Showing that the angle and the texture of the rock...
Description
Snake Dike (along with Royal Arches) is one of the classic long moderate routes of Yosemite. For many climbers, this is number one on the Yosemite tick list when they first come to the Valley. For others it is known as "Snake Hike," but the bottom line is it is a great climb up an amazing natural feature to the top of one of the most spectacular formations in Yosemite - second only to El Cap itself.
Get to the SW shoulder of Half Dome by following the Muir Trail to the Mist Trail past Nevada Falls, then back on the Muir Trail. From the top of Nevada Falls, continue for 0.75 mile to an obvious climber's trail that heads off to the left, contouring around behind the back of Liberty Cap to Half Dome. You'll pass a swampy area (Lost Lake), and then wander up slabs to the south face of Half Dome, heading back left across ledges to the base of the route. The approach is six miles and takes 2.5 to 4 hours.
P1: The route starts up a slab below a prominent upside-down L-shaped roof formation. A big tree is up in this roof area on the right. Climb up into the roof, then traverse out the left end and up onto a nice belay ledge. 5.7.
P2: Continue up the left-facing corner system above and past a pair of bolts (optional belay), then wander right past another bolt to a bolted anchor. 5.7.
P3: Climb up and left past a bolt and 5.7 friction to reach the dike itself. Skip another bolted belay, climbing up the dike past a bolt and easier climbing, and up to a bolted belay.
P4, P5, P6: Follow the dike for three more long pitches, all about 5.4, all very run out, stopping at bolted anchors. The final anchor is at a point past a steep section on a small ledge.
P7, P8: Lots of low angle climbing (easy 5th class) wander up the face with occasional gear placements.
Once you feel comfortable unroping, do so, and continue scrambling up 1000' of calf-burning slabs to the summit. Descent is down the Half Dome Cables route. You can't miss it. For logistical reasons, it's better to not leave anything at the base.
Protection
6 draws/slings, three or four small-medium sized cams. That's it!
Take a small set of cams. From 1/2 to one inch. On the first pitch climb to the tree on the left, sling it, and make the easy friction moves into the roof where you can immediately set a bomber cam. On the third pitch, look up and about five feet left from the belay to see the traverse bolt.
The free guide at Supertopo.com was quite helpful. Brought a set of nuts, six cams from black alien up to 0.75 camalot C4, six trad draws, one double-length draw, and some random slings/biners - more than enough gear. A skinny 60m rope allowed us to skip a couple of the belays. 8 pitches / 12 hours car-to-car. Bring gloves for the stupid cables :)
Good cruiser stuff up a nobby dike. Besides the traverse above the roof early on, the descent is the headiest part. Going down the cables is quite exposed. And the freaked out asian lady screaming chinese profanities whilst not letting go of either cable, makes the route memorable.
I used to do this climb every year. It is awesome!
On one of the upper pitches there is a short section where the dike ends and there is a bolt in the smooth gap. I always thought this section was pretty tricky. You may not notice it leading (with the bolt), but it can be scary for soloists.
By Sergio P From: Idaho Springs, CO Jun 24, 2007 rating: 5.7 R
When descending the cables on a crowded day you may find it easier to clip into the cables with a binner attached to a sling then step outside of the cables. Use another sling and binner to clip past the poles so that you are always clipped in.
The crux of the route is the never ending slabs to the top. Bring enough water and don’t worry too much about the Runouts. A fall in some areas would be really bad but the climbing is extremely easy.
Question: Are there any potential scary pendulum falls for the second on this route? I.e. would it be a bad idea to take a 5.8- climber as your second? Thanks!
The approach is not that hard to find, and it only took us 3 hours on our first try.
After getting soaked at Mist Falls, the trail winds up towards Liberty Cap. When the trail abruptly runs into Liberty Cap, it forks. The hiker's trail goes right, you go left. It's that simple.
The hardest part is thrashing through the spring growth in the valley between Liberty Cap and Mt. Broderick, but the views and route pays you back in spades.
Just did Snake Dike last week, had the free Supertopo beta and the Mountain Project beta. Neither accurately represents the second and third pitch. Here is what you will encounter. As you take off on the traverse of second pitch you can get in a piece and than clip a bolt. You will than see a pair of anchors about 60 ft up. I suggest you clip them and bring up partner. This ends the second pitch (do not recommend going further for the following reason). P2 on Mountain Project says go past "pair of bolts" (anchor), move up and right to a "fixed pin to another pair of bolts". The "fixed pin" is actually a folded metal hanger with bad 1/4 inch pin. The "pair of bolts" is wrong...as you move past the old folded hanger you encounter only one SMC hanger on a 1/4 inch bolt that sticks out approximately 1/4in and has old webbing hanging off of it. Would not anchor myself on it and use this as protection for my leader. If the leader on the third pitch were to slip on the 50 ft traverse after clipping into this suspicious bolt it probably would not hold. So belay from the two anchors about 30 feet below on P2. start P3 from here, do not use the folded hanger, clip the crappy SMC hanger and 1/4inch pin and hope no one falls.
Laurel, I think you got confused by the Mountain Project beta. The pair of bolts mentioned by Mountain Project that you have to pass in P2 is the optional belay from the free Supertopo for P1. If you used that optional bolted belay on top of P1 then the next pair of bolts you will encounter is indeed the P2 belay. Concerning P3, I think you missed the traverse on the left and went off route on Snake Dance. To future Snake Dike climbers, if you can clip any quarter incher during the climb, check your topo, you are probably off route.
Did this a couple years ago with some friends, 2 parties of two. First leader took about 20 slings and maybe a couple of nuts and started blasting, his partner simulclimbed behind him unclipping the gear and leaving it in place. My partner was right on his heels clipping in the pre placed gear and I brought up the rear cleaning everything. From bottom to top I think it took us about 1 hr 15 minutes or right about there. Fantastic route!
By Josh Hampton From: Provo UT, Merced, CA Aug 19, 2009
me and my girlfriend tried snake dike... the hike there was longer and more strenuous than we had originally thought it would be. curns pointed the way, just hard to find them all the time. finally getting to the dike. ive never climbed on gannet or done a "friction" climb so maybe thats why it was so hard? ? ? ? i had brand new 5.10 prism they didn't seem to stick to the rock at all. it seemed no matter what i did, i would feel very unsure and would slip a few times on the smooth rock. which made the first 3 pitches VERY SCARY !!! my girlfriend also had 5.10 shoes but seemed to do a little better than me, but was pretty scared too.. we were unprepared for the Friction parts of this climb. and i consider myself a hard climber. i tried to find everything i could on snake dike before we left so i wouldn't have any surprises. she and i eventually felt like doing the rest of the climb could be left for another day a repelled off and went home. :(
We did this route on one 60m rope as a party of 3 on a hot 8/29. Approach beta was good and made it from Curry to the base of the route in 3 hours.
Climbed the P1 left side variation, slung the tree and made the easy friction moves up to the left side of the roof where it's easy to get a bomber nut in. Ran up the flake to the small ledge on top and belayed the followers from the 2 bolt anchor.
While the traverse off the P2 belay is a bit of an attention grabber, the moves are easy and you get a nice piece in before stepping over the bulge and clipping the next bolt. Moved up and left, stepping down into a small bucket after clipping the bolt before finishing the traverse moves to the dike and the 2 bolt anchor where we set up the 2nd belay.
Simuled all the dike pitches stopping twice to get gear back (note, some of the knobs are easy to sling if you want extra security)and found the route finding pretty straight forward although there are definitely some trickier variations to be had if you want them.
Walkoff is long but the hike down the cables and back to camp is way longer. All in all a super fun day and easy enough for a 5.8 leader with his or her head on straight. The toughest part of this route is not thinking about the runouts. All the bolts that need to be in good shape are in good shape. Bring lots of water.
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