Up up and away!

All Locations > California > Sierra Eastside > Lee Vining Cany… > Dana Plateau > Third Pillar, Regular… (5.10- 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a)

Up up and away!

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Pouring over Mono Lake and the Pillar. Took this picture real quick before ducking back under the tarp.

Bill Geist following the upper section of the fourth pitch. Nice exposure!

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Rude Boy

May 23, 2013

“Up up and away!”

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The utterly striking Third Pillar of Mt. Dana.

Alone on the Third Pillar of Dana photo by Drew Smith.

Atop the huge, scary-looking-but-solid flake with great 10a fingers on pitch 4 (pitch 5 if you do the direct start like we did.)

3rd Pillar of Dana Descent.

Current (as of Sat 15 July 2017) conditions of the snow field traverse to get to the base of Third Pillar.

Not a bad view from the summit of the 3rd! -photo by Tim Klein

The regular route as viewed form the approach. The red line closely follows the route.

Roberto and Duke on the approach hike.

Evan looking down at Mono Lake from the Third Pillar of Dana

Looking up at the route from the base. Most of the route is just to the right of the left skyline.

Third Pillar of Dana

Starting up the first pitch of the Regular Route, Third Pillar of Mt. Dana.

Top of first pitch

My recommendation is to taking the left route variation because it lands your belay on this sweet detached flake. Plus it's all-in-all better climbing.

Linda finishes up the last moves on the stellar final pitch of Third Pillar.<br>
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photo by danafelthauser.com

Brian crossing the snow gully 7/22/2011.

All smiles on the last pitch

Crossing the snow gully to reach the base.

Summit shot, topping out on 3rd Pillar of Dana. Photo by Ryan. Sun 4 Aug 2013.

Jeff on the final pitch, dubbed by some as the "best 5.9 pitch in the universe"!

Third Pillar

Looking down the route from the top.

Calvin Kilcrease leading above the 10a finger crack on P.4.

Found this towards the end of P4 after the crux. Not really needed as there were options for other placements. We ended up making an anchor here.

Rita on the last pitch.<br>
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Photo by S. Cox

Pouring over Mono Lake and the Pillar. Took this picture real quick before ducking back under the tarp.

Up up and away!

Bill Geist following the upper section of the fourth pitch. Nice exposure!

Low down, I think it's pitch 1

Summit, with Mono lake

Ginger on Third Pillar of Dana with the route unfolding below

About halfway down the descent.

Third Pillar of Dana looking mighty impressive on the approach

Ginger following the final pitch of the Third Pillar of Dana

Ginger on p1

Kurt on top after leading the amazing final pitch.

Jeremy Freeman on the 1st pitch

Topping out the Third Pillar on a perfect Sierra Day!!

Vincent downclimbing the prow to the right of the gully to reach the base of the route.

Jeff past the crux section of pitch 2, getting into the wide 5.7 stretch.

Eric Collins on 3rd Pillar, circa 1986

3rd Pillar

Eric Collins on 3rd Pillar, circa 1986

near the top

Nadia crossing the gully snowfield on June 30, 2019 (a high snow year)

Looking straight up the direct start.

Looking east from the plateau past the top of The Third Pillar. Mono Lake is in the distance and 5,000 ft down.

Roberto on the 4th class approach gully.

BEAUTIFUL piece of rock

third pillar on the left. approach/downclimb on the right

Third Pillar June 3rd 2018

An unforgettable climb and views while sitting out a few storms. Clear sunny skies in the morning got ugly real fast. Curtains of rain passed us and over Tioga Pass Road.

Looking up at P5. The first section looked unlikely so I skirted too far left and got into more difficult territory. Aim for a right facing corner with a mini roof to its right instead of doing what I did!

Jeff at the spectacular P3 belay!

Third Pillar.<br>
Photo by Blitzo.

Eric Burt leading just above the first crux on P.5.

Last Pitch on Third Pillar. <br>
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**flake being climbed is kinda loose/scary. Finger crack to climber's right harder but safer.

Downclimbing to bypass the snowy gully. Up high is some exposed 4th class but it gets gets easier and more obvious lower down

Tristan on the final pitch

Looking across the gully to the ledges that mark the normal start of the route, which is just below the large detached flake on the left ridge line.