Pitch 4- Easier than it looks due to great foothol...
Description
Ascending the steep, forboding, north face of Drug Dome at a surprisingly easy grade, OZ is a thing of beauty. Its pitches forge their way upwards to a striking right-facing dihedral and involve much interesting climbing. I usually pronounce it "ounce" but sometimes I slip and say "Oz." When I'm feeling posh I say "oh zee."
P1: Begin at a little flake system well right of the huge dihedral above. This flake system intersects a low roof. Some tricky small gear protects this pretty well and gains a long left-angling flake/crack. Follow this to its apex and belay. 5.10a.
P2: Perform a tricky move up off the belay, then step left and climb past three bolts and a difficult hand traverse on slopers (crux). This reaches a rest stance. There is one more difficult face passage past a few more bolts before the climbing eases. Climb up cracks and ledges to a belay on a sloping ramp that leads directly into the long corner. A long pitch, 5.10d.
P3: Climb the awesome, overhanging thin hands corner. This pitch is soft for 10c and has many rest stances. It is steep and amazing however. Belay below the huge roof that caps Drug Dome.
P4: Climb out left past a few bolts, around the arete, then up easy terrain to a belay below the summit. 5.9. Or, better yet, do the Gram Traverse!
Excessive gear for the dihedral really isn't necessary as there are enough constrictions and pods to fit a varity of equipment. Keep in mind that OZ and Gram can be chilly and windy.
There are rap rings on top of P3 and P2 (don't recall about P1). We climbed the first 3 pitches and double rope rappelled back to the base. Very convenient to do it this way.
By Andy Laakmann Site Landlord From: Jackson Hole, WY Jul 20, 2009 rating: 5.10d
As good as it gets.
P1 seemed safe. Just go up to the end of the starting crack, place a nut, and then downclimb back to the traverse. Once done with the short traverse, another nut is available in the other crack. You might want to save a #3 camalot for the last 30 feet to the anchor.
P2 was well protected but definitely tricky 10d granite face climbing. Great stuff!
P3 seemed a touch soft to me as well - but damn was it good!!! I expected lots of #1 camalots based on the various guidebook descriptions, but the business turned out to be green and purple camalots. Next time I'll bring triple #0.5,#0.75, and #1 camalots. and save one of each for the final steep section.
P4 was fun and airy. Watch out for the death blocks after you turn the corner.
We continued on to Hobbit Book - a highly recommended linkup. Next time we'll do Gram as well. Once topping out on Hobbit Book, we just walked South and picked up the Muir trail back to the Cathedral Lakes parking lot. A very simple descent provided you have a car shuttle or similar.
My rack next time: set of nuts, set of small cams, 3x#0.5, 3x#0.75,3x#1,2x#2,2x#3 camalots.
By Tyler Logan From: Running Springs Oct 11, 2009 rating: 5.10c
I agree with Andy that the corner pitch is soft for the grade. The footholds are quite good. The 3/4" pieces seem to be the ones most frequently called for. While you can get bigger gear in occasional openings, this size would be the easiest to place when you're pumped. I'm bringing three .75 C4s next time.
By ccmski From: Prescott, AZ Oct 13, 2009 rating: 5.10d
One of the best. Grades felt acurate- it was cold and windy though. Saved green camalots for the top due to the hype and wished I had placed them lower and saved purple for up high.
RSS Feed
Slideshow
