Inverted Staircase 5.10b PG13
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| Type: | Trad, 9 pitches, 1200 feet, Grade IV |
| Consensus: | 5.10b/c [details] |
| FA: | Glen Denny, Wally Reed July 1962, FFA Bob Kamps, Wally Reed August 1963 |
| Submitted By: | john durr on Jul 25, 2009 |
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"Inverted Staircase".
Photo by Blitzo.
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Description Inverted Staircase is a beautiful obvious line. The climbing is pretty good, but not great. Mostly moderate cracks with two hard pitches.
Pitch 1 & 2 climb cracks just right of the big arch, aim for an obvious small roof in a right facing corner that marks the first belay. Surmount the fun roof then moderate climbing to the corner. 5.8/5.9
Pitch 3 & 4 climb the corner above, moving onto the face midway through pitch three to avoid the chimney then head back to the corner to belay. The next pitch goes up the nice corner to the top right side of the pinnacle. 5.7/5.8
Pitch 5 is thin friction and small hold face. Go down and out right a ways to a bolt. Just past this is 5.10 face with good swing potential for your second. Ascend a loose pillar, I placed several micro-nuts here. The hard face climbing above past two bolts is well protected. 5.10b/c
Pitch 6 is usually wet midway through, but fun liebacking and unclinging is had before the wet and the corner above is stellar. Plan on aiding on a couple cams to pass the wet. 5.10-
Pitch 7 follow this route up and left aiming for a moderate thin double dihedral then belay at a small tree. 5.8
Pitch 8 with a bolt leads straight out right to a easy ramp. 5.10a briefly
Pitch 9 is a little spooky makes a traverse out right past a loose block, a dihedral 5.8 and over an easy roof to 300' of easy ground.
Location This route is about 200 meters left, (east) of the Regular Route. Find the start by looking for an obvious roof in a right facing dihedral that marks the first belay. This is just a bit right of the huge left facing corner/arch.
To descend, walk to the top then go down the south-southwest buttress, usually marked with a couple cairns. This is steep, long and painful in rock shoes.
This route would be difficult to retreat from without leaving lots of gear.
Protection Bring a standard rack of small stoppers through 4" cam. Emphasis 0.5-2". Micro-nuts can be useful for pitch 5. The 4" cam is pretty handy, but probably not necessary.
Inverted staircase slab pitch
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Inverted staircase undercling pitch
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| Comments on Inverted Staircase |
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By Tim Wolfe
From: Salt Lake City, UT
Jul 7, 2011
| Really nice alternate to some of the busier routes on the dome. Definately needs to be done if you are climbing 5.10 slab and undercling and are in Toulome looking for a not busy route. |
By Luke Stefurak
From: Mountain View, CA
Aug 31, 2011
rating: 5.10c PG13
| Fun varied route with a good dose of adventure and more dirt and grass than ideal. Expect spaced protection on many of the pitches. While the climbing is often easy when unprotected a fall could be quite long.
My partner and I were gardening out placements on many of the pitches (especially the first 5). With more traffic this could clean up nicely! We climbed it on 8/28/11 and the route was dry but in the shade until late afternoon.
Slab moves are tricky to rate. I feel something may have broken on P8 (as described above). My partner (leading) and I both took a fall on this pitch, before lowering and doing it clean. We went straight up above the bolt, on poor holds. Perhaps the late afternoon sun made it harder or we went the wrong way.
All bolts have been replaced except the one on the Inverted staircase pitch which can be backed up with a nut or small cam. |
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