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Sky Pilot

5.11b, Trad, Alpine, 1000 ft (303 m), 6 pitches,  Avg: 3.8 from 28 votes
FA: Croft, Lella 2014
California > High Sierra > 08 - Bishop Pas… > Mt Goode

Description

Scramble left from the snowfield to a nice belay spot below the North Buttress Route.
P1 5.8 200+ ft: Climb the 5.8 corner of the NB route, to a large ledge.
P2 5th class 50ft: Short easy traverse right to a nice stance, belay beneath a splitter tips crack corner and a second thin dihedral with an arching crack to the right.
P3 5.11a 90ft: Technical and superb! Start right of the splitter tips corner. Lieback a thin dihedral to the arching crack then traverse back left into the splitter tips crack corner which has widened here to thin fingers. Fixed nut anchor at a small foot stance.
P4 5.11 PG-13 90ft: Intermittent crack and a face climbing crux protected by thin gear, this bit has some friable rock crunchies. Fixed nut anchor at another small stance.
P5 5.11 100ft: Amazing alpine Splitter! Stop to smell the namesake purple flowers sprouting from the crack. Enduro 1" crux, place all the .5 Camalots you brought, avoid hyper-ventilating! Finish on cool diorite features to a gear belay on a big comfy ledge.
P6 5.7 300ft. Head up and left to rejoin the NB route, alpine ridge terrain to the summit. Killer view!

Location

North face of Mt. Goode; this route shoots up the steep green headwall (climbing right after the North Buttress 2nd pitch) for three excellent, sustained pitches, then rejoins NB to finish on the summit ridge.

Protection

2X BD Camalot .1-#2, 1X #3

4X .3 .4 .5

Set o Nuts

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Enduro fat fingers finish to P5, try not to blow it!
[Hide Photo] Enduro fat fingers finish to P5, try not to blow it!
Abel on P3
[Hide Photo] Abel on P3
The comfy belay ledge after P5, rejoin the NB route here.
[Hide Photo] The comfy belay ledge after P5, rejoin the NB route here.
Justin finishing up the splitter pitch
[Hide Photo] Justin finishing up the splitter pitch
The North Face of Mt. Goode
[Hide Photo] The North Face of Mt. Goode
Looking up at Pitch 4.
[Hide Photo] Looking up at Pitch 4.
Sizing up the crux on P4
[Hide Photo] Sizing up the crux on P4
The 5.11 'Pretty Flowers Splitter' P5
[Hide Photo] The 5.11 'Pretty Flowers Splitter' P5

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Tommy Sicilian
Long Beach
[Hide Comment] Excellent route! I think the gear recommendation is a little off. We brought triples in .2-.5, but that was over kill. I would go with doubles in micro (purple/green C3 or equivalent) to #2, a single #3 and 3-4 #0.4 + nuts. I only place 1 #0.5 on pitch 5 and would have used a 4th #0.4 if I had it. Bumping is easy from rests and helps. Jun 29, 2020
Jon.R
Tucson, AZ
  5.11
[Hide Comment] The three head-wall pitches are awesome. In particular, the two 5.11 pitches feature wild and occasionally cryptic climbing above good gear (i.e. it might be tricky to aid up these).

Perhaps we weren't acclimated but I thought Tommy's recommended rack above was a little bit of a sandbag. I placed many 0.5's on the splitter fingers pitch. For next time, I'd use doubles from tiniest to #2, single #3, 4x 0.4, and 3x 0.5. With this rack, I'd avoid using the 0.3's for anchors. It's also nice to have a mix of brands in the 0.4-0.5 range.

With the exception of the couple hundred feet between the end of the head-wall and joining the north buttress, the climbing is fully classic! Sep 17, 2020
Rew Exo
Mammoth Lakes / Bishop
[Hide Comment] The splitter is mostly 0.4s, but some of it is tight 0.5s. I placed 4 0.4s and pushed them pretty far. I also placed 4 0.5s because they were too tight to easily push. That pitch was exactly 35m. Jun 27, 2022
Short Fall Sean
Bishop, CA
[Hide Comment] We started this route around noon on July 10th and were in the sun pretty much all day. The wall is northwest facing, so expect some sun especially if you're starting late and near the solstice.

My partner and I both thought the "11a" third pitch was the crux. It's more physical than the others and with the altitude, I felt like I was putting in an 11d effort. The next pitch has a tricky balance crux, but it's short and well protected. And the splitter climbs easier than it looks with several good rests.

Killer route. On a totally different level of quality than the North Buttress Deluxe.

Edit: agree with Walden about ditching the 2nd #2. Jul 11, 2022
Where's Walden
  5.11a/b
[Hide Comment] Link pitches 1 and 2 with a 70m rope and ~15 feet of simuling on terrain that is easy for leader and follower. Aim for the convergence of multiple pale green granite panels where a nut eating crack provides an anchor with a foot ledge.
Bring a single #2 and single #3 on this climb. Jul 12, 2022