Sinocranium is on the east face and can be approached by following the cairns and the faint trail. The route itself has 2 distinct styles on it. The first 4 pitches and the last 2 are slabby and relatively easy. Pitch 2 is the hardest of these slabby sections and works lright of a roof band. Pitches 4 and 5 can be combined if desired.Pitch 5 climbs up the vertical quartz vein for 60 feet. The final pitch is more of a scramble to gain the summit than a climb. 2 ropes are needed for the rappels down. Also, pay attention to the beginning of the route as it easily missed. As you are climbing up the hill on the east side you hike on the slab forming the bottom of the dome. The climb starts in this vicinity. First time I climbed this we missed it completely and ended up FS'ing it up to the 1st anchors without realizing we had missed it.
Protection
Sinocranium has bolts and plenty of them. Bring up to 16 draws for this route, but one can climb it with less if you don't mind passing bolts by. It has double bolt belay stations all the way up and 2 60 meter ropes are recommended.
Fun climb. Most of the slab sections are 5.2ish or less. A few thin sections keep things interesting. You can stretch the rope on pitches 3 and 4 (190 ft), and belay right below the "headwall" crux pitch, so theres no drag to deal with. If youre squeamish on 5.8, dont worry, theres 11 bolts in about 40 feet of climbing on this pitch!
Two sixty meter ropes seems almost mandatory (the second pitch is like 190 feet), but you can leave your second rope at the end of pitch 3 (or the midway anchor if combining 3 and 4). To get down, rap three times with your sixty, then twice with 'em doubled.
By Peter Gram Administrator From: Salt Lake City, UT Jun 21, 2005 rating: 5.8
This climb works great as a simul-climb in 4 pitches. Combine P1 & P2 (~ 350 feet), P3 & P4 (~ 200 feet), P5 by itself, and P6 & P7 (short, 5.easy climbing).It took us just over an hour to reach the top with these linkups.
Also, there is a walkoff possible. It is somewhat length (45 minutes), but then you can leave the second rope behind. Continue along the summit ridge for a bit until a steep gully that looks doable drops to the climber's right. There are a few tricky spots and one rappel to get down to an easy trail.
Climbed this just a few days ago....not sure that any of the slab pitches would rate at 5.7 in my opinion though...seemed like 5.6 at best, with A LOT of easier climbing in between (maybe I am used to LCC slabs though) We played "double deuce" (only allowed 4 bolts of your choice on the slab pitches, and that made it like an LCC route!!). The 5.8 seemed disproportionally hard for the grade though, but maybe I made it harder than it needed to be? Kind of in your face after all that easy slabbing, but VERY well protected. The bolting on the slabby pitches seemed inconsistent to me...almost seemed like when it steepened up, the bolts spread out, and when it was lower angle they were closer? maybe just foreshortening? Anyway....still a darn fun route...great view from the top!!Walk off is fine, one bolted rap with some downclimbing (if you have less than a 60M rope, be sure to tie some knots, my 70M landed perfectly on the ledge) hike down is only like 15 minutes to your pack. If you liked Jackson's thumb, this one is better, in my opinion. Biggest dome in the valley!
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Sep 6, 2005 rating: 5.8
We combined the 4th pitch and the steep headwall pitch, and that worked well with a 70 meter rope - no rope drag.
We must have done a different descent. We scrambled over the summit and down to a ledge on the east side with a cairn and some chains. Two raps from chains down the gully, and no tricky downclimbing at all required. We had one 70m rope, but one 60 probably would have been ok too.
The standard descent is to walk over the summit to a ledge on the northeast side that is just below the top. From here you can rap down a steep gully with intermediate anchors to the ground in two raps with a 60 m rope. Thus, you only need one 60 m rope to do the climb.
Putting up this route with Pogue was a fun and memorable couple of days! Not only did we get to spend our days where there were no other climbers, but the views are pretty spectacular. I can't describe how much fun it is to wander up a huge slab asking yourself "where should I go next"?
Look around, there should be several more routes on this slab, too!
I thought it was a good climb. It would be a good first multipitch for a lot of people
By 46and2 From: Las Vegas, NV Jul 18, 2006 rating: 5.8
Great safe multi-pitch climb and perfect for first timers on multi pitch climbing. I agree with the earlier post that when the climbing is ridiculously easy the bolts are a little closer than when it thins out, but nothing to really worry about. The VERY well protected 5.8 section is awesome fun and in your face compared to the rest of the route but IMHO was the highlight of this climb. DO NOT climb this thing in mid day in summer, you'll cook. Fantastic City Climb.
Fantastic climb, lots of air and a great one to help you get comfortable with multi pitch climbing. Finding the start was a challenge, hiked right by it, make sure you look closely as soon as you get to the slab, at the base of the dome. Well bolted and anchors are solid. Little interesting at the top, got to 5th anchor, buddy lead to the summit and after 3 very spaced out bolts, nothing but a scramble to the top. Couldnt find belay anchor on top, so be prepared if needed, to build an anchor on solid boulder on top,you will need some slings. Rap down was good, again,took some looking over Northeast edge,to find rap anchors,you need to be careful to look for chains. They are weathered and blend in with the rock, are on a ledge about 10ft down from the top, behind some boulders. We did build a cairn to help locate. All in all, a great climb.My compliments and thanks to the route developer.
Most of the slabs on this route are 4th class with occasional moves in the 5.0-5.2 range. The steep dihedral is 5.8 but very tightly bolted. Overall, great route (unless it's windy!).
Just to confirm that it is possible to rap off the NE using a single 60m rope. First rap comfortably gets you to the next rap station. Second rap got us ALMOST to level ground -- just about 5 feet of non-technical scramble. Its a bit awkward to get off belay, but not actually difficult (and I'm not a hard climber or free solo junky).
Just be very careful to center the rope and knot ends.
Steinfell's Dome
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