Two guys free soloing Matthes Crest South to North.

All Locations > California > Yosemite NP > Tuolumne Meadows > Cathedral Range > Matthes Crest > Matthes Crest Travers… (5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b)

Two guys free soloing Matthes Crest South to North.

ID 110653010 ·

Flag This Photo

· Copyright Violation?

Matthes Crest.

The reason we're doing all this

Rate Photo

4.9 from 10 votes

Orphaned User

Jun 22, 2015

“Two guys free soloing Matthes Crest South to North.”

0 Comments

Nearby Photos

Michelle on the step across (photo by Daniel)

Soon after gaining the Crest

climber on Matthes Crest

Roddy, Carlos, & Matt on the Matthes Crest.

the full traverse

Nearing the South summit on the Mathes Crest traverse

Matthes from 13,500 ft. June 16, 2008.

Pablo on fun part of a ridge

Climbers on the north tower.

Looking back at the North summit from the 2nd half of the traverse. You can see climbers contemplating their next cruxy downclimb. The section in the view is probably the most exposed and awkward stretch of the entire route - July 23, 2005

Panoramic, looking south. September 23, 2009.

Matthes Crest.

Two guys free soloing Matthes Crest South to North.

The reason we're doing all this

Climbers on Matthess Crest<br>

Camille fishing something out of her pack, near the beginning of Matthes Crest.

pulling the 5.7 diagonal crack crux

East face of Matthes Crest.

The recent re-visit of Matthes Crest reminded me of this outing from 2004. My partner surprised everyone around (myself included) by putting on this Spiderman suit when he started climbing. Plenty of photos already, but a first for Spiderman, maybe?

Sunset finish

Nearing the south summit climbing south to north.

matthes crest in middle

Pat makes his way up the North Pillar - one of the few, but excellent, class 5 sections of the route.

Jake on The Matthes Crest Traverse.

fall in Tuolumne

Chloe on matthes crest

The southern part of the traverse, from the west.

Matthes crest

the real final tower

Matthes Crest from the North. Oct 2012

Ryan about to reach the N summit

The towers of Matthes.

Chloe following matthes crest

Duke with Conness in the background.

Matthes crest

Looking North from near the Summit of Matthes Crest

J on one of the many easy ramps

antiques

Kia standing on both summits at the same time.

Somewhere still near the south end.

looking toward Echo Peaks

Matthes Crest

Starting the traverse from the notch at the southern end using an alternate start--the crack farthest to the left of the normal route. This is a good alternative if the normal route is occupied. It's about 5.6.

Camille and I take a break on Matthes to watch Brian climb.

Looking back from first little peak along the ridge. We weren't sure how often we would want a rope and pro. As it turns out, we did the first section as two long pitches and then unroped for the ridge. We used the ropes again to climb the 5.7 OW crack that leads up to the North Summit. For roped climbing in the future, I would bring a small rack (BD #0.5 - #2, with maybe a second #2) and a bunch of slings. We ended up leaving slings to rap b/c we couldn't find the station at the North Summit, sorry for littering.

another view of the descent

the wave

Jake up on the North summit.

Climber at top of north summit

great route

The North Tower of Matthes Crest looking from the South Tower.

break

skyward

Daniel's first trip

the "real" start

sea of granite

Climbers en route. What a climb

Two guys free soloing Matthes Crest South to North.

Joan Bertoni on Matthes Crest 5.6

towers