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John Muir Route (The Mountaineer's Route)
Easy 5th PG13,
Trad, Alpine, 400 ft (121 m),
Avg: 2.9 from 65
votes
FA: John Muir, Sep 7, 1869
California
> Yosemite NP
> Tuolumne Meadows
> Cathedral Range
> Cathedral Peak
> Southeast Slopes
Access Issue: Latest updates on closures, permits, and regulations.
Details
Please visit
climbingyosemite.com/ and
nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/… for the latest information on visiting Yosemite, including permits, regulations, and closure information.
Yosemite National Park has yearly closures for Peregrine Falcon Protection March 1- July 15. Always check the NPS website at
nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/… for the most current details and park alerts, and to learn more about the peregrine falcon, and how closures help it survive. This page also shares closures and warnings due to current fires, smoke, etc.
Description
Sections of 4th and easy 5th class moves interspersed with first class ledges for breathing room on one of the most aesthetic peaks anywhere. What's more to want? Route spoilers below for you purists.
John Muir logged his first ascent in
chapter 10 of My First Summer in the Sierra.
Location
Park or take the shuttle to the Cathedral Lakes trailhead. Follow the trail south and uphill for about 10 minutes. On your left there will be a dead log, and the climber's trail beyond this. Take this trail for about an hour; it follows Budd creek for a while and will eventually deposit you at the base of Cathedral Peak. Walk/scramble up the right side of the mountain towards a notch a couple hundred feet below the summit. This is probably the best place to take a break and prepare for 4th/5th class scrambling. Once at the notch, descend ~50 feet on the far side of the peak and follow the path of least resistance across the slope: 3rd-4th class. Aim for ridge that connects Eichorn to the peak proper. Stay to the left of this ridge and ascend again towards the true summit: 4th class with a few easy 5th class moves. Once you're about 30 feet below the summit, make an airy, 4th and easy 5th class traverse to a small belay stance at the base of the crack system that will take you to the summit. Rope up at the stance, or before making the traverse. Enjoy the exposure, and bomber handjams and holds will take you to the top. The summit crack felt to be about 5.5-5.6. The PG-13 rating is if you do the summit block ropeless. A fall here would almost certainly be catastrophic.
Protection
There's a 15 foot summit block that goes at about 5.6, with nothing but air underneath your feet. Pro to 2.5" is very nice, along with a short (20m) rope.
[Hide Photo] Some angel posted this on summitpost. Here it is in case you can't find it. Thank you to whomever shot this.
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North Conway, NH
Anchorage
Ogden, UT
The summit block is easier than expected. No rope needed and no anchors to build any sort of rappel on anyways. There was evidence of chopped bolts on the very top. Sep 14, 2021
San Francisco, CA
But seriously, the downclimb bit was fine if you have any crack climbing experience. Might be harder for particularly short people, there was one part where at 5'10" the next place to put my foot was just a *little* too low for comfort. Even if you fell from the top of the downclimb, it would be very unlikely you'd bounce and fall all the way off the edge (there is about 30' of slopey boulders to fall onto before you're looking at certain death).
There were two webbed up trees to rappel from. We avoided the first as it was easy enough to downclimb from it and then used the second. Unfortunately, our rope got stuck, so we had to ascend and then hike down the slabs anyway. I'm not sure I'd recommend trying the rappel for the high chance of it being pinched (it's angled over an edge, the webbing would likely need to be extended to make this doable). May 30, 2022