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Yosemite route rec for small hands
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Hi! I’m going on my first Yosemite trip next week. I’m looking for route recommendations that are suitable for small hands (0.75 is a perfect hand for me, I start to struggle when the crack is a #2, and lose my shit when it’s #3 or wider). I love slabs, and suck at overhang. I also would like to avoid crowds. Please throw me your recs, TIA! |
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This is easy to look up if you do a bit of searching. If you're looking for .75 size lines I'd use the route finder to search for ~10c to ~11a routes and check the description and gear size on routes that come back in the search results. Tight hands tends to start around roughly the 10c/d range if you're looking for splitters in that size. Slab is easy to find, I'd say Swan Slab should be the first area you look up online and consider. You can also look at some of the domes in Tuolumne especially...Daff Dome ("The Great Circle"), Lembert Dome ("Werner's wiggle"), Stately Pleasure Dome ("Turkey trot"), etc. Those routes are harder than 5.7 but I'm just throwing some ideas out there. If your lead limit is 5.7 it may be quite a bit harder to find strictly .75 size routes just given the grade that cracks of that size frequently fall under but hey, somebody prove me wrong. Slab routes in the 5.7 range are more plentiful for sure. |
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You have to go through the wayback machine to grab it but Clint Cummins had a massive breakdown of routes in yosemite by various categories, one being "route by type" which includes the size of crack. Keep in mind that this list will have nothing that was put up after 2019 or so.
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OOoo have a list of finger cracks? Links don't seem to work for me |
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Those lists above look familiar and should be helpful. Thin hand 1.25": Grack Center 5.6, already on your tick list Shuttle Madness 5.9, nearby to the left Chouinard Crack 5.8, on right side of the Apron Harry Daley 5.8, right next to Chouinard Crack -- Bishop's Terrace 5.8, already on your tick list Black is Brown 5.8, on left side of Church Bowl Church Bowl Lieback 5.8 also on left side; not a hand crack but is moderate -- Jamcrack p1 5.8, p2 5.9 but not very hard -- Committment p1 5.8, already on your tick list The Caverns 5.8, on right side Try Again Ledge 5.8, on right side Selaginella 5.8, on second tier -- Ranger Crack 5.8 -- Positively 4th Street 5.9 ----- Slab ----- Point Beyond 5.8, on right side of the Apron Goodrich Pinnacle - Right Side 5.9, Apron center -- Have fun! |
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You will not have company on this route, and I think it's fantastic: mountainproject.com/route/1… |
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Hi Charlie, well, you have a couple responses from some truly experienced/knowledgeable Yosemite Valley hands. I am going to offer a couple alternative ideas for your consideration. First, a characteristic of Valley cracks is that they don't stay the same width, mostly. They get wider or narrower. Many, or most, of the climbs mentioned do exactly that. So two possibilities would be: 1. Chose routes on more featured rock so there are holds to help you along, like at Manure Pile buttress. Of course that's a busy place, but C.S. Concerto is less travelled and very good. The second pitch is a finger crack with face holds. There are mandatory mild runouts on P1 and P3. After Seven is excellent. As is Nutcracker, if it isn't too busy, and it has 3 different starts which might help. Glacier Point Apron rock is less featured, but it's slab, and that helps too. 2. If you can afford it, see if you can hire a guide for a day. When I worked at the Yosemite Mountaineering School in the 80's Ellie Hawkins was a guide there, and in the 90's Sue Mcdevitt and Karine Nissan were. I am pretty sure they all had smaller hands, maybe not as much so as you, but enough smaller than most men to understand. Any of them would have been excellent for getting you introduced to the nuances, of which there are plenty, involved in fist and offwidth crack climbing. Such climbing doesn't need to always be a battle. Getting some technique and a perspective adjustment will serve you well most everywhere you trad climb. I bet there is someone on staff there now that could help you. There might even be someone here on MP that would be able to help you embrace the challenge of wider cracks, and there's no better place than the Valley. Hope you have a great trip! |
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The great roof might fit you well ;) |
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@failfalling - Having issues accessing the website via the wayback machine. Any tips? I’d like to get into excel to save and use offline. |
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Yes, archive.org does not work very well on my old website. So I made "Yosemite_Valley_routes_by_type.xlsx" and put it up on my new website: https://sites.google.com/view/clintcummins/home It includes types for 1160 climbs in Yosemite Valley. Here is the "Notes" page which explains what is included:  In addition to the crack size types above (1,2,3,4,6,9), there are several additional types: arete, face, lieback (and undercling), roof, slab, stem. Hopefully this will help folks find climbs of a particular type and grade they might want to try. - Clint |
Clint Cumminswrote: What a great list and that will certainly be useful. But just because the crux is a certain type, it doesn't mean a person with divergent-from-average size hand, feet, height etc. will not be surprised by what is the crux for them. I'm thinking for example of Five and Dime (which I did not see on your list and which IIRC I did the first time with you?). I remember the crux 10d thin section felt fine but I think I really struggled and hung at the big hand/fist section which is several letter grades below the crux rating. That's the type of thing Charlie was trying to avoid. It's now months after her trip. I hope she will return and let people know her experience as a first time climber in the Valley. |
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I hear Tales of Power is pretty casual for wee little hands. |
phylp phylpwrote: True, it is not a complete description of the climb, just a starting point.
I remember being surprised by that top wide section, too. And being glad I fit it with a cupped hand jam and my foot also fit it well. The 1994 topo shows ' 3 1/2" ' there, so the new topo contains the critical info. The 1987 topo does not show it. I checked my saved trip reports, and I think my first time on Five and Dime was in Oct 1989 with Joel, Nancy and Renata. I didn't find one with you, but we climbed a lot then and it is possible. Five and Dime is in the list as a "2" (1.5", thin hand).
Yes, it would be cool if she would post a trip report. |
