Mule Train  5.7

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Type:  Trad, 2 pitches, 300 feet Consensus:  5.7 [details] FA:  Jim Cunningham, Tom Foll (July 1987 Submitted By:  Bryan G on Nov 1, 2011 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (1) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

Extremely cool patina and chicken-heads reduce mos...

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Description 

This is an enjoyable climb up the beautiful golden face on the South side of the dome. Start about in the middle of the face, at a section of speckled rock (looks like this Photo). The crux is getting past the first couple bolts, and I thought it was pretty stout for the 5.7 it's given in the Spencer guide.After the start, lots of 5.0 climbing up the knobs leads to a bolted belay at a nice little dish/ledge.

The second pitch climbs up and right. Some sections of golden polish provide more challenge. Another 2 bolt anchor is below the giant bulbous overhang. I spotted another bolt on the slab above this anchor, so it looks like a route to the top of the dome has been added, although we didn't do it.

There are also a handful of other nice looking face climbs to the right of Mule Train. They are newer and not in the Spencer guidebook.

Rappel the route with 2 ropes to descend. We managed to rap with one 70m by working our way right to a ledge, and then raping to the ground from a bolted anchor on the ledge.

Protection 

Bolts protect all the hard climbing, but you can reduce the runouts on 5.0 terrain by slinging chickenheads.

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Beautiful golden polish on the second pitch.