Mithril Dihedral 

A disclaimer on the beta photo. This is the way we decided to do the climb. It made more sense to us to make P3 a short pitch and get a belay in the chimney. Otherwise we would have had to do a hanging belay halfway up the big pitch. You may choose to do otherwise. CO.

Putting the belay in the chimney makes the route a 5.9+; if you run it straight through to the ledge where the 4th class begins, the route is more like a 5.10-, according to Croft (and most others, including me).

Fantastic route, excellent rock, very clean. Triples of hand-sized pieces are not uncalled for, especially if you choose to do most of the corner as a rope-stretcher pitch. Great finish to the corner, too.

Hmmm, 5.9+ or 5.10-? Well I for one can't tell the difference between the two, especially at 14,000ft where they'd both feel like 5.11 to me....

In general pretty sustained climbing. Regardless of length of pitches, I'd say 5.10- is fair as there's a ton of 5.9. With all the sillyness with pitch lengths, here is what I thought worked well.

Pitch 1 and 2 as described by Croft. If you start late enough both belays will be in the sun.
Pitch 3 - 175~180' belay on the first real ledge worth the name, *not* a hanging belay as such.
Pitch 4 - 100' finish the last part of the dihedral.
Pitch 5 - Carry on until rope drag bites real bad
Pitch 6 - 400+ feet of 4th class

As for triples in the 1.5" to 2.5" ( as described in Croft )... I feel that triples in say .4 to .75 Camalot with doubles in the 1 and 2 Camalot's would be more valuable. We also thought the dihedral was longer than 250', pehaps 275'?

Thanks Murf -I did the route a long time ago, didn't have a 200 foot rope, a topo, and had a very basic rack (set of hexes, set of rocks and a few friends), so we weren't sure what to expect and were inclined to stop and belay where we could. Doing the route as you suggest would therefore involve only 2 pitches in the dihedral instead of 3 and is, without a doubt, worth considering.

I thought this route was just OK, not as great as its made out to be. I saw that picture of the final layback on the exit move in a climbing magazine and said HOLY SHIT I've got to do this route. The rest of the climb is not quite as good as that picture looks. Oh well it's worth doing but I wouldn't go up there just to do this one route.

Did this route yesterday, cold at the base at 7:30am. We climbed the first pitch about 160 to an obvious ledge below a wide section. 2nd pitch was 120 ft to a decent narrow stance at the start of the dihedral. 3rd pitch was full 200ft. to where the corner gets less steep, obvious from below, two decent ledge systems to belay from, we chose the higher one. From there it was about 100ft. to the end of the dihedral with one of the best 5.9 finishes anywhere, this pitch made the final pitch on 3rd pillar look like a pile. We camped at Upper Boyscout and took about 2 hours to reach the base of the route. Absolutely killer and a way better setting than Whitney, Russell is steep and remote, shame that the Mithril is only four long pitches....We descended the east ridge, a cool traverse all the way down to Upper Boyscout, straightforward but with great exposure.

awesome route. pristine granite, twin hand cracks in a corner with a view.

if i recall correctly, we belayed at the base of the dihedral proper. then one very long pitch (that i seem to recall almost finishing our 60m) to a great stance with good gear where the angle kicks back just a bit. not a hanging belay. then a shorter pitch over the upper crux and onto ledges above. that first long pitch in the dihedral is wonderful.

shame it isnt longer. but- it means you can afford to start late (and thereby climb in the sun).

i would stack things so you can go down the east ridge. i think its faster, infinitely more interesting, less chossy, etc. much better finish.

Agreed- if the dihedral is run through for 200+ feet, it's 5.10, if it's broken up into 100' pieces, it's 5.9.

Go for the 5.10, woohoo!

IMO, the route is no harder than 5.9. While sustained in places and above 13,000 ft, the moves themselves are 5.9. Secor calls it 10b, Croft calls it 10a and McNamara gives it 10b, but those ratings seem a bit too hard for this route. There are some good rests along the way that make it totally managable. With that being said, it is one of the coolest routes I've ever been on. CALSSIC for sure!!!

I was very winded hopping on this route about 12 hrs after leaving sea level. Still, even with the thin-air-leading-with-pack pant-fest, I'd have to say the route honestly is 5.9 or 5.9+ by the hardest technical move. Hands-free or hands-less pant rests are there for nearly every few moves on the entire route if you know how to rest in a crack that is in a corner with face features. However, if you want to do the route clean and solid, you should be a 5.10 leader as the climbing is sustained and it . . . just . . . keeps . . . going! Great for every inch too.

I agree with the above statement that it is better to bring triples in the smaller sizes. I never managed to use 3 of the following Camalots (#1, #2, #3). I found a #4 handy here and there but probably not required. You can probably be just fine sewing up the climb with only doubles if you don't link any of P3, 4, or 5. Also, we used fewer cams in the gear anchors by using some tri-cams. We only placed one nut on the route and it was very optional.

PLease make sure you are prepared to descend a sharp ridgeline and possibly in the dark. If you have to wait for the sun to warm up the rock, it can start your day off a bit late. Just know the topo of the descent to get back to camp. We got ledged out by assuming the wrong decent and had to hike back up and make another guess which was thankfully the right one.