[Hide Comment] I would call the first pitch 5.7, while the 2nd and 3rd pitches are easily 5.8, with the opportunity for 5.9 variations on the North Face.It would nice to have some fixed gear at belays on this route.While all-clean alpine routes are of course preferred in wilderness areas, the slung blocks and flakes used for belays on this route have very sharp edges, and there aren't many solid gear placements to be had!

Gear wise, I took a 3 Camalot, and only used it once, in a belay. Wished I'd had a second #2! Micro cams were essential. Finally, make sure to be off the Sundial before the weather turns bad! We got off just in time!

As a side comment....check out the Northwest face of Superior peak from the Sundial!Hoo daddy, now that's a nice looking wall!!! Aug 26, 2004

[Hide Comment] The FA's had a good eye on this one. Excellent rock, killer exposure, sweet views and cool temps definitely make this a Wasatch 3 star mountain classic.

Standard rack (micro cams help) with some extra webbing-for belays & raps. Jul 30, 2006

[Hide Comment] This is a great route! I followed the beta photo with pitches outlined in yellow on this mountain project page. 1st and 2nd pitches (initial pitches up to large ledge) were pretty straight forward for alpine - a slung block about 100ft up off the ground and a piton w/ webbing about 130ft off the ground.

The third pitch (crux) is definitely 5.8 w/ technical slab moves and needs microcams! Unless you are solid at 5.10 slab, don't forget the pro, because it would be a runout. The rock leading up the slab section is loose as hell, but easy w/ few choices for solid placements.

The Fourth pitch, which climbs some finger cracks up and right to an arete, is undoubtedly the best pitch. Probably goes at 5.7+ and eats up gear. If rope drag doesn't get you then run it to the top and find the mess of slings/static rope that are slung around a block.

Descent: you can rap from several trees on the ledge of the east side of sundial peak. If you choice the first tree w/ visible slings - it leads to a ledge approx. 100ft below not trees. There is a boulder about 50ft climbers left with slings that will get you to another tree and finally the ground. Sep 18, 2010

[Hide Comment] First Winter ascent?

Jim Dockery & Lynn Wheeler late 70's Sep 19, 2010

[Hide Comment] A 60m rope makes it down in two raps from the far rap station. The second rap comes about 5 feet short but is a easy down climb. There is a third rap staion for 50m rope to take three raps. Sep 29, 2010

[Hide Comment] Classic. I finally climbed this thing today and loved it. I started the first pitch too far to the left but eventually made it to the big ledge and the normal upper pitches. The rock on the route was a lot better than I thought it would be and the webbing at all rap stations was in good shape.

I took cams to #3 (with doubles on the .75, 1, and 2 pieces), a set of nuts, and a few micro cams. It was perfect and it's what I'll take when, not if, I do it again. Jun 8, 2012

[Hide Comment] Got this route yesterday with all of my Utah Outsider buddies. This route still has me smilling. I can't wait to go climb it again and lead the pitches that I didn't get to. My partner and I did the whole thing with a set of C4's and Nuts. Everyone on this page seems to think that micro's are a must have.. not true. I lead the crux slab on the 3rd and it was easily protected with just a standard set of nuts and C4's. Passive Pro all the way. Jun 18, 2012

[Hide Comment]

This climb is gorgeous! Here's my quick beta. We followed the image with yellow pitches drawn from mtnproject, thanks.

1st pitch - several start points, any of them kind of led to the same place. Placement is solid with several options for belay (slings on boulder, tree, p-ton).
2nd pitch - short pitch to large ledge with massive sling set for belay (webbing was in great shape)
3rd pitch - crux pitch up some very scary loose rocks on the first half. Check each rock before placing gear. Second half is a dihedral with small nut placement. I used only nuts on this pitch and it was great. This is also the grave site of my GoPro as it lies in 400 pieces at the bottom of the pitch. RIP.
4th pitch - awesome finger crack climbing with an exposed arête towards the top and large feature climbing. There's a really cool lie-back in the white section of rock during this pitch. Used almost the entire rack to finish a 55m pitch to the top. Top belay is slung with webbing also in great condition.
Descent - thanks to whomever left the rock cairns. They led us right to the belay on the east face. Beware of rock fall during the rappel.
Rack - Set of cams up through #3 with double #1's, #.75's, and #.5's, and two Omega cams. Full set of nuts including doubles or triples for smaller nuts. Aug 24, 2012

[Hide Comment] Great route! As others have said, just a wee bit nippy on a nice 80 degree fall day in the valley. The amount of mtn goat crap near the rappels was impressive to say the least... route finding on final pitch is interesting, be careful. "Crux" pitch protects with small nuts, and is a one move type deal.. Oct 2, 2012

[Hide Comment] Eek - high of 60 in the valley today = numb fingers and toes on this climb. Fun route, standard rack, and unlike the description, only 7 hours car to car for us. Oct 6, 2012

[Hide Comment] Highly recommend this route! Rachel and I climbed this route yesterday part of our link up on the Central Spur (5.10) Central Spur of Dromedary Peak mountainproject.com/v/the-c… . All the beta above is good and many different ways to go up the first pitch

This route has really good rock and has been clean. Not much rock fall hazard on this route.

Descent: There are cairns leading the towards large dead tree. There is another cairn 50ft past the dead tree. if you walk another 50ft on the talus there is a large alive tree that you can rap off with slings. 3 single rope rappels get you down. We took a 50m rope and made it work but a 60m would be much better. Jun 9, 2013

[Hide Comment] rap stations are all in good shape. a 70m rope can get you down in two raps from the first two stations...skip the third. Sep 7, 2014

[Hide Comment] I was wondering how long this outing might take. No one mentioned anything in the description or comments. I figured about 10 hours from looking at the terrain and the climbing. It was exactly that and we had a fairly relaxed pace. This included wandering off route, chatting on the summit for a while, taking our time to hydrate and eat, and not being in a hurry. So it could definitely be done in less time. Enjoy (the unscared bolt-free rock). Sep 16, 2014

[Hide Comment] If you want to go light and fast on the gear, I would bring a single set from 0.4 to #2 and a set of nuts. Long slings are essential and make sure you have enough.

All rap stations are still in good shape. Jun 20, 2015

[Hide Comment] Did this route the other day, took us just under 8 hours from car to car. That being said we were hiking at a fairly sustained fast pace. A great place to be to escape the summer heat. We brought up a single rack from .1 to .5 in Camalots and doubles in .75 to 3, This was plenty of gear. I would try to save a couple large pieces for anchor building. The anchor for the last pitch should definitely be backed up with gear. All the rap stations are in great shape as of 6/21/2016 Jun 22, 2016

[Hide Comment] Disappointing to say the least. The climbing gets better the higher you get... and then it gets bad again. Jul 14, 2016

[Hide Comment] Some Beta:

Climbed the route today in 3 pitches, with a full double rack of cams, nuts, and a 70m rope. Started the first pitch where a small tree is growing out of the wall - went almost straight up through an obvious horizontal crack that can be seen on the approach - finishing at the slung block on the large ledge. Unroped and moved belay around the corner. Most of the 2nd pitch is 5 easy - the "crux slab" is easily protectable with small cams and is basically just a couple face climbing moves - it is not loose and not slab climbing. Finished pitch two on the second ledge above the slab, right at the base of the finger crack. Pitch 3 is excellent - splitter cracks most of the way up. Take the finger crack to the "flake" traverse, to the 2nd set of nice horizontal cracks easily visible from the belay - but at some point cut right/do not follow this crack all the way up/until it dead ends. Look for the photo labeled Pitch 4 on the Eleventh Hour - it has big blocks in a dihedral - for a reference. This will take you straight to the top.

I didn't use any of the tat ridden belay stations on the way up, aside from the one on the large ledge at the end of my first pitch, they look super jank. Rap stations were in good shape.

I think the last pitch of outside corner is more difficult, or of equal difficulty, to anything on this route.

What an amazing location! And good climbing.

P.S. look for raspberries. Aug 28, 2016

[Hide Comment] scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.…>

Yesterday I was climbing behind a party of 4 people with two 70 meter ropes. One leader, and three followers. The leader asked me and my friends climbing behind after them whether or not it would be cool to bolt anchors at the start of the second pitch because he did not like the way the slings wrapped the rock slung belay station. We told him no, and that the climbing community may not approve of bolts on this particular route. He proceeded to bolt anyway with his power drill that he led with and also cut all of the slings. He also bolted two rappel stations and the 2nd station will not reach the ground without 2 ropes. The current tree slung belay stations says that a 60m rope will get you down, but if someone did not read the beta, they may be misled and try to rappel down the new bolted belay stations with a 60m rope.

I wanted to post this as a warning to anyone planning to climb this route about the new bolts. Also, I wanted to see if any local alliances or coalitions approved of this bolting? Maybe I am mistaken when I say that this should not have happened. Aug 6, 2017

[Hide Comment] The local ethics are that, with very few exceptions, you don't add bolts to existing trad routes. Eleventh Hour has been climbed without bolts for over 70 years! If any route should stay in it's natural state, it's this one. Aug 6, 2017

[Hide Comment] The Sundial is within Twin Peaks Wilderness, so power drills are illegal. This story is strange. Who the hell takes a power drill up to the Eleventh Hour unless they have already decided to put in some bolts. The guy asks you if you think it is ok to bolt anchors, you tell him no, and he goes ahead and does it anyway? What a dick. One person doing all the leading with three following? Sounds to me like someone doing some unauthorized "guiding" in the national forest without a permit, again illegal. Did you by chance get a picture of the jerk? The behavior pattern seems familiar. Aug 7, 2017

[Hide Comment] I wasn't able to get a photo of the leader. He was a couple pitches ahead of me and left the base before I could talk to him. I hauled ass down hill after packing up my camp trying to catch him but couldn't. I didn't take a photo of his following 3 climbers but I believe they are innocent and very inexperienced and I felt like the real culprit was the leader. I thought it was really weird that he asked in the first place...seems like if you hiked in a power drill and led with it that you were trigger happy... Aug 7, 2017

[Hide Comment] Up there yesterday, there were indeed bolts 8 feet left of my gear anchor. I've got a photo I can post once I'm on a computer. The bolts even are equalized with cord so you can just clip your device in! How convenient! This needs to go, we didn't have the equipment to remove and patch responsibly. I only saw bolts on the first belay.

Edit: 2 star climb 4 star location. 3 stars. Aug 20, 2017

[Hide Comment] This is a must do climb if you are in the area.. Super fun. Sep 10, 2017

[Hide Comment] Some dude was bragging about the trad route he bolted at either reservoir or dam wall In Storm Mountain too. Mid 40s maybe. He doesn't post on MP because people are "mean". Feb 8, 2018

[Hide Comment] I added blue slings with rap rings at the top of the rappel since I couldn't find anything to use. Can be used with a single rope to rappel to the next station on the ledge below. Great route! Jun 4, 2018

[Hide Comment] A bit of a detailed breakdown of the route:

Approach: This took us about 3 hours from the car to get to the base of the route. I've gotten lost in areas all across the country and this was probably the most straightforward approach I've seen. We more followed the signs to Lake Blanche from the Mills B parking lot. Once you get to the lake, the Sundial is right in front of you at a distance. We went around the lake on the left, did a little fourth class scrambling up some rocks near the stream, then talus scrambled to the base of the route. Aim generally for the arete on the right side of the Sundial as you scramble up.

We also didn't carry that much water because the stream is nearby during the first and last 1/4 of the hikes, so we each took a one liter bottle and just filled it up from the stream with a filter.

Gear: We took a standard rack + C3s. We had doubles in C3 0, 2 and .75, 1 and 2. We had about 10 slings of various lengths and 5 draws. We did the route in three pitches using a 70m. 1 and 3 were very long, so this was barely enough gear.

Pitch 1: The pitch starts in front of a large white pine tree. At the time of writing, there is a large cairn near the start, but that is about 20-40 feet to the climbers right of the start. Long pitch (about 180 ft). Follows the weaknesses and cracks on the face up to a big ledge. The pitch gets a bit steep. This pitch was a bit disconcerting to me. Maybe I was just getting back into the groove of placing gear on quartize which is always a little tricky, but I thought this pitch was a bit precarious. There were spots to place gear, but it was a bit spaced out because it's such a long pitch. Some of the placements were also a little tricky and nuts are useful. While there are cracks in the face, the pitch feels more like a face climb. I used the cracks mostly for placing gear and then used the face holds for the actual climbing.

Presently, there is a two bolt anchor on the big ledge. Belay the second up from here, then untie and walk about 50ft to your right where you will find a large horn/flake that you can sling and belay the second pitch.

Pitch 2: About 50 feet. Pitch two is a big, obvious left facing corner. The pitch is fairly cruiser, following good hand holds in the corner and on the face until you get to a big, smooth face near the end of the pitch. The end of the pitch contains the technical and psychological crux of the route, a reachy face move on holds that are not as positive as you would like them to be.

Belay at a good crack.

Pitch 3: About 180 feet. Some people break this up into two pitches. Using a 70m rope, I linked it into one. From the belay, follow up one of two cracks generally to the right. Eventually you get to a flake rail type of feature that you follow to the right. At the end of the flake rail, you'll get to steeper rock with cracks and (if I remember) a lieback. If you plan on linking these pitches, you should have all the gear before this point on long slings or rope drag will be huge. There's a ledge that you can belay from here, but I kept pushing up through cracks that take good hands and liebacks until reaching large ledge with shale.

From there you can sling any number of horns/flakes and bring the second up from there.

Descent: From the shale covered ledge, head towards the true summit until you spot a cairn on climbers left. Note that the webbing on the dead tree is gone. Near the carin, you'll see a live tree with a blue loop of webbing with rap rings that Mark described. As a note, this rappel may become an issue. The rappelling traffic is eroding the dirt and exposing/breaking the tree roots. This rappel will eventually need to be moved, and you should double check it before using it. Rap down from there to another tree with blue webbing on the rappeler's left. From here you can barely rapp to the ground with a 70m rope. If you have a shorter rope, there is one more tree with webbing on the way down. Jun 4, 2018

[Hide Comment] The bolts up at the large ledge in the climb are still there, I used them. I couldn't find the ones on the descent. Jun 11, 2018

[Hide Comment] The p1 belay bolts and the rap bolt stations that require a 70m rope on the descent have Tony C's name engraved on them, so that seems to solve that mystery. The belay bolts seem somewhat out of character with an alpine route, but to be fair it's sort of a tricky belay to find a good gear anchor in that exact spot, though moving left and right yields reasonable options. The rap stations on the other hand, while mandating a 70m rope and going down sort of a loose nasty gully are probably a lot greener than continuing to kill the trees than remain on the ledge as prior rap setups have done and continue to do. Some caution is probably reasonable on the rap anchors as well since the rings are the thin throw away variety and they should be expected to wear rapidly. One of the bolts on the second rap station is under driven as well. Sep 1, 2018

[Hide Comment] P1 belay bolts have been removed. Didn't find the rap bolts, trees are slung and in ok condition. Watch for rock fall on the rap. Its very very loose, i wouldn't recommend starting the rap until it's clear below. Jul 8, 2019

[Hide Comment] P1 belay bolts were there as of 7/6/2019, about 30 feet left of the start of P2. To find the bolted rap station, go to the slung trees (green webbing) and look straight down the trail from there. The bolts face the slung trees and are easily visible. The rings for the bolted rap stations are cheap rolled aluminum rings, and the second station has a bolt that protrudes. I tried to replace the rolled aluminum rings, but couldn't get the rap rings that I brought to fit through the quick links. When using the bolted rappel, we ended up about 5 feet short using a 70m rope, but it was an easy 3rd class scramble down. Definitely watch for loose rock on the rappels (maybe even wait until the party below you is completely clear before starting), as well as for loose rock on the scree field. I managed to set a mini-fridge-size block rolling about 300ft while going down the scree. Jul 11, 2019

[Hide Comment] Anchor beta
1:tat, can supplement with #2 and #3 (no bolts)
2: .3, .4, and/or .5
3: #2, .4, and/or .5

Decent: Bolt rap. single 70 Aug 18, 2019

[Hide Comment] Gear -
Doubles .3-#3.
C3 (Purple, Green, Red, Yellow).
Offsets (all but smallest Metolius, and largest metolius).

• Could bring extra .5 and .75 for the 3rd pitch.

Nuts (hardly placed them, but small nuts are key for the crux 2nd pitch)
20 Slings (3 double long, 6 qd, 11 Shoulder length runners).
3 pitches.
2 rappels with a single 70. Second rappel anchor has a spinning bolt. Bring something to try and tighten it.
.5 liter of water.
Shade most of the day, except first pitch (9am start)
95 degrees in SLC. Wore an Patagonia R1 hoody and no base layer (very comfortable).
9hr 30m car to car. Aug 9, 2020

[Hide Comment] We used the bolted rappel stations that are ~30 ft south of the slung trees on 9/27/2020. To repeat other commenters: DO NOT try to rappel using the bolted rappel stations without a 70m rope. The first rappel goes down a large chimney with a little bit of loose rock and ends at a bolted rap station after ~30-35m. The second station was hard to find but is there. Sep 28, 2020

[Hide Comment] First pitch kind of sucks to be honest. Not good protection, so take what you can get. There were not bolts to be found at the top of the first pitch. They either aren't there or they are very well hidden. Instead we found a couple of bright slings threaded around a big block. The climbing and the pro gets better the higher you get. The second and 3rd pitch are nice and clean with mostly good quality rock. There are a couple of moves on the 3rd pitch that were pretty hard. If it were sport I'd call the crux 5.9+ or 5.10. But of course it's old school Cottonwood Canyons trad so it is 5.8. There are a few spots where loose rocks and questionable blocks (which are essential holds) make the whole thing feel a bit sketchy. Don't forget your helmet and use caution.

First pitch was runout due to lack of gear placements but I mostly used .5-1 Camalots. Bring a double set of these small sizes if you've got them. The upper pitches seemed to take more of a full range of cam sizes plus a couple nuts.

When rappelling we almost missed the bolts for the second rappel. They were right at the middle mark on our double 60M ropes, maybe a couple feet below. You should really plan on either a single 70 or a double 60 rappel. When you get 30 meters down from the first rappel, stop and find the bolts for the second rappel. They were slightly left of our rappel line, to the left of a fairly large pine tree.

We climbed in late September and spent several hours on the wall. Almost all of which were in the cold and in the shade. Unless you are climbing in summer bring some warm layers! Sep 28, 2020

[Hide Comment] Sounds like you may have been a bit off route here and there Shawn as there is plenty of gear on P1 and nothing remotely as hard as you describe. Sep 28, 2020

[Hide Comment] BTW, Mr. Michaels,
to put in fixed gear and do it by the book (i.e. wilderness ethics) takes hand drilling. So if you want fixed gear, step up and put in the effort to make it so. Jul 5, 2021

[Hide Comment] ^^ I don't think mr. Frank Anthony Nederhand here realizes he's replying to a comment from 18 years ago? lol Jun 24, 2022

[Hide Comment] what bolted rap stations? were they chopped between now and last year? wasted 45 mins scrambling around on sketchy loose terrain looking for a station that no longer exists. ethics aside, some clarity in these comments would be useful for safety purposes. the traditional tree rap stations are seriously eroding and killing the trees. is it really worth chopping bolts? Jul 4, 2022

[Hide Comment] up there today, little under five and a half hours ctc. i can confirm that the bolted rap stations are still there. Jul 18, 2022

[Hide Comment] Lovely route with some great views. In early October the route doesn't really see sun. As of 10/8/22 we cut the tat on the first rappel station--it was a mangle around a dead tree so poorly rooted that I'm confident we could have pushed it over.

The bolted rap stations have quick links + SMC rolled aluminum descending rings. It would be great if these got replaced by a citizen with a wrench. Left bolt on the first rap station is a spinner as well.

Surprising number of stuck cams on this route--two .75s, one .5. Oct 8, 2022

[Hide Comment] Just did this today and got off route on p3. Maybe I'm in the minority here but I didn't understand exactly where to go for p3.

The key is, after the left slanting crack of your choosing (either fingers on the right or thin hands on the left) and then the little rightward hand traverse thing, once you see a literal sidewalk looking ledge thing that leads off right, take it. I kept going straight, following a finger crack that eventually ran out and got pretty hard. Take the ledge thing right ***AROUND THE CORNER***. This is the key I was missing. Step around the corner into a big V groove thing, that's the route. Don't keep going up the face. Jul 1, 2023

[Hide Comment] If you are aiming to summit the west peak via this route plan for an additional ~1hr of class 4/5.easy scrambling, just an FYI. The route eats passive gear well, and the rappel was not the most pleasant. Jul 13, 2023

[Hide Comment] Climbed 6/13/24

We hiked along the west side of lake blanche since the water flow was high on the stream on the south east side

There was a slung boulder to belay from at the ledge for pitch 1. Backed it up with a number 2. The rest of the pitches I built my own anchor.

There is still snow at base of descent. 70m allowed us to rap from the wall past the snow onto area where snow was melted. We used spikes to traverse snow back north to hike down.

10hrs car to car with time spent eating lunch, filtering water and navigating snow Jun 14, 2024

[Hide Comment] Climbed this today (July 4th USA USA). 8 hours car to car in no particular hurry. Climbed in three pitches – the first two standard pitches and then ran the third pitch through the last very short final pitch (only 30-40 ft extra of climbing). The rappel stations were straightforward to find. Trend left after gaining the high ground immediately after the last pitch. You will see a cairn and then cross a sketchy-looking but not too bad scree gully. There you will find healthy pines with three slings/cords around base. All 3 rappel stations have slings/cords/carabiners in excellent condition.

In my opinion, this route is much more deserving of 3-4 stars than other BCC classics like Outside Corner. Cleaner rock (no choss!) with sustained 5.8 climbing on long pitches in a spectacular location. Truly a pleasure! Jul 4, 2024

[Hide Comment] Enjoyed the route and do think it goes at 5.8 by modern standards (not LCC/classic standards!!) for the slabby section on p2 and the first few moves of p3. All other sections go 5.7ish IMO.

I wanted to add clarity to the descent description--a single 70m rope doubled through the rap rings (35m length) is sufficient for getting down via the rap rings (past the first tree you see with slings around it and on a ENE -facing rock) in 2 raps. I wasn't sure if the route and area description was suggesting a single line rappel--it is not. We brought a tag line which was not needed--straightforward in the end! Jul 27, 2024

[Hide Comment] Wanted to write a detailed description summarizing all of the comments above and my experience on the route. Feel free to not read if you are not interested in beta/ description

P1: Find a route up to the ledge. Pitch is long (110-140ft). The way we went diverged a little from the original mp description in that we pulled a small bulging crack that had maybe up to a 5.9 move in it, but was super fun and much more interesting than the original route on the left looked. End on a massive ledge with a TON of loose shale on it. Watch the rope if you move on this ledge or it could send rockfall directly on anyone below. A block was slung as of this writing in descent condition for belaying. 

P2: pick up the rope and walk 50 ft to the right on the ledge. Again be very careful to not disturb any of the rock on this ledge for rockfall. Climb up the dihedral and then onto the left face. Once even/ above the roof on the right, move back right into the dihedral. Crux of this pitch is in this corner, where you will have to make a reachy move up left off or a descent right hand and some alright feet. Move is much easier for taller folk, but is over good gear. Pull on the next ledge and make an anchor below the twin cracks.

P3: Combine pitches 3/4. So long as you extend pieces you should be fine. We started up the splitter finger/ tight hands crack straight up from the belay. This will lead you to a horizontal juggy traverse seam which you will take 5-10 ft to the right and then up to access the next crack system. Eventually you will get into another dihedral crack, but will only be in this for 20-30 ft. Exit out of the dihedral onto a 2ft wide ledge which can be used to access the next crack system around the corner (out of sight). Climb up the fun corner until the massive ledge with more loose shale on it (this is where the MP P3 ends). Continue straight up the fun corner from the belay ledge to sling a block on the summit 30-40 ft higher. Aug 12, 2024

[Hide Comment] Great Route: Approach was strait forward, but difficult (4 miles). There were three 5.8 problems on the climb to solve that took some thought, but if I did this again it would be easy. Like the bata said doubles of purple, green, and yellow camolots were helpful along with 00, .1, .2, and .3 micro cams.
Pitch 3 was the best with the most thinking and placements thought involved.
The decent had 3 rappels with the potential for a lot of stuck ropes and rock fall. It took some problem solving to stay safe.
Took us 11:37 min car to car to finish, so could be better as a 2-3 day backpack. Sep 23, 2024