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. This is a spectacular climb to the top of a grand formation.
The route mostly follows the line of a knobby dike that wiggles it's way up the southwest shoulder of Half Dome. There is quite a bit of runout climbing in the 5.0-5.5 grade, warranting caution, but for the most part, the climbing is just incredibly fun. Just BE CAREFUL!
P1) The route starts below a prominent reverse upside down "L" roof formation above a slab. 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.
P2) Continue up the corner system above and past a pair of bolts, then out to the right and up again (fixed pin?) to another pair of bolts and belay.
P3) Okay, here's where you traverse the friction face out left across to gain the dike proper. You encounter one bolt on the way to the dike. Once you reach the dike, the leader should continue another 80' up to a pair of belay bolts on the dike above.
P4) Up the dike past another belay station (clip it) to a two bolt anchor about 140 feet out.
P5) Another ~140' pitch to a two bolt anchor on the dike. You can place some gear on this pitch, so look out for it.
P6) Runout up the dike ~130 feet to an anchor. Keep an eye out for a protection bolt.
P7) Easy low-angle friction leads to a crack. Scramble up the crack and belay in a corner. Large piece nice here.
P8) A short section of low-angle friction takes you to an overlap. Pull over this and look around for something to belay on.
From here, you scramble up about 1000' of 3rd class slabs up the shoulder of Half Dome to the top. You'll come over the top to find all the tourons on top wondering how you got here.
Descent is down the standard Half Dome cables route. It's sort of fun asking someone where they're located and seeing a weird look come over their face when they try to figure out how come you don't already know.
Location
The route is located on the southwest shoulder of Half Dome. The approach is via the Muir Trail to the Mist Trail (watch out for a soaking!), then the Muir Trail again. After you gain the Muir Trail above Nevada Falls again, go for about 3/4 of a mile to a point where you can peel off the trail left (look for a climber's trail) and head for Half Dome (you're basically curling around the backside of Liberty Cap. Once you get past the swamp... er...Lost Lake ( mosquitoes!!!), you head up slabs to the south face of Half Dome, then left across on ledges, to reach the base of the route. This approach is about 6 miles and will likely take 4 hours if you haven't done it before. Watch out for snakes in there behind Half Dome too!
Protection
Light rack, quickdraws, with a few long slings. You should only need a single rope, but take a second light rope if you're not sure you'll make 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 is pretty scary when free soloing.
Some people on-sight free-solo this route, but this is a bad idea. If you don't know where to go, you can easily get on harder terrain (you might think you just follow the dike, but the dike is not there on the crux pitch). I have soloed this route, but (1) I had done it previously at least three times and (2) I rope soloed the crux pitch.
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.
Half Dome
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