One of the most classic pitches at its grade in all of Yosemite, Sacherer Cracker is a full value 120+ feet of stellar jamming and clean movement. Begin with a short wide section that leads to a small ledge (two bolts provide an optional belay here); step left to the splitter finger crack that widens gradually as you work your way toward the final, notorious wide section that guards the chains. Some find this section to be the route's crux, and many have used the chockstone at its beginning to bail, swearing to come back after they get more practice on the wide...
Location
Continue up the scree trails along the SW base until you see this striking line - really can't miss it. If you reach the obvious left-facing dihedral of La Escuela, you've gone too far.
Protection
Doubles to 3". Most forego anything big for the top, as the chockstone is bomber and the crack quickly gets wider than most cams can cover.
Two rope rappel to ground. A 60m will not make it.
The crux for me is the first +/- 50ft. off of the small ledge, as the crack goes from fingers to off-fingers to tight hands. When that first slammer hand jam finally goes in, I'm usually breathing hard and bleeding from at least one of my mitts, and always exhilarated.
Gets more and more classic with each repetition.
Absolutely no comparison in terms of burliness and difficulty between this and Moby Dick down the way.
How is this route compared to the hallow flake pitch on the Salathe in terms of difficulty? I suck at offwidths and im planning on climbing the Salathe wall next year.
You can rap the route with one 60m, unlike what the description says.
There is a bolted belay/rap station on the ledge above the 5.7 section, at the start of the hard climbing (the first 50ft section which the fellow above refers to as the crux).
We used one 60m rope to rappel to this station from the chains at the top, which does barely make it. A second rappel from here will get you to the ground.
El Capitan Base Routes
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