Nicole

This route climbs through the extremely obvious set of three roofs just left of Mindy that looks like a man’s face. 

Pitch 1 (5.10b, 20m) Climb easy blocky terrain to a large ledge. Tackle the black flares fingers crack (5.10b) or take the easier tight hands crack to the left in the right facing dihedral to another large ledge. Belay here below an obvious fingers crack that pulls through a bulge/ roof directly above. 

Pitch 2 (5.11, 20m) Climb blocks and horns directly above the belay to a ledge with a large bush. Climb around the bush and attack the overhung fingers crack. Lie back or jam around the overhang to more fingers. Continue up and belay on a small stance on the left using a splitter .75/ #1 crack. You can link P1/2 if you take the 5.10b crack to avoid heneious rope drag. 

Pitch 3 (5.11, 30m) Climb off the belay up a tight hands crack to the first of three roofs. The roofs gradually widen from hands to fists. Pull the last roof and continues up to a large ledge (this is the belay above the OW for Mindy). Either continue up Mindy P3 or walk across the ledge left about 10’ to Petra P3 and continue on either of these routes. We originally intended to climb the flared cracks above to the large ledge at the base of pitch 4 but we didn’t have enough time to clean the cracks. So for the intrepid climbers a third option exists, belay 5’ left of the Mindy belay just above a large bush climb up flared hard to protect cracks to the next ledge then climb a dirty (currently) dihedral with good jamming and stemming to the large ledge below the final headwall (I climbed it on TR while looking around so I know it has potential).

Getting There:

“Lamorck” is the subpeak visible just behind the left side of Upper Lamarck Lake. Take the Lamarck Lakes Trail to Upper Lamarck Lake. When the trail forks to either go to the lake proper or head left to the Col, head left, cross the creek, and after about 100 yards or so leave the main trail (37.21237, -118.64484) and start heading straight towards “Lamorck” on hills to the left of the lake. Once off of the Lamarck Col Trail, cairns will lead you to the base of the boulder field. Gain the boulder field and head via the easiest line to the base of the crag (there are multiple easy options through the boulder field). The base of the route is (37.20428, -118.65626). It’s about 3.85 miles from the North Lake Trailhead Parking to the base of the wall. 

Descent:

From the top of the route, head left (S/ SE) across 3rd and 4th terrain to roughly the high point on the ridge. Trend down and left on ledges from here to easier ground. Either link up with the Mt. Lamarck Col Trail just to the South and descend or from the easier ground contour down and left below the face of the wall down talus and gravel to the base of the climb (this descent starts near here: 37.20155, -118.65686). In early season, this second option will be snow covered. You are able to see if this descent option is available from the Trailhead or Upper Lamarck Lake. If snow covered, I recommend leaving a pack hanging near the Col Trail to grab on your descent rather than going back to the base or climbing with your gear so you can do the loop. 

OR

Head left (South) along the ridge for about 15 ft. to a rappel station (37.20434, -118.65656). Rappel down and skiers right 35m to the next station under a slight overhang. Then straight down and slightly (skiers) left to another station under a large overhang (it’s the third large overhang you rap over) 34m down. Head straight down and slightly right from here to another station on a low angle slab, 32m. One last rappel drops you at the base of the wall. Scramble skiers left to your gear. See the photos on “Christine” or “Petra” for rap photos. 

Just left of Mindy on the “Ladies of Lamorck Wall”

2x .2-4
An extra #3 is nice
Set of nuts