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Middle Earth

5.10b/c R, Trad, 500 ft (152 m), 5 pitches, Grade III,  Avg: 3.2 from 9 votes
FA: Bruce Brossman, Mike Breidenbach 1985
California > Yosemite NP > Tuolumne Meadows > Mariuolumne Dome > W Face
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Description

Old-school route, expect run-out (to very run-out) sustained face climbing. Not a great route if you're trying to break in at the grade, but of you are comfy on run-out 5.10 face and crack climbing, this offers some of the best climbing in Tuolumne, hands down. A great example of a 5 star route that is just as quality as many classics, but doesn't get done that often.

Pitch 1: Climb the fist crack for about 40 feet, then up and left in to an unlikely looking crack that had some bushes in it. You can also climb the fist crack to the end, but that makes the crux before the pin harder (and has worse fall potential).

Pitch 2: This is where the first cruxy bit is. This pitch is tough to describe because it wanders around a bit.
Pull the bulge (2 options, both 5.10 and both with crappy fall potential), then clip a fixed pin and move up and right to a bolt (all bolts are new and shiny, thanks ASCA!). Make a long traverse right here--again, a crappy fall for both leader and second. Follow this to the Dike Crack, an awesome thin crack with pretty good feet where you need them. Bolted belay here. If you're a baller and don't place much pro, you can run these two pitches together.

Pitch 3: Another cruxy section, but both protected by bolts. After the second bolt (a tough traverse right) gets you to the tit flake. Pro is good here, but make sure you're placing it behind the thicker parts of the flake, not the thin parts, as pro would probably not hold. You can belay here at the top of the flaky bit (70 feet), or just keep going, which I recommend if you have a 70.

Pitch 4: Head up the obvious hand crack. At this point your mind is probably pretty blown at the quality of the climbing. Supertopo say don't keep going to the big cave as there is no pro, but this is not true, up and left part of the cave has a nice crack for 3 smallish cams or stoppers. Do not belay at the loose block on the right edge of the cave, it is hollow.

Pitch 5: 2 options, go up the dike for the 5.9 R/X version (felt pretty X to me...) or up and right for the 5.8 R version.

As said above, if you have a 70M rope, you can combine this into 3 pitches.

Location

Starts about 100 feet to the left of the Hobbit Book start--You'll see the right-leaning fist crack, you can't miss it.

Protection

Take plenty of small stuff, probably a double set to #2 camalot, and 1 #3.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

P2 Great Route
[Hide Photo] P2 Great Route
After removing (& patching the hole) the old 1/4" bolt at the flake on pitch 3.
[Hide Photo] After removing (& patching the hole) the old 1/4" bolt at the flake on pitch 3.
Original bolt as you got to the flake on pitch 3. The #1 camalot is in the thick, solid part of the flake (it gets thinner higher), and this bolt really wasn't needed - with modern cams at least!
[Hide Photo] Original bolt as you got to the flake on pitch 3. The #1 camalot is in the thick, solid part of the flake (it gets thinner higher), and this bolt really wasn't needed - with modern cams at least!

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Jeff Sewell
Monterey Park, CA
[Hide Comment] FA info incorrect. I climbed it in '81, and it was in no way the FA. Jul 10, 2017
Dusty Cams
Bali, ID
  5.10b/c
[Hide Comment] I removed the reference to the year, thanks for the heads up. Aug 28, 2017
[Hide Comment] great route, definitely worthy. If it wasn't R, it would be a classic.
On pitch 2, the left variant of the 5.10 bulge move at least had a good hold to work with, even if off balance and bad fall potential.
Worth noting, on pitch 3, the 'dike' is a decently run-out 5.9 face section before you get to the 5.7 crack.
For the final pitch we skipped the direct R/X finish and exited right, angling towards Hobbit Book, eventually climbing the face immediately left of Hobbit Book (with decent pro given it's easy face climbing).

for the rack beta, in addition to the double set to #2 camelot and 1 #3 mentioned, i'd also suggest a set of wires (and we used a #4 camelot twice on route). Jul 29, 2019