West Country

I just did this route. It is an excellent first Tuolumne lead for an intermediate climber with limited multi-pitch lead experience. Truly what earns this climb three stars is the sustained nature of the lieback. It may sound silly to say about a 5.7. lieback... but it doesn't let up. I might subtract 1/2 of a star from the 3 simply because the crux pitch is not a full rope length. Don't miss this one unless the lineup looks like a zoo. Jul 3, 2007

A good line, but I found it to be much less fun than say "South Crack" or "The Boltway". More awkward.
Second pitch corner is sustained and can be hard to see your pro as you place it.
Third pitch is a bit runout - my smallest cam did not fit in the tiny crack near the end.
Fourth pitch is pretty straighforward. Aug 7, 2009

Slipery on the lieback Oct 17, 2009

super fun, excellent "intro to Tuolumne" route, you can belay right out of your car if you want to! lieback is fun, slotting nuts in blindly every 10 feet, and pitch 3 has fun 20+ foot runouts on easy granite slab, don't miss it. Feb 8, 2010

Great route. The lieback can be a surpise if you are expecting easy 5.7. Because the lieback is so worn and slick from traffic, I believe the rating has been upped to 5.8.

JV May 25, 2010

The friction is still pretty awesome in that corner, you could slab climb next to it if you wanted- the only time it's 5.8 is the middle of a blazing hot day when you're sweating through your shoe rubber. Jun 29, 2010

One of the best spots to climb in the meadows. Right above Tenaya lake and you get a great view of half dome at the top. Girlfriend loved it, good one to take the lady on to get warmed up to T Meadows climbing. Aug 6, 2010

P1 and 2 are the money pitches. Gets kinda slabby after that, but still fun. Feb 28, 2011

Great route, wife was NOT a fan of the descent. And she climbs in JTree all the time so isnt exactly new to "sketch-town" (her words) descents.

We had a blast climbing, and in no rush in the morning and still arrived on scene first. Aug 1, 2011

Had an epic adventure on this one. Did tne dirty layback to the sketchy runout friction for the first pitch by accident. Since my gf and i started really late and had a hard time finding the first pitch of the route, we were benighted at the top and had a very long nerve racking descent. Back at the car at11pm. Welcome to tuolumne. Jul 8, 2013

After clipping in to my anchor at the top of pitch two I look over at the guy on hermaphrodite flake, and he says, "isn't that pitch sandbagged?!" I agreed. It was my first climb in Tuolumne, and I thought the layback crack to feel quite polished and awkward to place gear. Just about everyone else I talked to about the route said they thought pitch two was sandbagged.
So heads up for those just getting in to 5.7. It's a great route, but that crack on pitch two feels more like 5.8.
Some might consider pitch 3 a bit sparse on protection. I got to the bolted anchors and looked down and realized I had clipped 3 bolts and placed one cam on the 130 ft pitch. I laughed as I thought about the guidebook saying it's "well bolted by Tuolumne standards". Easy climbing but might feel runout.
Recommend to confident 5.7 climbers! Jul 22, 2013

In lieu of the normal decent, we tried the allegedly easier "walk off" around the west side. There were rock stackings for trail markers. However, it seemed just as sketchy as the normal decent and took much longer. Jun 27, 2016