[Hide Comment] Yesterday my man Henry fished in a damn good purple c3 on the left side of the 10a r corner- about a body length above the bolt- making it much less runout. Jun 22, 2009

[Hide Comment] Pitch one has some cool crack moves over a small bulge. Pitch two, though short, seemed to have the most technical moves. Third pitch is sustained but well-protected--you can place a medium-sized nut way above your head before the crux. The "R" pitch was neither dangerous, difficult, or scary compared to the rest. Oct 4, 2009

[Hide Comment] this route is so much fun. Highly recommended and safe with modern gear. Oct 27, 2009

[Hide Comment] Sweet climb! More like 5 separate climbs in a row.

Personally, the R rating seemed out of place. There was some adequate gear at the corner if you had some small cams. Apr 27, 2010

[Hide Comment] Purple C3 perfectly protected the move above the bolt, as advertised above.

This route is not runout, with the exception of the loooonng 5.7 slab on the last pitch.

The 10b changing corner to wide hands pitch is definitely the true crux of the route, and offers significantly harder and more sustained climbing than any other pitch.

Descent was easy - just go waaaaay far looker's left before switching back. In general, follow the trail of crushed manzanita! Jul 15, 2010

[Hide Comment] R rating is BS. The section above the bolt is maybe 5.7, and you get solid medium gear only a few moves above the bolt. Jun 28, 2012

[Hide Comment] Adventurous route that will test mid 5.10 leaders - it did me!

Metolius 00/0 offset fits perfectly above the bolt on P4. IMHO it's quite a bit harder than 5.7 until the next good gear!

The 10b corner move felt easy compared to the finger tip corner of P2 and the finger tip layback of P3. Both protect well, but getting in gear definitely adds to the strenuous factor. Jul 13, 2015

[Hide Comment] Pitch three has a few sections of fist jamming after the crack switch. I found it easier to layback the widest sections of that pitch using good knobs on the right face. A fantastic pitch! Aug 24, 2015

[Hide Comment] A more specific grade for this climb would be "5.10b then 5.7 R". There is no 5.10 R climbing on this route, so long as you're comfortable leading the 5.7 R friction/knob slab final pitch (similar to the topout-pitch on Stately Pleasure Dome's South Crack, but *much* shorter), don't be scared away by this terrific and nearly road-side route! If driving east from Tenaya Lake toward the TM campground, the closest parking is probably the slightly-undefined but safe pull-out on the right, directly after passing the main Tenaya Lake parking lot. From there, walk east up the road (toward the TM campground) 2 minutes and cross over to the dome side where you should be able to match up the excellent route overlay photo already submitted here by another user.

As long as you have decent hand/fist-jamming and liebacking technique for a couple short sections on p1/3/4, there are only ~three *brief* cruxes on this route as a whole - two delicate and one a bit burly:

• The finger-lock/smear moves in the main crack on p2 (delicate)
• The "changing corners" bit low on p3 (bit burly)
• The high-reach crimps low on p4 (delicate)

The smallest three x4 offsets were bomber in protecting a couple of them.

Although involving a good bit of traversing between pitches, the line does follow the natural weaknesses of the face, and thus doesn't feel contrived as you might feel a typical route with this sort of overall line to be. Sep 4, 2015

[Hide Comment] What a great route! Done it twice since early 90s and look forward to a third time. Second pitch at 10a is a sandbag (of course)... Jul 4, 2019

[Hide Comment] I agree with Bill, the 10a lieback is the real crux for the fat fingered among us. 10b crack switch was fun gym climbing movement. Jul 6, 2021

[Hide Comment] The second pitch definitely felt like the crux for my partner and I, although it's only one or two moves before letting up significantly. Third pitch corner switch was very straightforward with good gear. We brought small cams and a few small offset nuts and felt like everything protected fine. Also the Supertopo says the traverse on pitch 3 is "5.7 no pro," however we found the traverse to barely be 5th class at all. Finally the last pitch felt more featured and less heady than South Crack.

Descent down the ramp system was easy and incredibly convenient. Talk about a 5 star descent! Aug 6, 2023

[Hide Comment] The bolted anchor atop the 1st pitch (actually the anchor for "How Does it Feel?" .11a) is currently missing a hanger and nut. Looked 1/2" to me. Also, the boulder that you might be tempted to sling for an anchor underneath pitch 3 moves pretty easily... I'd look for gear farther left. Not that it really matters, as you're on a huge ledge. Sep 18, 2023