[Hide Comment] The climbing isn't that spectacular, but it's a long route and well worth doing. Sep 12, 2006

[Hide Comment] You can link 1&2 with a 60m rope and about 20' of simul climbing. Climb past the tree on your left at the 200' mark and have your second start climbing as you continue up a handcrack to a stance on a nice ledge below the awesome finger crack of P3. The belay requires thin finger to finger sized pieces as I recall. From here you can make it to Crescent Ledge in two pitches and avoid the crappy hanging belay. Sep 19, 2006

[Hide Comment] Climbed it this weekend. Great fun, ~5 hours car-to-car.

Some beta on P4. Do the Hollow Flake variation on the crescent arch pitch. Easy, exposed, and fun! Aug 12, 2007

[Hide Comment] Free Super Topo: supertopo.com/topos/yosemit… Nov 29, 2007

[Hide Comment] fun and accessible. Aug 2, 2008

[Hide Comment] Tremendous. P1 is climbable by bridging, sorry I mean stemming, even when there is a wet streak down the groove. May 8, 2009

[Hide Comment] Agree with Blitzo, the climbing isnt spectacular but certainly fun. Lots more enjoyable stuff to do if there is a line. There was a little water seepage in the crack on the first pitch 9/7/09, not a problem at all. The first 4 pitches as we did it (up to pitch 6 in ST) were enjoyable. After that its a 4th class romp to the top with one or two moves of very easy 5th mixed in. We linked pitches 3 and 4 as well as 5 and 6 with a 70m. Simul-climbed to the top from the end of pitch 6 in the ST guide. If you are a fast party and you arent behind a slow party it is certainly possible to do this car to car in under 3 even belaying out the first half of the climb. Sep 8, 2009

[Hide Comment] Topped out with some dudes from Mazama who were road-tripping with Fred Beckey! They showed us some vid clips on their nice camera of Fred rambling about all kinds of whacky shit. Tramped down to find Fred in the parking lot! Holy Shit! What a day!!! Jan 1, 2010

[Hide Comment] This route can actually be climbed in one long pitch, but you'll need an 800 foot rope. Jul 3, 2010

[Hide Comment] Perhaps the biggest surpise to me on this route was that most of the gear was small, not hand-size like I assumed from the grade. Bring nuts and doubles of tcu's/master cams. I think I placed the #3 C4 once on the whole route. A little disappointed at the quality, but it is a beautiful line up a big piece of rock. West Crack is better. Sep 13, 2010

[Hide Comment] Great route, the crux is low on P1. Partner and I did the route in 8-9 pitches, you'd really have to try hard to do in it more pitches than that. The last 2-3 pitches can be simulclimbed or made into a scramble. One of the best routes in Tuolumne hands down. Feb 28, 2011

[Hide Comment] This thing goes super quick. We did five roped pitches, then put it on our back and soloed the rest. Was our second route of our first day in the Meadows. Super fun time! Jun 19, 2011

[Hide Comment] First 400 feet are very fun and the rest is just getting to the top. Still interesting though, and a good time. If you're OK on easy 5th, you can put the ropes on your backs and solo the top 400 feet or so.

We showed up at 8am and were fourth in line. We took a bottle of wine along to make the waiting a little more fun. If you and your partner are fast you should just wait until a clear afternoon, make sure there are no epics going on and then start late. Sep 13, 2011

[Hide Comment] climbed this on monday the 17th of october. and the first three pitches were soaking wet. 1/2 into all cracks was a stream of water. once we got up to the crecent ledge it was covered in snow. pitches 8-10 had snow all over them. the 10th pitch which claims to be a lot of 4th class is not , or we were to far left and it was solid 5-6. above that was correct. we walked of the back in the dark. stay more south then you think if you go to far right it gets scary and super unsafe at night follow the cairns and stay left and more south till you get to the ground. hard to find the signs at the bottom of lucky streaks. we just walked all the way to the base of the climb were we could see the reflective trail signs on the left.. i dont know if anybody has climbed this route this late.. but i dont recomennd it at all in october. it was freezing cold most of the day even though the forecast was 68 degrees in the high country this thing does not warm up well. Oct 19, 2011

[Hide Comment] Simul climbed in three pitches. Anchor at pitch two, trade off above cresent and then to the top, 2 hours to climb. Jul 18, 2012

[Hide Comment] Signs That This May Be A Popular Climb (all seen in one day):

• a pair of climbers on a racing jog up the approach trail;
• someone trying to find the owner of a Volvo key which had been dropped on the approach trail;
• leader at top of P1 calling down instructions about how to clean gear;
• two new-ish stuck nuts left by second with no experience cleaning gear and with no nut tool;
• dropped sling;
• dropped #1 Black Diamond C4 caught by party below;
• dropped helmet camera scattered in pieces at the base;
• climber indicating while queued up that he may have left a set of alien cams back at the parking lot on the ground;
• another key found near parking lot while looking for aliens;
• twelve cars in/near the parking lot late in the morning.

Aug 5, 2012

[Hide Comment] Great route.

DO the flake variation on the pitch above crescent ledge, it's awesome!

Be prepared for the first pitch crux to be soaking wet and have lots of gooey chalk oozing out of the crux finger locks, it's not uncommon and will make the move feel like 5.10. A leader below us found out the hard way, fell, popped a cam, scraped himself up and bailed. Nov 18, 2012

[Hide Comment] My first good-sized route at the Meadows. Rack was single wires, single rack to 4 with some extra small cams to .75ish, don't forget the med-lg offset wires, they go in everywhere. Crux is short-maybe 3 moves of legit .9, look for feet on your left, don't stress the wet locks-there are a lot more coming when it goes to hands just above, but easier by far. 2nd pitch was most sustained and nerve-wracking; very greasy, smarmy feel. A lot of .8 move to .8 move to .8 move, more actual rock climbing on this pitch than the rest of the route for my money, more incentive to protect often with your feet sliming around on 10,000 people's hand grease, though there are a few good rests and it's OVER after the roof. Route above goes quickly, linking and simuling definitely work well on this route with smart runnering and a 70. Walkoff is climber's right from the summit, no one seems to mention descents in the comments. Mellow but if you're flip flopping it you'll regret it, slabby steepness on the walkdown will wear on your toes.

Don't be afraid to get up before the sun to get on this one, it's easily combined with other routes if you get an early start, but people will be lined up by 6 or 7 a.m. to begin the gumby conga line, so don't be party #15 on this one+c-block those of us who've placed gear before. Or, just dip in the river and get yo drank on. Beautiful place, enjoyable route. Jul 30, 2013

[Hide Comment] Per the MP pitch breakdown, I thought P1-6 all offered great climbing.
Really fun and more sustained through P6 than I thought it would be after reading everyone's comments.
Had 3 other parties, and apparently that was an uncrowded day. Sep 8, 2013

[Hide Comment] Did this on this past Monday, with only one other team higher up on the route. One of the funnest climbs I've done in Tuolumne; lived up to the hype. Didn't see the fixed pin at the 5.9 roof, maybe it was hidden? It was easy to find pro there anyways. Aug 20, 2014

[Hide Comment] the pin is to the right, protecting the 5.7 lb variation

70m rope links 1+2, 2 to big ledge (7x10' on supertaco), and 6+7;

p1-wet and slick Aug 19, 2015

[Hide Comment] Since the climbing on the route isn't worth being on there for hours, I would recommend pitching out pitch 1, then simul-climbing to the top after that. Doing it in this fashion allowed my friend and I to do this route in 2 hours on-sight. Sep 18, 2015

[Hide Comment] Beta alert: Get there early! Oct 10, 2015

[Hide Comment] Dave, we got your cam that you dropped on Regular Route on June 10th! Jun 12, 2016

[Hide Comment] We started late in the afternoon, did the first 4 pitches in 3 with a 60M, then rapped off with 2 60's. Casual day of 5 star crack climbing. The rap stations are old school, so bring some webbing and rings if you want to beef them up. Jul 21, 2016

[Hide Comment] Just a casual 5-star post about your bail, NBD. Jul 21, 2016

[Hide Comment] Great exposure! Aug 26, 2016

[Hide Comment] Fuck the Haters!

Its a classic passage up one of the most beautiful formations of stone on the planet. Mar 18, 2017

[Hide Comment] I'm with you there Mr Tut Mar 18, 2017

[Hide Comment] As of July 22, the crux is still quite wet -- this 10 foot section felt a whole lot harder than 5.9 as a result. Jul 23, 2017

[Hide Comment] 50 crowded for sure. Rolled up at 9:30 on Saturday expecting a bit of a wait. Found one party waiting at the base and at least 3 others on the first 3 pitches. One of the parties on P1 said they'd been there since 7am. Yikes.

Thanks to the party at the base that left to do West Crack instead, and to the guys from SF/Oakland that let us pass on crescent ledge. Hope you guys finished in a timely fashion.

Also, bring your helmets out for this one. Came within 3 feet of whacked by a dropped #11 BD nut (the big gold one) from a pitch above. Aug 28, 2017

[Hide Comment] An okay climb to an awesome summit.
Waited for roughly 2 hours behind two parties, the lead party of 3 climbing slow and belaying both followers separately. Our party of 4 stayed on their tail without much trouble. Be prepared for crowds and waits.
Crescent Ledge belay options are okay but I was hoping for better. Ended up building my anchor to the far right with all of the larger gear I had left.
Linked P6 and 7 with ease, the belay 'ledge' was crowded with 2 people though.
The upper sections of the climb have easy terrain, you just have to look for it. Sep 10, 2017

[Hide Comment] The route can be done in 6 pitches if you stretch a 70m rope each pitch (in case you don't want to simul).
Belays using Supertopo as reference:
1) at ledge with tree above Supertopo belay 1
2) at 7' x 10' ledge above Supertopo belay 3
3) at Supertopo belay 5 (top of left trending ramp)
4) at Supertopo belay 7 (left side of narrow 4th class ledge)
5) somewhere around Supertopo belay 10 (when rope gets tight) (many stance options, we found one on small ledge above large ledge with tree)
6) top

Leave the nuts and very small cams and bring more finger sized cams to speed things along (triples or quadruples of 0.4 & 0.5).

I think one of the coolest things about this climb is that there are 0 bolts. I like bolts but it's nice to have a classic like this where even all the belays are natural. Now who's going to yank all those old pins?

The view on top was better than Matthes Crest and one of the fairest I've seen. Jun 29, 2018

[Hide Comment] Did this route 7/3/18

Beta: get there EARLY! We pulled into the parking spot around 6:15 am with 2 cars already there. Luckily for us they were still racking. My partner and I racked the harness the night before. I just slipped on the harness, put my day pack on and took off. We were able to be the first party at the base with the other two parties right behind us. Showing up 2-5 minutes earlier at the base saved us probably 2-3 hours waiting.

I linked pitches 1 and 2 with a 70m. By the time i built my anchor I saw at least 12 people at the base. I'm pretty sure by the time we topped out around 12:30 some of those people were barely starting.

We did the route in 7 pitches with no simul climbing done. Used a 70m
Link 1/2
Link 3 and built belay mid pitch 4 on super topo "205' from belay 2" 7x10 ledge
Link that to top of pitch 5
Link 6/7
Link 8 and built belay at 3rd class ramp on pitch 9
From there built belay to "huge flakes" on super topo guide
Then to the top Jul 5, 2018

[Hide Comment] The 5.9 section on the first pitch didn't feel like 5.9 when compared to Valley 5.9. Maybe because it was done in August and it was dry making it way easier? Still was wet inside a slightly higher crack. And I certainly don't crush on all 5.9's in the Valley so idk.

Did it quickly in a party of 3, and easily put 2-3 pitches of distance between us and the next party by the time we got to the 7th pitch. So practice your belay change overs kids. Definitely set up your first belay at the ledge with the tree, way better than the slopping ledge on the supertopo. Link 5 and 6, putting the belay at whichever ledge has the pine tree. Yes 8-12 are definitely better simul'd or solo'd, no real reason to make full belay stations. Aug 29, 2018

[Hide Comment] climbed this route 10/14/18. small pockets of snow and ice in cracks and on upper pitch ledges, but nothing serious. Combined p2 and p3 (sustained!), as well as p4 and p5 with a 70m rope. great climb, not sure why some folks have commented that the climbing is only "okay". started at 7:45am, didn't see another party on the route all morning. Oct 15, 2018

[Hide Comment] Having the campgrounds closed in mid-July made for nobody sharing the route with us on a Saturday. Win!

We did it in 7 pitches with a 70m.

P1 - To the tree
P2 - To the 7x10' ledge on Supertopo (this needed all of my 70m)
P3 - Top of Supertop P5
P4 - At the tree right below the "5.7" face shown on the Supertopo as P7
P5-P7 - roughly following the supertopo route for about 200' pitches

As someone mentioned above, lots of 0.3"-0.75" cams are the ticket. We rarely placed smaller cams. And one #3 is fine. We placed lots of nuts. Lots of slings if you are going to do the long pitches. Jul 13, 2019

[Hide Comment] Definitely bring a decent amount of thin finger - green c4 sizes. We had a double rack in this range and would have preferred a few more pieces, but we're also not super solid 5.9 leaders. Nuts very useful, including offsets. Aug 5, 2019

[Hide Comment] The “scary flake” on pitch 4 is now gone. Replaced by a pile of sand including some on a few ledges below. The climbing isn’t much harder, just dirtier for now and not quite as interesting. Jun 20, 2020

[Hide Comment] Climbed this in 2014, and it feels like an entirely different climb. Not sure of the polished granite from climbing, or water run off. Liked it back then, not so much now. Seems like holds are missing and different. Not as interesting as before. Aug 23, 2020

[Hide Comment] Great route and a classic, have done this one twice now. On the second go around, I noticed the big white flake on pitch 4 was gone with just some dirt remaining. Climbing was a little easier so this did not change the grade of the climb at all, though the flake was a fun feature to work around. We simul'd after pitch 7 which felt very safe and saved a lot of time. Great views from the top and a must do, as long as you can wake up early enough to beat the crowds! Jul 2, 2021

[Hide Comment] My favorite route in Tuolumne! Not sure why the MP description lists it as 1,000' when it's more like 1,300'. You can pitch it out any number of ways but 12 pitches would be conservative. With a 70m rope you can link pitches and belay on nice ledges the entire way (a 60 doesn't quite link pitches 3 and 4, and then you come up just short of the nicest ledges atop 5 and 6 as well). It goes like this: P1 climb the beautiful crack to the tree and ledge (190'). P2 climb the sustained finger crack, pass the small roof and go another 40' or so to a nice ledge, belay at the old piton. It's nice to have a .5" cam for the anchor; can also place small to medium nuts (220'). P3 follow discontinuous cracks and flakes straight up and then traverse right to the ledge at the base of the giant crescent-shaped corner. Continue up and left to a nice ledge about halfway up the crescent corner (210'). P4 continue up the crescent as it bends right and forms a roof. Pull through the roof either at the pin (5.9) or using the flake a few feet to the right (5.7) and continue another 60' or so to a big ledge on the left with a small tree (210'). P5 traverse right and slightly up for 80', then go up ramps and corners to a big ledge with a tree (the second or third such ledge you come to... just keep going till you run out of rope) (210'). P6 angle right and up ramps and easy slabs (210'). P7 go left up ramps to an obvious left-leaning corner; follow that to the summit. Or, go straight up unprotected but fun knobby slabs and mantle onto the summit (super fun!). 110'. I was paying pretty close attention to pitch lengths last time I climbed the route (last week) and it's definitely six pitches that are over 200' (except the first one, which you can barely do with a 60m rope so it's like 190') followed by one pitch that's a little over 100'. So I'd give 'height of route' more like 1,350' rather than 1,000' as listed. Jun 22, 2022

[Hide Comment] My friend Cardi and I did the first pitch. Here's the video :

youtube.com/watch?v=siTGRbe… Aug 16, 2022

[Hide Comment] great route. there are a lot of comments about linking pitches here, especially the first 3-4, and while we probably didn't find the optimal way to do this, it felt like we wasted time linking some of these because we had to spend more time figuring out placements to either stretch the rack out or use what we had left. in retrospect it may have been more efficient to use the standard belays. just something to consider. Sep 17, 2022

[Hide Comment] 50m Rope Link Beta (5 Pitches + Simuling to top)
P1 To the tree intermediate listed as 200' in Super Topo w/maybe 10 ft of simuling (just walked up 10ft onto a ledge)
P2 Rope stretcher to the 4' stance listed as 3 in supertopo and pray your partner is quick
P3 To crescent ledge... we ended up on a bolted anchor just left of crescent ledge with a bolted anchor and chains... to reach crescent escape right on ramp when the rock quality looks worse maybe better climbing
P4 up the hollow flakes above the bolted anchor as far as you can go up the 5.0 ramp (above p5 in supertopo) belay off .75 and .5
P5 To the tree just below the "5.7" face move (p7 in supertopo) belay off of tree
P6? One long simul, placed a .75 above the 5.7 move and then microtrax on a few trees on the way up

Rack was .3-3 w/ doubles in .4-2 and nuts. Didn't touch the nuts, #3, or .3. If I did it again I would take .4-2 doubles maybe a third .5-.75. Didn't feel the 5.9 was very hard but maybe my ring locks are getting better, the crux pitch to me was the P2 sustained 5.7 fingers/hands into the 5.8 roof due to how polished it was. Jul 31, 2023

[Hide Comment] A worthy route. I would agree with some of the comments that the climbing isn't full on spectacular but its definitely a must-climb if you've never done it! In my opinion, 4 of the pitches are great climbing, the rest is just getting to the top. Overall, it was a bit more challenging than I was expecting but not totally sandbagged. If you're a 5.9 climber expect to climb hard in some spots. We started at about 12 noon and finished around 4:45 with a little route-finding mishap on pitch 3. Nobody behind us and 1 party ahead of us. Felt like we had the whole route to ourselves so maybe a later start is better if you're confident that you won't epic and it's not too hot.

Gear: Doubles .3 to 3 and nuts. Could probably bring extra finger sized gear if you're going to link pitches.

Pitch by pitch below:

Pitch 1: Up to the very obvious tree. Slippery and gets the calves burning.

Pitch 2: Through the wide pod, past the two roofs, up to a large ledge. FULL 70m. With a standard double rack I back-cleaned a few pieces. Save a .5 for the gear anchor. There's also a piton up there.

Pitch 3: Straight up, traverse right when it makes sense, and go up a tiny bit more to a huge ledge with a crescent shaped corner on your left. Make sure you traverse at the correct spot. We continued straight up and found a bolted anchor (thankfully) that the leader had to lower off of back to the traverse. It was a bit of shenanigans but the anchor made it easier. That said, do not go to the bolted anchor.

Pitch 4: Up the 5.6 crescent corner / grassy ramp on your left. Easy climbing. Keep going left until you reach a very similar corner. Belay

Pitch 5: Up and left following the obvious corner. Traverse right when it makes the most sense aiming for the most prominent/obvious roof. Pull the roof (there's a piton just over the roof), then head left towards a tree. Belay at the ledge below the tree.

Pitch 6: Climb up and RIGHT and continue traversing up and right on the ledge system towards the easiest ground. You end up in like a 5.0 "gully". Just keep going forever until the rope drag is so heinous that you have to build a belay.

Pitch 7 - end: Keep following easy ground and simul climb - build belays when you can't stand the rope drag any longer or the wind is so bad communication is impossible. Probably 100 different ways to go up here - best to stick to the path of least resistance.

This took us 1 extra pitch for a total of 8 pitches to the top.

DESCENT BETA:
Once on top, go RIGHT and follow the slab on the back side all the way to the base and then finish around the right side of the dome. A tricky cairn up on top made us start the decent towards the left and had us confused until we checked the MP comments.

Additionally you may be able to bail by rapping the new bolted route "Rumor Has It (5.11b R)". The anchors are accessible at the top of Pitch 2 above and also if you continue straight up on Pitch 3 like we did, you easily reach those anchors as well. That said, it sounds like you'd need to leave a sling on the first tree to get down. Do your own research on this part. Jun 15, 2024

[Hide Comment] Adding my two cents here after doing this thing. We had such a blast on thing thing and managed to have it mostly to ourselves (one party of two above us but they never slowed us down). We managed to link P1-3 as described in this page into one mega pitch to the ledge above the roofs. There was a decent about of simul climbing to be done here even with our 80m rope but adding a micro trax into the mix made things feel better for the follower. From the ledge we linked past crescent ledge to the next ledge (P4-5). My partner linked the next corner through the roof to the start of the traverse pitch. From here we geared up for more simul climbing and went all the way to the top. We finished in about 4 hours and only stopped to belay 4 times. What an amazing route. Jul 15, 2024

[Hide Comment] Climbed for the first time on August 10th, 2024. Pitch one was a little wet in the crack. Chaulking up and looking for alternate smears helped, I don't think it increased the route's difficulty significantly. Aug 13, 2024

[Hide Comment] Absolutely rad climb! If you're a 5.9 leader you won't have too much of an issue with this. We did the topo with 70M rope as follows:
P1 to the large tree/ledge. 5.9 feels accurate and it's not as slick as people say. But it was wet. (205 ft)

P2 to the big ledge. Cool 5.7/5.8 fingers and hands. (210 ft to supertopo ledge 3)

P3 to the ledge above the crescent ledge. (205 ft to the top of supertopo P5 I believe. Extend basically all of your early pieces to avoid heinous rope drag.)

P4 to the ledge just below the 5.7 move on supertopo P7.

P5 from the traverse, up the easy '5.0' gully to a big tree. (top of supertopo P8).

P6 is where we simul climbed and had a total blast! Aug 19, 2024

[Hide Comment] Climbed 18th Sept. 2008 - Pitch 2 is one of the best pitches I've ever climbed. A good route that fizzles out before it attains greatness - still, very happy to have ticked one of the "50"! Alan (UK) Nov 29, 2024