Super Slide 

If you traverse to the left end of the ledge at the end of the 2nd pitch and belay from there, you can run the 3rd and 4th pitches together with a 60-meter rope. This lets you skip the hanging belay, which you will discover on the rappel down is a very uncomfortable place to hang out. Better to skip it if you can.

A good, fun romp that has some very loose rock, particularly on the last pitch before you gain the clean splitter. Careful what you pull on, I almost dropped a basketball sized chunk onto my belayer before gingerly putting it back in place.

Agree that linking the first two off of the ledge (also covered in loose rocks) is the way to go.

Great route in spite of the patches of loose stuff, and perfect if you're pushing into the grade. Stays in the shade behind the Ahwahnee Buttress until late morning.

Combining pitches 3 and 4 make for an incredible 180' pitch!

Correction to the Supertopo: the bolt anchor indicated atop P1 (p. 123) is gone. Instead, build an anchor in the 5.7 thin crack to the left.

• combining pitches 1&2 (60m rope) gets you to the goods faster. Saw no sign of the p1 anchor so just kept going. A 60m rope barely makes it to the first tree on this ledge. Bring some runners if combining these two pitches.

• agreed that the hanging belay at top of p3 is uncomfortable. Wish we had linked with p4.

• DO THIS ROUTE! It's so money.

We were able to link Pitches 1&2 with a 70 meter rope. We also shifted the belay over on top of pitch 2 and Linked pitches 3&4. From the top of pitch 5 we rapped w/ 2 70M ropes to pitch 3 anchors, then 1 more rap to the gully you started the climb in.(requires some down climbing 20ft')
I lost my wedding ring at the base of Supe Slide or Trial by Fire. Its a silver ring, let me know if you find it. Thanks

Great climb! P3,4 and 5 have some great crack. I would not recommend the alternate 5.8 start (Trial by Fire). I don't think the couple of parties in front of us would recommend it either...

I did this for the second time & led every pitch. Linking p3 & p4 really makes it one of the funnest pitches I've done in a good while. Quality climbing. The 5.9 at the top reminds me of a shorter, lower angle version of the splitter absolutely free. Wish it was longer.

Objective hazards: The red biting ants that caused us much misery on the East Butt of Middle Cathedral Rock are all over the two lowest rappel stations. Try to avoid squishing them at any costs since, we hypothesize, the noxious smell causes the rest to swarm.

Gear: We saw three mangled metolius cams (orange and yellow) on the top pitches. We did it on camalots and had no issues (bring doubles on the .5s and .75s and plan to bump), but if you climb on metolius, just be wary.

Note that in late Sept 2009, there was a lot of rock fall in the area. We planned to top rope the face climb after our rappel, but got to the bottom and discovered that some 150 pounds of grapefruit sized granite chunks had hit both our packs and cut up our open rope bag. The route seems safe after the first, ground belay, be be careful at the beginning.

Great linkup with Trial by Fire to avoid the boring approach pitch. Lower section is a bit dirty & forgettable but the final 5.9 section is SWEET!

P4 & the belay above was pouring with water when I did the route this May. P5 was dry at the crux though. Sunshine did manage to burn off the water on the route.

On Trial by Fire my second noticed a grapefruit-sized rock fall near him and it was NOT from a climber above.

Anyone have any beta on rapping the route with a single 70M rope, stopping at the anchors on pitch 4 on the way?

Climbed on 1/15/11. Beautiful, and totally worth the two boring first pitches. 1st anchor bolts are gone. Pitches 3-4 linkup beautifully. Crux on P5 is spicy wide fingers for a short while at the very end. Otherwise very manageable, and rather soft for valley 5.9.

Did this route twice over the summer of 2012 and it was great!

Just a word of advice, while pulling the rope from the first double rope rappel, out line snagged on a sort of knob directly plumb from the top anchors. I'm not sure if this is dumb luck but this happened on both occasions, being especially obnoxious since my we had to climb to unstick the rope each time. In the future I will probably rap to the top of 4 first to avoid this.