Type: Trad, 40 ft
FA: Mike Paul and Rondo Powell, February 1988
Page Views: 2,040 total · 10/month
Shared By: C Miller on Dec 31, 2001
Admins: C Miller, Greg Opland, M. Morley, Adam Stackhouse, Salamanizer suchoski, Justin Johnsen, Vicki Schwantes

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Description

A fabulous but woefully short route with technical stemming, protected by small wires, that opens to accept fingers higher up. A convenient anchor at the lip facilitates an easy return to the base as well as being conducive to doing laps.

Sadly this route doesn't go for another hundred feet or so, but alas that's Josh.

Location

Identifiable as the short, clean right-facing corner on the right side of the wall.

Protection

Gear to 2 inches including thin wires/micro-wires, bolted anchor/rap

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Photos

Snake Book free solo
Snake Book free solo
 3
A snake that I found below "Snake Book".<br> Photo by Blitzo.
A snake that I found below "Snake Book". Photo…
 0
"Snake Book".<br> Photo by Blitzo.
"Snake Book". Photo by Blitzo.
 0
"Snake Book".<br> Photo by Blitzo.
"Snake Book". Photo by Blitzo.
 0
Gabe gingerly stemming his way through the lower crux section of the Snake Book.
Gabe gingerly stemming his way through the lowe…
 0

10 Comments

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Vernon Stiefel
  5.11b
Vernon Stiefel  
  5.11b
I have to agree with Murf for the rating on this climb. It might be 10d on TR or on lead if you have very thin fingers (at least three stars out of five). Nov 10, 2003
C Miller
CA
  5.10d
C Miller   CA  
  5.10d
Surprised that you guys think this is 5.11b. I've lead it several times and it's never seemed harder than 5.10+. My recollection is about three or four moves of well-protected and positive stemming before it opens up to accept fingers (and no my fingers don't fit right away). It seems easier than the stemming crux of Coarse and Buggy and Bridge of Sighs for example. Nov 10, 2003
Vernon Stiefel
  5.11b
Vernon Stiefel  
  5.11b
I thought the stemming crux on Coarse and Buggy was easier than Snake Book. However, Bridge of Sighs (dicey pro at the crux!!) was definitely more difficult than Snake Book for me....the vagaries of route ratings. Nov 10, 2003
Chris Owen
Big Bear Lake
Chris Owen   Big Bear Lake  
"the vagarities of route ratings" Good point, especially at Josh of all places. Nov 10, 2003
Randy
  5.11b
Randy  
  5.11b
Great climbing, but short. Maybe 3 of 5 stars. Nov 24, 2003
caughtinside
Oakland CA
  5.11b
caughtinside   Oakland CA
  5.11b
I did Snake book and Coarse and Buggy a couple days apart and thought Snake Book was much more challenging stemming. Jul 30, 2010
Dimes
Joshua Tree, Ca.
Dimes   Joshua Tree, Ca.
Bring the smaller to medium HB's as well as very small camming units for the first 20' of the climb. Nov 15, 2010
Richard Shore
  5.11b
Richard Shore  
  5.11b
10d?!?! The stemming crux was significantly more difficult than Coarse and Buggy. And it's more like 20 feet, not 3-4 moves, until you can get fingers in. If fiddling with micro-wires through the crux doesn't appeal to you, it's easy enough to set a TR off the bolts after climbing one of the other routes. Dec 19, 2011
Al Peery
 
Al Peery  
 
Rondo, Jeff and I put a TR on this one after the FA of Rattler and Baby Rattler. I don't recall any of us getting the TR clean that day, but we got on it to late to give it many tries. I came back a few years later to bag the TR clean, but would not want to lead it on the tiny gear even with all of the new micro cams. At my light climbing weight of 235 lbs I snap the wires on nested RPs. Two thumbs up to anyone who leads this! Aug 28, 2012
Brian Treanor
 
Brian Treanor  
 
The stemming on this is definitely harder than Coarse and Buggy and definitely goes on for longer. Dec 21, 2012