 9 and 10. Pitch 9 looks like it wanders across the face up and right to belay beneath the big left-facing corner above. It also looks like another ass-puckering pitch of 5.9 face, like the previous one, or possibly even worse. Pitch 10 climbs the left facing corner, with probably some chimney climbing. The topo calls it 5.8 and it doesn't look bad. This will take you to War Lord Ledge.

Yeah, we tried to follow these direction combined with others. It started out fine above 12 o' clock ledge into the flake/corner. Instead of going right, however, we kept following the corner/chimney. It was fine in the chimney but the exit has some very dangerous loose flakes at ~5.9 climbing. This put us on top of Tibetan Tower.

I also followed a angling dike with anchor bolts on either end. But there were no protection bolts and there was very thin and sparse gear for about 50-60m, probably 5.8 climbing. From there we followed two bolts straight up (5.9) and then the climbing got easier up to the left side of Warlord ledge.