Reed's Pinnacle-Direct Route

Sorry, I ranout of space on the FA listing. The first ascent of all three pitches was by Royal Robbins, Gordon Webster and Terry Burnell, 10/66. Sep 27, 2006

Pro with standard rack can be less than easy. 3rd pitch, not climbed as often, is what gives the route the 10a rating. It is a 10a wide, however. One #5 Camalot should see you through. Jan 14, 2007

Not easy to slow down and place a lot of pro on the second pitch.

First two pitches can be run together for one hell of a pitch.

We used one #4 Camalot on the wide section at the top of p2. Felt safe. Apr 22, 2007

An entertaining way to finish the route is to tunnel over to the Regular Route finish from the top of the second pitch. From the top of pitch 2, enter the horizontal chimney to the left. There are one or two pitons in there, and about 20 or 30 feet of squeeze chimneying will take you to a ledge on the other side of the pinnacle. Belay here and then take the 5.9 hands to fists to offwidth corner to the top of the pinnacle. Rappel Reed's Direct. Dec 20, 2007

From the Chains at the bottom of Bong's away Left, you only need one rope to rap. From the chains, rap to the large ledge. From the chains on the end of the narrow section of the ledge, make one rap to the ground. Apr 2, 2010

Found sunglasses on the final rap of Reed's Direct on 6/6/10. Email me if you think they are yours and I'll mail them to you. Jun 7, 2010

An older 3.5 C4 or new #4 C4 is the biggest peice you need on the third pitch. Just above the 3.4 or 4 there is a chockstone you can sling with a doubble length runner if you need to. Jan 22, 2011

Hexes are nice on p2 Jan 22, 2011

Not a move harder than 5.8, right? Mar 31, 2012

3rd pitch is burly for a 10a Feb 1, 2013

Awesome route. P1 is a great, mellow crack arcing to the left, spiciest right off the start. P2 is the meat; steep, wavy crack with great constrictions. Steepness makes it hard to rest long without tiring. If you wanna feel super secure bring triples in the #1-#3 size. #4 is nice for the OW and having two was fantastic. It actually takes nuts (and hexes) really well.

Did the tunnel through. Gotta be fit to squeeze through and make sure you move up and down during the chimney traverse to find the wider spots.

TR'd the 10a finish by chimneying the beginning 5.5 start, which was mellow. A couple pins protect up higher and it seems like a #5 would be nice between the last pin and the top out. I'd say it's similar difficulty to some portions of Steck-Salathe but given the limited pro, I'd want to be comfortable on Steck before leading this pitch.

Rapped from the chains on climbers right on the ledge at top of P2 (below Bongs Away Left) on a single rope to the bottom, attached our second rope at the base, and had my partner do the double rope rap. Was pretty fast. May 1, 2013

There are two ways to finish the classic second pitch: A.) Send the wide crack...the legit way, or B.)head left and face climb out at about 5.8...Cluck, cluck..pa-Cluuuuck... Apr 1, 2015

Hmmmmmmmmm.....tastes GoOd!! An undulating mass of goodness! Mar 21, 2016

Phenomenal route! The offwidth finish on p2 is definitely recommended. You can slide a #4 the entire way up if you're worried. We did the tunnel-through finish (which is super cool, by the way) and then headed up the handcrack-to-offwidth in a single pitch. Rope drag surprisingly wasn't bad with all pieces extended. I used a #5 for the final offwidth, but I imagine that a #4 would probably work as well.

Just a note on rappel: If you are going to rap on a single rope, traverse the ledge at the top of p2 to climber's right. Don't try to rap with a single rope from directly below the top of the pinnacle, as it will probably not reach anything without some shenanigans. May 22, 2017

The horizontal crack that traverses across the faces of the Pinnacle is a pretty neat experience. Granted it is covered in lichen. The topout is quite a view! May 30, 2017

I pity the fools that only give this 3 stars...let alone 2...your Yosemite Man Card is revoked. Jan 1, 2018

The transition from chimney to OW on the last pitch is a real thinker. Would recommend bringing a 5 and 6 to bump if you don't like sandbag flaring OW. Feb 12, 2018

Second pitch save a #4 and two big hexes on either side of that size range at top. The undulations increase in width and say goodbye to any handjam rests. Aug 19, 2018