The "Serenity-Sons" combo may be the best 5.10 crack climb in the Valley... it is just so, so good. Why anyone would do one without the other, I don't know, but since they are technically two separate routes, they are listed as such.
Sons of Yesterday is the flawless continuation of the climb.
P4: Depending on where you belayed, climb a long pitch of easy terrain past a short steep section of 5.10a thin hands to an airy belay perch on a small tree.
P5: A long pitch of 5.9 in a right-facing corner. Belay at bolts.
P6: Steep 5.9 jamming through a little roof. Belay at bolts.
P7: A wild pitch of 5.9 "walking" along a leaning crack leads to a final stretch of 5.8 fists to an anchor. A sweet pitch.
Begin double-rope rapping from here, sometimes on the route, sometimes just left of it.
Pitch 6 and Pitch 7 can be combined very easily with a 60 meter rope and lots of slings. Done this way, this is the best single pitch of climbing on the entire Serenity/Sons adventure. Save your big cam for the very top of pitch 7.
The last pitch of this climb is absolutely fantastic! Great exposure high of the deck.
By Paul Hunnicutt From: Boulder, CO Oct 22, 2007 rating: 5.10a
Some of the best hand jamming I've done in the Valley. You will want a #3 or 4 cam for the finish after the .75 camalot traverse. I didn't have anything and had to run it out to the anchors. Not bad though. Amazing climb. Try to get there early in the morning as the crowds will be there all day long. You can rap this along with Serenity with one 60m rope, but you will have to use some intermediate rap stations along the way (for example the tree right after the 5.6 section anchors). Combine the last 2 for a super amazing pitch.
I just climbed this last weekend and it seems that the pitch description above is a little off.
The easy linking pitch between Serenity and Sons (officially pitch 1 of Sons) ends in a 2 bolt anchor right before the going gets steep again. From there the next pitch is 120' feet to the second tree which has a pin and bolt anchor ritht above. This pitch is sustained 5.9/10a thin hands to fingers and I felt it was overall harder than anything on Serenity Crack. (All the parties we met agreed with that assessment). From here its hand jam heaven to the top.
The pitch Victor's talking about above is, I think, the best pitch of the day. The slammer hands of the last pitches are fun, and the Serenity pitches are great - but the first real pitch on Sons is long, varied, steep, and sustained. It takes all sorts of pro, all sorts of movement, and makes you draw deep into your quill of techniques for fingerlocks, thin hands, sidepulls, balance moves, crimps, high-steps, a fist or two, and plain old endurance.
A classic 120' of Yosemite climbing.
Just because you get through the feather-lite 3 moves of ".10d" below does not mean that you'll waltz this pitch. My opinion: this is the lead you want to on-site; let your partner have those slammer hands up top.
By Jordan Ramey From: South Pasadena, CA Mar 21, 2009
The entire route (SOY) and Serenity crack can be rapelled with a single 70 meter rope with an extra rap off the low tree on P2 of Sons.
If you are climbing this with a 70 meter rope, you can do the climb (the Sons pitches...) in 2 rope stretcher full 70m pitches if you belay from the bolts right before it gets steep--you then climb above the 2nd tree to the next set of anchors--this is exactly 70 meters. Then combine the next 2 to the top! This way you can do the linkup in 6 pitch total (on of which is a transition pitch between the top of serenity (just after the 10d hands) and the steep start at Sons.
Sons is great fun. I think the difficulty of the first real pitch may be inflated in some peoples' minds because it felt very cruiser. I also don't see how the "steep handjams" pitch is 5.9 as there is only real move getting into those jams and the rest is perfect #2s. These are very small bones I am picking, however, and the climbing is absolutely great. We got down with a 70m and did a little scrambling off-rope beneath the pitch two anchors in the dirty ramp on climbers right to gain the rap tree. It was unnecessary, but felt pretty safe if you find yourself there.
In late-May 2009, I witnessed a scary near miss by a party rapelling below me. They were rapping from one of the trees on the first hard pitch of SOY. They were using 2x60 meter ropes. They were simul-rapping, with a hard diagonal to the right, attempting to reach the top of Serenity Crack (the anchor just above the 5.10d). One of them, who was not wearing shoes, was down in the gulley and nearing the anchor, suddenly slipped. He rocketed across the face and whipped out of sight, landing in trees and banging his hip hard on the rock below. He took probably a 100 foot swing and hit hard. His partner then decided to take the same swing to get to his hurting partner. I yelled to them and they said they were OK. They descended from trees and other anchors to the ground. This scenario seems like it could happen to others. In fact, Supertopo warns of it on their topo. The solution for me is to make a few short single rope raps, while diagonaling right, to avoid the big swing. Be careful out there.
RSS Feed
Slideshow
