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The Cleavage

5.4 V-easy, TR, Boulder, 30 ft (9 m),  Avg: 2.6 from 20 votes
FA: unknown
California > San Francisco B… > E Bay Area > Indian Joe Caves > Cleavage Rock

Description

This route chimneys the obvious crack that separates the two bolted rocks on the far (north) side of the area.

Many people simply don't bother with pro, when we were there a group of poeple climbed the chimney with tennis shoes on, but didn't go to the top, as there is a bailout to the left (the start of the 5.12c and 5.11a climbs on the southeast side of the rock) 15 feet shy of the top of the route.

Protection

Setting up a toprope on the 3 bolt top anchor requires a long sling (10'), and you must climb the Cote Memorial Wall (5.3) route (or another) to reach the bolts.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

chimney
[Hide Photo] chimney
The Cleavage, as viewed from the approach trail.
[Hide Photo] The Cleavage, as viewed from the approach trail.
Another view of The Cleavage
[Hide Photo] Another view of The Cleavage
The Cleavage
[Hide Photo] The Cleavage

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

John F Kim
San Jose, CA
[Hide Comment] I counted two pairs of anchors bolts above the Cleavage, one on the northern rock and one on the southern rock. (Didn't see any 3-bolt top anchors near the Cleavage.) The bolts on the southern rock are better if you are climbing the middle of the cleavage because they are above the middle of the southern face and the bolts on the northern rock are on the eastern end of the cleavage so if you're climbing the middle of the southern face of the cleavage and fall, you'll swing to your left (east). The northern bolts would be better if you wanted to climb the northern face (which is taller) but that face looks steeper (maybe slightly overhanging?) and has fewer holds than the southern face. Or if you wanted to stem then top out onto the northern rock.

Only the bolts on the northern rock require the long (10') slings. I think they were about 3 or 4' from the edge, so a 10' sling with some limiting/redundancy knots in the middle should let you hang the TR safely over the edge from the northern rock. Or maybe two 120cm (4') slings would do it if you attached one to each hanger and knotted them together in the middle to form a master point. The southern Cleavage Rock bolts are much closer to the edge so we just used a standard quad anchor there. Short anchor story: for most people, best way to set a TR is climb Bat Crack then walk/butt-scoot/crawl to the northernmost anchor bolts on the south side of Cleavage Rock.

I climbed the southern face without stemming. The start can be easy or hard depending where you are. In the middle there are many nice crimpy holds and a few nice narrow ledges to stand on. At the top the holds get smaller so I had to go left and grab onto the arete in order to reach the top without stemming. Everyone in our group enjoyed this route--some stemmed, some didn't stem, and some climbed it twice (with and without stemming). Jan 21, 2020