Tai Devore doing the first climb (11b) as you come...
Description
A beautiful granite canyon nestled between Mount Tom & the Wheeler Crest. Most of the routes are concentrated in Sheelite Canyon, a side canyon that feeds into Pine Creek, but routes are also cropping up elsewhere, especially up canyon. The best season is late spring until the weather craps out in the late fall. Summer conditions are especially pleasant, as most routes are in the shade and a cool breeze often fans the canyon.
The canyon has a long history, with classics such as 'Pratt’s Crack' and 'Sheila' dating back to the 1970's. In the early 1990's, with the boom of sport climbing in the area, Tommy Herbert added what is arguably one of the proudest 5.13a's in the country with his seldom repeated masterpiece, 'Ecstacy', a 100 foot laser-cut aręte.
The prolific and industrious Louie Anderson almost single-handedly turned Pine Creek Canyon into a sport crag with his development of the Ministry Wall (a dense concentration of quality 5.11’s) and the Planetarium Wall, with his ultra-classic, Atomic Gecko (5.12b) getting the most traffic of any hard route in the area. It stands as a must do for the 5.12 climber. Another standout testpiece is 'Wind in the Willows Extension' (5.12d) which sports 110 feet of intense granite climbing.
Recently, there has been a resurgence of development, especially at the hands of the dynamic duo of Marty Lewis and Kevin Calder, who have almost doubled the number of sport climbs in just a couple of seasons, adding numerous new 5.11 classics to the area, including a three pitch affair.
The best source of information for the canyon can be found in Marty Lewis’ excellent guide, "Bishop Area Rock Climbs" (new edition coming soon!).
Getting There
Take Hwy. 395 North from Bishop to Pine Creek Road. Turn left onto Pine Creek Road. Continue through the town of Rovana and several switchbacks until you see Sheelite Canyon (the obvious deep canyon) on your right. Just across from the Campground, take a dirt road and park in one of two parking areas. Walk up the road and into the canyon.
A must-do classic right around the corner from Pratt's Crack. Follow a huge, clean-cut dihedral, jamming (hands) all the way up to a chimney move or two, then step right on a small ledge to the anchors. ...[more]
Bishop local Tom Costa did a great color PDF mini-guide to the sport routes a few years back, he has it in a few different formats at: http://homepage.mac.com/oohrah
It does not include all the new Marty Lewis/Kevin Calder routes.
Pine Creek Canyon
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