Grillmair's Chimneys  5.6 PG13

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Type:  Trad, 8 pitches, 1000 feet, Grade III Consensus:  5.6 [details] FA:  L. Grillmair & H. Gmoser Season:  Mid May to Mid October Submitted By:  ihategrigris on Mar 19, 2007 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (3) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

A portion of pitch 5.

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Description 

This classic route was the first route put up on Yamnuska. The first ascent was done by 'accident' using a nylon utility rope and a couple of pins. The first assencionists started scrambling just to see how high they could get, and before they knew it they were roping up for the crux pitch.

Do not do this route until Yam is free of snow, or else you'll regret it!

This is a great introductory route on Yam, the route finding is relatively straight forward, and the rock on the difficult sections is fairly strong.

Pitch 0 (5.0, 20m) - Scramble up the low 4th/5th class rock to the actual start of the route.

Pitch 1 (5.5, 40m) - Climb up the blocks and ledges to a good belay ledge, good cracks and fixed pins for the belay at a large ledge.

Pitch 2 (5.6, 30m) - Work your way into a series of chimneys until you emerge on top of a ledge.

Pitch 3-5 (5.5, 110m) - Follow the weaknesses trending slowly to the left. Several good belay positions exist. Stay in the chimneys rather than on the face where possible, as the face climbing is more difficult.

Pitch 6 (5.6+, 20m) - Climb up the face along two small cracks or around the corner to the large scree ledge above. Watch out, the climbing is tricky on the face. Belay from the large scree ledge.

Pitch 7 (5.6 30m) - Climb the broken corner to the slab at the base of the large chimney above.

Pitch 8 (5.6+ 50m) - Move onto the slab below the chimney protected by 2 fixed pins. Move into the chimney and climb up, following the obvious weaknesses deeper and deeper into the chimney. There is a good reminder of why fixed pins need to be backed up here. Move past a large chock-stone (possible belay) and deeper into the chimney/cave system. The top out is through a small hole at the top of the pitch.

Location 

From the top of the approach trail walk along Kahl wall until the first major break. Scramble up the low angle crap at the left side of the break and walk along the top of the slab until the wall steepens up; the routes starts up from here.

Protection 

Standard Yam Rack, screamers for the many fixed pins. None of the belays are fixed, so be ready to build your own.

Photos of Grillmair's Chimneys Slideshow

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Pitch 1 or 2	The middle part of the route, where we are choosin...	The spectacular final pitch.