Avg: 3 from 169
votes
Straight forward route finding, good protection, and an incredible location make this a prized route.
Approach up the boulder field to the right of the summit wall. Climb up an easy dihedral (5.3) for 40 feet to belay on a large ledge before the dihedral continues up at a slightly steeper angle.
All belays require natural anchors. Some horns may be slung for anchors, but these horns tend to not be in comfortable stances.
Pitch 1 - 5.6 - Climb up the v shaped dihedral for 30 feet until you reach a diagonal downward facing flake that transitions you 10 feet over to the right and up 10 feet to the belay ledge. A #2 Camalot perfectly protects the flake transition.
Pitch 2 - 5.7 Awkward Chimney - Calling this a chimney is almost misleading. It is more like a offwidth crack with plenty of holds inside and outside the crack so that you never have to use offwidth technique. The pitch goes directly up the wall out ten feet from the large dihedral on the left. There is a thin crack to the left the offwidth that takes good protection or use the crack at the back of the offwidth. Belay on a good ledge above the cracks.
Pitch 3 - 5.7 Bear Hug - Climb numerous fluted cracks above the ledge. After 80-100 feet the cracks form two perfect parallel hand cracks that continue for another 40 feet. After another 20 feet you reach a good belay ledge. You'll pass two historic pitons on this pitch.
Pitch 4 - 5.7 - Easier climbing continues above the ledge as you lean left towards the large dihedral that you have been following for the entire route. From here easy moves take you directly to the summit, but mind the lose rock, a rockfall event in 2023 left loose pebbles and some unreliable but inviting holds.
Descent(edited): From the Summit of Lone Peak, you can descend north or south.
To the north it is all hiking. If you are tempted to rap down part of the Flying Buttress wall, don't. Hike north near the ridge, then west back down to cirque, look for the hiker's trail.
To the south, you must scramble over the excitingly jagged ridge to the south summit, and then down around to the saddle between S.Summit and Question Mark wall. Then, follow ramps down to the left to the Question Mark Rappels from trees. Maybe 2 half rope raps, or one double rope rap, but don't quote me on that. (double rope rap with 60m definitely gets you down)
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Orem, UT
Salt Lake City, UT.
This is a solid 5.7 climb all the way to the last pitch. The off-width is the hardest section in my opinion. In fact that sharp granite is like a cheese grater on the arms and legs when you get sucked into it. Stay out where there are good holds!
You will find awesome foot jams in the "Bear Hug" section. Not too difficult at all. I found this route protected well, but bring lots of big pro. We ran out of large cams and nuts on almost every pitch, therefore we had to do it in 5 pitches instead of 4. Also made protecting the belay interesting. The plus? It gets you to the top of Lone Peak where the view is amazing! Sep 22, 2008
Orem, UT
As I recall, it was a set of BD stoppers (#4 to #13), a set of BD C4's (#.3 to #3, with an extra #2), BD C3's #0 to #2, a dozen or so trad draws plus two or three double length slings. Jul 9, 2009
Draper, UT
Palmer, AK
Orem, Utah
Fun route but not the exposure you expect or want when in the cirque...at least in my opinion. Jun 29, 2010
Grand Junction
Awkward, interesting climbing with hand and foot jams, arm bars, stemming, face climbing and, yes, bear hugging. There are some slippery, grainy foot holds you have to watch out for; one of which caught me completely off-guard (thanks C4 #2).
To start P1 we scrambled up to the diorite block and belayed from there.
(BTW - left a #2 C3 and #2 C4 up there somehow if someone can grab it for me I will bring cookies) Jul 20, 2012
763-458-4825 Jul 30, 2012
Denver, CO
SLC
I would change the route description for pitch 2. There is no reason to climb the "awkward chimney." Stay in the dihedral. It is clean, protects well, and the step across to the belay is easy. This variation is also 5.7 and not awkward.
The "bear hug" is clean splitter jamming, not rounded.
Belay ledges are all rather large, easy to protect and find. Can't see any sling belays happening here. Aug 6, 2013
Lehi, UT
It felt much more natural to stay left in the dihedral crack on pitch 2 rather than following the offwidth. Agreed that it's still around 5.7, the big plus is that good pro is always available in the dihedral crack, while it looked kinda sparse in the offwidth.
Pitch 3 (or 2, if doing the route in 3) is long! We thought it was over at a small ledge, but pulled out the route description and realized there was more bear hugging to be had. Just keep going until you're at a v-shaped ledge with a small roof.
As far as the rack goes, we used something fairly similar to Perin's recommendation above: BD #.5-#3, an extra #.75 & #2, mastercam #2 & 3, DMM alloy offsets and BD stoppers #4-6. It felt fine to me and a little sparse to my partner. Jul 23, 2017
Philadelphia, PA
Millcreek, UT
Salt Lake City, UT