Ironically, one of the Sierras greatest Alpine rock climbs isn't even on granite! But rather a steep, smooth rock with angular holds from more ancient times. Watch out for more loose rock than usual.
Start the climb up the lefthand gully, uphill from the base of the face. There may be a cairn.
P1-2 5.6. Make a long traverse right and slightly upwards then around onto the face proper.
P3-7 5.7. There's a shallow dihedral up high on the right side of the face; aim for it, but don't go too far right. Pitch 7 finishes with a tricky traverse to a hanging belay at the bottom of the shallow dihedral.
P8 5.8. Climb the shallow dihedral to an alcove.
P9 5.8. Left out of the alcove then wander across and up the white scar to a ledge just below the large summit dihedral.
P10 5.8. A short strenuous corner leads to a ledge at the bottom of the main dihedral.
P11-12 5.8. Two pitches up the summit dihedral lead to a notch.
P13 5.7. Traverse left on a large ledge then up the face to the summit ridge.
Scramble the ridge to the summit.
Location
See schematic.
Approach: From Cecile Lake.
Descent: Cross Class 3 rock towards the Ken-Clyde Notch, down climb this to the start of the climb - a rappel is necessary at one point.
Car-to-car makes for an enjoyable (albeit long) day. We hiked in at 1AM, completed the route (and the descent), then hiked back out before sunset. I recommend the 5.9+ direct variation, although there is loose rock. The lakeside bivvy spots are beautiful. But the creek-side mosquitos...
I found the topo fairly inaccurate. The topo from the 100 classic Sierra climbs is far more accurate. The first pitch is a long traverse up and right but is probably about 5.7. There was a pile of sticks at the start, though a better reference point is that it's nearly level with the toe of Michael Minaret to the left.
Three more pitches lead to a ledge atop a pedestal where you start the crux 5.8 + traverse R. into the dihedral, which really isn't indicated on this topo. From there, you following the dihedral to the traversing pitch up and left.
A great climb, but not for 5.8 newbies. It's long, committing, with route finding issues. A 5.8 climb for solid 5.9 climbers.
The direct start is well worth doing . It is two pitches of 10a climbing up a terrific dihedral . Overall the route is pretty sustained at 5.8 . It took us about 8 hours to climb the route . Route finding is not that hard . Much of the route is climbing up corners . The traversing pitch was 5.9 , and scary in my opinion . The pro is there but you have to make moves a few feet out at times . An amazing climb .
There is a direct start that is 5.10. A lot of parties start up the face too soon and end up doing this. To add to the confusion, the line in the photo in S&R does not show the initial traverse.
There was a lot of snow in the descent couloir when we climbed this. We got by without ice axes by doing a few more rappels.
By Chris Owen Administrator From: La Crescenta, CA Mar 5, 2009
In response to Fat Dad, see disclaimer.
As far as the traverse being one pitch, perhaps we had a shorter rope, or maybe I just stopped short at a convenient spot, didn't think 5.7 was called for when compared to the technical difficulties of the rest of the climb. The traverse into the Shallow Dihedral is shown as 5.7 at the end of P7 (also in description as "Tricky Traverse"), but I didn't think it was the crux at 5.8, but rather the Shallow Dihedral itself. But then again I did this route in the 1980's (long before there were any schematics) maybe a hold broke off or something.
You can make "your own" nice route on this one... We did the direct start and some 10-ish (?) face climbing above then left to the corners. Here, I went for a clean and nice-looking corner to the left of the route, which I guess some people do, it's harder (maybe 10+?) and has a very large loose shelf.
Also on the approach up stay on the right flank of the valley and walk across the spillway between the lakes to get to the peak side. Memory of the descent is a bit poor but I'm pretty sure we rapped off a fixer onto the glacier from the 3rd or so notch down adjacent to the lake on the back side,as described in guidebooks.
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