Tamarack Yosemite

So i've never been to yosemite before and scored a lottery backcountry permit to enter at tamarack creek.  Is there a good spot hiking in from there where we could set up a base camp to be decently close to some climbing?  Thanks y'all.

Devils dance floor may be somewhat close to the Tamarack Trail.

Devils Dance Floor is pretty close. Amazing views up there. Lots of "adventure" style trad climbing to be had there. 

Otherwise its gonna be quite the hike to established climbing areas. Still, Tamarack area is cool to explore. You could drive down to Knob Hill, Reeds area in a decently short amount of time. 

Crest Jewel on North Dome if it's not too far.

There are some outstanding sport routes on the south facing wall below the Dance Floor proper, and on a pinnacle with a 200’ south face. Mostly 5.11, a few 12’s, super good featured rock, and some pitches are pretty steep. It’s about a half hour mellow hike from Tamarack Flat Campground if you go the right way.

Tamarack Flat is a cool place to camp with a beautiful stream running through it. You could also access some more obscure domes down the Old Big Oak Flat Road, like Fireplace Bluff and The Audubon Buttress

As far as hiking in goes, about two miles down the old road is Cascade Creek, and a nice spot with big boulders and slabs. Found some nice arrowheads there

Thanks Kevin - that sounds like some beta that would be in the new Comprehensive Yosemite Guide, due out 2015,lol, guys telling me to not put out my select book because they will blow me out of the water.......anyone have the topo to post up or know what's gonna be in the new book? 2022 and we can't have it in digital form? Whatsupp?

Woot Woot, E

Yosemitebigwall.com

^^^ What B C describes actually sounds like a pretty cool itinerary. A way to experience some classic Yosemite climbing without having to touch the mess of the valley floor.

Hit up the climbs in the upper tier of ribbon falls. 

From Supertopo: LINK

Ribbon Falls West - Upper Tier (300', AAJ 2004)
FA partners include Tucker Tech, Blair Dixson, Boone Jones, Lonnie Kauk, Brian Ketron

780. Harold 5.11b
781. White Eagle Woman 5.10a
782. The Dreaming Tree 5.12a
783. Zeus 5.10c
784. Paiute Pride 5.10b
785. Universal Garden 5.11d
786. Persephone Butterfly 5.11d, 3p

I can also tell you:
It tops out 300' L (west) of Ribbon Falls.
You can approach it from above.
p3 is the arete in the photo - 8 bolts in 100'.

The back story is in the 2004 AAJ, p.167.
http://c498469.r69.cf2.rackcdn.com/2004/156_lower48_aaj2004.pdf#search=%22persephone%20butterfly%22

Ribbon Falls area, new routes.Nearly a decade after the passing of my father, I was searching for the ideal place to put a route up in his honor, and so my journey to Ribbon Falls began. On Father’s Day 2000 I hiked to the top, camped, and started in on the headwall, a 300-foot steep, golden wall littered with unclimbed cracks. A strip of forest separates the headwall from the 1,700-foot wall below. From this trip and many others we ended up with 17 pitches, ranging from 5.10a to 5.12a. 

The routes include 

• Harold (5.11b), 
• White Eagle Woman (5.10a), 
• The Dreaming Tree (5.12a), 
• Zeus (5.10c), Paiute Pride (5.10b), 
• Universal Garden (5.11d),  
• Persephone Butterfly (5.11d)

This wall became dedicated to an array of people, past and present.
SEAN JONES

Some friends and I did about 10 mostly bolted face climbs on the south face of the Dancefloor. We camped for several 2 or 3 night stays in a nice cave about 100 yds above the Medicine Man pinnacle. One route, Eldorado, 12a, is 3 pitches at the far right side of the main wall. It surmounts a 6’ horizontal roof on the first pitch, then sports a couple of excellent face pitches. On the pinnacle is Medicine Man, a two pitch 5.11 with a pinnacle summit. In between  the standouts are Back in Black 12a/b, and Gold Fever, the first pitch of which is possibly the best face pitch I’ve ever done. Incredibly featured and burnished stone.

It is a unique and beautiful climbing area with unparalleled solitude. The climbing is top notch for steep face, and the base is carpeted with pine needles and set among towering pine trees.

I submitted topos and photos to Donny Reid when he was still thinking he would accomplish a new guidebook. This must’ve been  late 80’s or early 90’s. He passed them along to Clint, Ed, and whoever else.

The google earth screen shots don’t do it justice, but you get the idea. The trees which appear to lean toward the wall have dead vertical trunks, and the wall is a lot steeper than it appears. The pinnacle is hard to discern, but it has a 60’ deep notch btw it and the main wall. I believe Charlie Porter did the FA in the seventies. The rappel is directly off an 8 ft tall pointed mini pinnacle that sits on the flat summit, no sling needed.

A special and rarely visited place just a little over a mile from the car. There is a rappel route into the notch, which can be done with one rope in two raps, and a 5.8 bolted route for return to the rim up the rap route.

That is pretty cool beta Kevin. Sounds like some good trips. The views and solitude are pretty one of a kind up there. 

Bivy on a huge boulder at the base. 

I was always looking for bolts etc on the larger faces during my various trips up there. The rock is extremely textured and beautiful. 

Further east in the trees there are quite a few shorter one pitch crack routes. 

Base of Devils Dance Floor in Winter. Clark Range in full display

It is a unique vibe up there. On a clear day you can see across the Central Valley to the Coast Range. We approached several times from a pullout on 120 at rattlesnake creek. It’s about an hour, and a 1000’ elevation gain if you go the right way, and you pass a little spring when you’re nearly level with the crag where you can water up. Unfortunately, Tamarack Flat campground is only open for the ez approach in the warmer months, and the routes are all south facing.

We followed a small herd of deer which bolted from the spring on one trip, and they led us up through a narrow pass between steep slabs, the same route we had used before. I found an intricately knapped obsidian arrowhead in that narrow spot, and it told me that was not the first time deer had been pushed through the gap by humans.

Another great memory is of passing alone along the base of the upper cliff band, and hearing the sudden sound of dead tree branches clacking together overhead. A big Golden Eagle I hadn’t seen dropped out of the tree above me and with a nearly silent swish of its wings, swept over my head and arced its way down to disappear in the Merced Canyon.

The solitude, and the views are sublime, as Dylan said. I didn’t mention the upper cliff band before, which has a number of 60 - 80 striking crack climbs, the most impressive being a slightly overhanging splitter offsize, Scab Laborer, 5.11, one of Yosemite’s more impressive wide cracks. There is a giant, super clean corner on The Medicine Man Pinnacle, also with a wide crack, 5.10. Additionally on a satellite crag to the east is an 11+ thin crack that Dancefloor local Rick Cashner put up.