The Great Dihedral [Suggest Change]

Kneepads? What were you doing up there? You can stem, or face-climb, outside the chimney almost the entire way. You only have to get inside it for one section, passing a big chockstone 1/3 of the way up. That said, this is a super fun route; well worth the visit. Feb 22, 2002

This is a most enjoyable adventure up a major feature on the Bookend. I would give it at least two stars. there is very little chimney or thrutchish climbing on it if you do it right.the gear is great, and it is chock full of good rock. Feb 26, 2002

Hmmmm....wasn't this route the site of the famed "great boating accident?" Feb 25, 2003

This excellent fissure drains several aspects of The Bookend. If it looks like rain you might want to include a kayak on the rack. Feb 25, 2003

For cluckers like me, a #4 Camalot is a nice option for that lieback R around the chockstone (crux, polished foot holds) 160ft up, if you remember to clip it. P1 190ft gets you to a nice ledge (though there are many to choose from). P2 120ft gets you to a huge ledge. P3 about 170 ft to the tree at the top. Nice shade on a hot day. Thanks, Chris. May 9, 2004

Climbed here on Sat. 7/3/04. P1 was fun-easy arm bar/stem to stay somewhat out of the chimney. P2 was a little more interesting. The right side chimney looked too easy, so I decided to try the water trough on the left. Glad the rain that came through waited until I finished the pitch. I might have drowned. Pro was a little sketch, but a fun variation on the route. Maybe 5.8+? Rock quality was excellent until I found some choss near the top, very similar to J-tree. Great route overall. Jul 5, 2004

Jason,

Kneepads? Ha Ha... Yeah I don't really know what to say about that. I posted this page a long time ago. Still, it's humbling to see that I was such a gumby in the Spring of '01.

I remember those times fondly though... when 5.7 at Lumpy was a big number and 4 pitches took most of a day. Good stuff.

Brad Feb 7, 2007

Never needed kneepads; face climb or stem around any spots needing wriggling! Some nice finger and hand cracks on the route. Need a #3 Camalot as largest piece. Jul 25, 2010

Thought I'd add a description as I'm a bit of a beta-whore myself, and this one is a little more vague than others on mountainproject. So, warning - spoilers ahead.

P1: The first pitch is nearly a full rope length with a 60m. Easy squeeze chimney off the ground (5.6ish), with a relatively difficult bulge about 50' up (probably 5.7; easily visible from the ground). After this bulge, the angle immediately drops off, and the climbing eases. There's ample large and small placements to be found. After another 100' or so of easy climbing, you come to a large chockstone in the low-angle chimney. Apparently this is the crux of the pitch, but there's no exposure and the protection is good. It looks like you can go either right or left past the chockstone. I went left. It was awkward but not too difficult. After this, it's easy climbing to an obvious belay ledge. 190'.

P2: Follow easy climbing on the right until you come to a small, well-protected bulge. Solid handjams and good feet allow you to easily pass over this. Easy climbing leads to another chockstone, which, again, looks like it can be passed on either the right or the left. I went left, using solid feet and lie-backing the chockstone to pass over it. Easy climbing to an absolutely huge ledge. 120'.

P3: Follow an angling crack up and right. The crux is probably about 30' off the belay. You climb to a small cave, and then need to climb out of the cave to gain the crack proper. I placed pro deep in the cave, which ended up screwing me with rope drag later on, but it was nice to have pro before committing to the move. After you gain the crack, it's all solid handjams and great feet. In my opinion, P3 is by far the best pitch of the climb. Follow the crack until it ends (don't be tempted to bust left onto easier ground), and then move as far to the left as possible and follow easy, grooved climbing to the summit. 170'.

I stole the pitch length estimates from Leo Paik. They seemed dead on to me.

This was a great climb, not particularly sustained (except for P3), but each pitch had at least a couple 5.7 moves, and protection was ample throughout. Route finding is incredibly easy. The description calls it a "great intro to Lumpy chimney climbing" and I think that's dead on. The first pitch was especially strenuous and awkward. Really a fun climb though, and worth doing. May 18, 2012

Unless you are pretty confident in your awkward crack climbing abilities, having a #4 and/or #5 Camalot is very nice for the first pitch at least. Otherwise, a standard rack with doubles in larger sizes makes the route very comfortably protected. The last section is a pretty deep, wide crack that I found hard to protect and was kinda runout. Jul 5, 2013

We totally blew the last pitch. From the last huge boulder/chockstone, we moved onto the big giant ledge. I then went basically straight up the face from that ledge, starting near the back corner. It seemed to be kinda fresh as there was plenty of kitty litter and lichen but not much pro. It wasn't any more difficult than the rest of the route (maybe adds a + due to fear), but it did get my attention getting for the last 5-10' near the top. It was a fun finish.

Be sure to bring some Purell for the chimney-to-mantel on p2. There's bird-shit galore! Jul 23, 2014

This was my first chimney trad lead (first chimney climb in general for that matter), and it was a great one to start on. Right away I tried face climbing a bit too much, but once it widened out, I figured out some good technique. Lots of gear placements of all sizes available kept it nice and safe. We used a rack of singles for cams plus nuts, although doubles in the #1-2 range would've been nice. Right when I was getting a ways above my gear and running out of things to place, I looked up to find a bomber fixed hex. Fun route. Jul 6, 2017

I'd never given this route a 2nd glance until a partner suggested it recently. It's soooper fun! We did it in 4 pitches, setting the belays at the comfortable spots. Each pitch had at least 1 section of old-school, full-body workout, grin-inducing goodness. Lots of skuzzing the left shoulder whilst working the feet on scoopy featured-ness but not in a monotonous way. It's nice to have a couple largish pieces, but there's tons of small stuff to be had as well. Recommended. Sep 19, 2017