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The Weeping Wall
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Serpentine 

5.9-

   

FA: Pat Callis and Larry Harrell, 1967
Type: Trad
Consensus: 5.9 [details]
Length: 3 pitches, 300 feet
Views: 1,207 page views

Submitted By: Roger Linfield on Jan 23, 2006


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2006 Sept Jeff belaying Kath


Description 

This is a high quality slab route on great rock. It has three pitches: 5.8, 5.9, and 5.7. The bolts are fairly easy to spot - the biggest danger is heading for a bolt on a nearby (harder) route by mistake. This climb gets morning sun, and then goes into the shade in mid-afternoon. The descent is easy - just walk to the right until you can scramble down and back along the base of the rock.


Protection 

#2 friend on pitch 1, before the first bolt. After that, no other gear until the anchor (long slings around a tree or placements in cracks) at the top of the climb.



Photos of Serpentine Slideshow Add Photo
Starting up Serpentine.  It's a wandering sea of granite over here.  Now where's the next bolt?<br /><br />photo by: Michelle Kemmer

Starting up Serpentine. It's a wandering sea of g...

Roughly the line of Serpentine is from slightly left of the base of the large tree, almost straight up the wall tending a bit left. Most of the line is visible in this picture.

Roughly the line of Serpentine is from slightly le...


Comments on Serpentine Add Comment
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By Adam Stackhouse
Administrator
From: Escondido, Ca
Mar 24, 2006
rating: 5.9

This is one of the best moderates on this wall (or at Suicide for that matter.)

By david baker
From: jamul, ca
May 10, 2007

On the first pitch use a green or yellow alien to protect. Also, the decent is done by traversing left 75 feet. A short exposed down climb leads to a rap station directly across from Piasono Pinnacle. Two raps will take you near the bottom of Bye Gully. From here there is a short down climb to the base of the Weeping Wall.

By Dave Daly
From: Temecula, CA
Apr 18, 2008
rating: 5.9

A quality route! Certainly NOT a soft 5.9. Even though the first pitch is 5.8, it is sustained and slick. The second pitch, (past the second bolt, is the crux. The grade is solid.....as better be your skills on slick slab with moderate runouts.

Additionally, the gear suggested by the page author is incorrect. The small, short crack on the face (left of the larger crack corner) is the start of the route. This crack indeed takes one or two medium nuts, or as suggested by the above comment, a yellow or green Alien (they fit perfectly!)

By Chris Owen
Administrator
From: La Crescenta, CA
May 22, 2009

Besides quickdraws - all you need is a wire for the solid placement in the slot before the first bolt. Sling the tree at the top of the climb for a belay anchor.

By cory132
From: Torrance
May 29, 2009

My first route at Suicide. I hadn't been climbing that long when I lead this one. I had never led a trad route at 5.9 (actually my first trad lead was the day before on 5.4 White Maidens Walkway . . .), but I figured it would be no big deal since it was "bolted". I climbed it with 2 friends, Nick and Charles. On the second pitch I remember constantly feeling like I was way above the bolts, and the thought going through my head with each step was "please don't slip, please don't slip, please don't slip . . .".

My wife and Nick's girlfriend, Lauren, sat at the bottom and shared a bottle of wine while we climbed. The whole time Lauren and my wife were laughing hysterically at my Elvis leg, and heckling me from below. "Aww look, he's scared! HAHAHA"

After climbing pitch 2, the third 5.7 pitch felt really easy, and the fact that there was only one bolt didn't bug me too much :).

It was a fantastic climb. I'd love to climb it again today, since I'm sure it wouldn't seem nearly as scary as it did then . . .