Spring '17 list of dry Yosemite climbs - Post em up!

Awesome Max!...... minded throwing those in? Should only take twenty minutes, and will give you endless stewardship karma. Heck, you might never get off route or lost on an approach again!

Erik Sloan wrote:

Carla - Did you rap Absolutely Free? I'd love more feedback on how to make the approach more obvious (short of a local climber group making a dedicated trail!)? I just added the approach pitch is 220', that might help. I think the key to finding that route is not getting suckered up a low fifth class looking cliff below the actual approach pitch - you have to keep walking along the cliff until it makes a hard right at the to of a gully and you walk up left to a clearing below the approach pitch. Amazing route!....hopefully we will get the approach trail more dialed soon!

Incredible pictures on ST of some guys climbing the West Face of El Cap in perfect conditions the other day.....that suggests that routes on the sunny side of the Valley should be all dry soon!

Woot!

Erik

Rockclimbyosemite.com - Yosemitebigwall.com

Erik, we did the walk off towards the west, it's fairly well marked/traveled. We found the gully/approach scramble based on a photo for the route here on MP.. however it did take scrambling up about 150 ft to realize we were going the right way. The topo is key to figuring out where Absolutely Free is in respect to Vantage Pont. There are definitely no fall zones we went through on the approach.

We didn't see anyone the entire day which made the experience that much better. Linking the two 5.9 hand crack pitches is also a load of fun! Positively 4th Street looks like a great climb as well.

Erik Sloan wrote:

Erik Sloan wrote:

Awesome Max!...... minded throwing those in? Should only take twenty minutes, and will give you endless stewardship karma. Heck, you might never get off route or lost on an approach again!

Sure can! It's an awesome route that really deserves more traffic. That killer photo in the new book seems to be grabbing everyone's attention. 

First pitch of Arches (chimney) was dry and the middle of the route was barely wet yesterday afternoon. So Good!

You can rap Royal Arches with one 60m rope - still run into people all the time on route who are not aware of that. 

Middle cathedral was all dry yesterday, but descent gully still had snow in it. Snow made things more interesting but passable. That gully is beautiful.

Anbrew Jensen wrote:

Middle cathedral was all dry yesterday, but descent gully still had snow in it. Snow made things more interesting but passable. That gully is beautiful.

Curious. You talking the Kat-walk?

Kat walk was dry above, but descending the gully where there is a couple small rappels was wet and had some larger snow areas 

Why not use the new rap route?

Only brought one rope, so decided that the walk off would be more fun than a ton of raps. The scrambling is really fun in the gully

Anbrew Jensen wrote:

Only brought one rope, so decided that the walk off would be more fun than a ton of raps. The scrambling is really fun in the gully

Its a beautiful spot with stunning views of Higher Cathedral. Totally worthy.

kevin deweese wrote:

Why not use the new rap route?

Stole my thunder. 

Katwalk is the most dicey (IE dangerous to you and those below you) in the spring. The rap route, btw, takes one rope, if memory serves me.

Beta here http://www.supertopo.com/rock-climbing/route_beta.php?r=yomceast

There is now a link to the super-topo page on the Middle Cathedral main page. The full color pic is really useful. Thanks Kevin, i had forgot about that photo.

Thinking of doing the Regular route on sunnyside bench this friday afternoon. Anyone been on it in the last few days? Any ideas of how wet it might be?

Sunnyside Bench is closed for Peregrine Falcon nesting.

Erik Sloan wrote:

Sunnyside Bench is closed for Peregrine Falcon nesting.

Good call, thanks

Cody Cox KC wrote:

Good call, thanks

Actually I dont see it on the NPS closure list. Any source for your comment. 

mmmm, so friends walked up there two days ago and said it was closed. Any of the climbing rangers post here?

The NPS site shows the Lost Arrow closure as LIFTED. Sunnyside Bench is rather low down for bird nesting?