The Bishop's Scepter is a stunning, narrow spire just west of and downhill from the Bishop. It looks much harder than it turns out to be. In fact, the climbing is clean, fun, reasonbly well protected, and only 5.6 in difficulty. The top of the spire is so narrow that a regular 2-foot diameter sling will easily go around it.
From a comfortable belay east of the spire, make a few moves to engage its east face. Move up and right to a subsidiary thumb that you can stand on to place some gear. From here, traverse left under a steep wall to a comfortable stance and engage the crux, which consists of one or two 5.6 moves over a bulge and onto a slab. Reach out and touch the summit--and stand on it if you dare!
The first ascent party rappelled from a sling. Downclimbing off the route could leave the summit clean. An nice addition would be a well-placed pair of bolts or pitons near the summit.
This is a classic and stunning tower well within the ability of mere mortal climbers.
For what it's worth, Karen Kovaly and I climbed this spire in August 1996, during a traverse of the ridge aborted by poor weather. We too rapped from a sling around the top, which must have blown or rotted off or been carried away by acrobatic marmots. We called it Un-Impotent (Un-im-PO-tent) Pinnacle, but I'll bet it was climbed before.... it's an obvious target if you're up there. Very fun and dramatic climbing, and well worth bringing a rope and small rack to do this one if you're traversing the ridge.
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