jpjpjp's Logbook (165 ascents)

The dragging here in yosemite keeps getting better and better... or at least stays super quality. Awesome route with a decently exposed and tricky finish up a wide hand/fist crack. Fairly hard 5.8 though.

Finger cracks are definitely my strong suit. The mini-ledge just under the bolts and the traverse left was the crux for me. Small holds with bad feet made it tricky but having clipped the anchor, there was no mental game on the move. Glad to have onsighted a my hardest trad route and to have it be in yosemite!

3 Other parties were on this climb while we were on it, but it was still an awesome route! We free soloed the first pitch and I got to lead/combine pitch 3/4. It was an amazing climb from pitch 3 to the top with perfect cracks all the way up! An easy 5.9 with the crux just being the last 10 feet or so.

Awkward chimney and then the 5.7 face move seemed pretty tricky to me. Didn't seem like a real quality climb to me, especially compared to some of the others in the area.

Made this one into a gear placement practice route for liebacks. Gets super pumpy placing gear every few feet but there were a handful of good rests up the route. Super quality crack!

Amazing 3D climbing on this route. Tons of gear options and a decent amount of positive holds throughout the chimney. My new favorite 5.6!

First climb in Yosemite Valley! It is amazing here! Leading Pitch 1 was awesome doing the layback slightly runout. The holds are slim on the steepest section here and you don’t want to take away a hold with pro. That said I probably could have placed some pro by my feet once I passed it. Pitch 2 was fine but super easy. The climbing gets to be 5-star again right after it though. Pitch 3 was amazing jamming up the crack system. The way we did it, we had a long Pitch 4 to right under the “crux.” Being 5’10” the crux was super easy and seemed like a 5.6 maybe 5.7 move… It would be much harder for a shorter person. Great top-out with an awesome view.

This was a great climb that started hard and only got easier. We got the first four pitches a little mixed up belaying at the wrong spots, but in all did it in four jumbled short and long pitches. The first pitch was wet in a small section which made it the crux of the whole route. The next three we amazing, fairly sustained, 5.8 crack climbing. I almost missed the crescent ledge and went up to the heady looking roof above it. Getting back down to the ledge was definitely exciting! Pitches 5 and 6 weren’t too hard, but still had some fun moves. On Pitch 7, I pulled to 5.9 roof move at the pin. With a 70m rope, rope drag got to be a little too bad to simul so we did it in 2 long runout pitches and then a last short scramble to the top. The descent was a little scary as we went right toward a cairn and then found ourselves on a steep section at the edge of a huge cliff. Needless to say we traversed left and found a much easier descent route.

An alpine style climb for sure. The approach is tricky. Route finding is hard at times and navigating over the massive boulders can be hard at times. Once at the route though it is 100% worth it! The first pitch is mediocre with a cool exposed traverse, but the quality climbing doesn’t start until pitch two. It has some amazing crack climbing up to a hanging belay. The third pitch is the mental crux. I led this one and traversing out to the face is pretty intimidating. The climbing is not that hard here, though you have to run it out about 60 ft. A 120 ft fall was pretty daunting as I placed my next pro when I met up with the crack. My favorite pitch was the last one. It stayed in the crack and led across a surprisingly easy roof crack. The exposure there was unreal!

Best trad climb I have done. As the name says, it is a straight line right up the center of the wall! The first pitch is strenuous but the dikes let you take rests. It is the best pitch with a couple crux jam moves. The second pitch is definitely easier but has a mini roof to pull. Starting right under the main roof, the third pitch is super short. The roof is easy and just needs a little muscle to hoist yourself up and over on big jugs. Savor this climb… it is definitely a five star route!