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Monkey Paws

5.12a, Trad, 70 ft (21 m),  Avg: 3.8 from 145 votes
FA: Max Jones and Mark Hudon, 1979
California > Lake Tahoe > I-80 Corridor > Donner Summit > Snowshed Wall > N Face > 1. N Face Main

Description

Awesome thin crack just left of "Bottomless Topless".

Pulling the roof will be the crux for most, but if leading, the top is pumper and a wee bit heady. Awkward, hard to see placements past the 2/3rds horizontal "rest".

Location

Obvious chalked up finger crack with a roof about 25' up on the front side of Snowshed, just left of the 10a chimney, "Bottomless Topless"

Protection

Thin rack, an arsennal of small cams up to about a 2" piece for right above the roof.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Elizabeth Scott, age 12 setting up for the thin moves to the horizontal
[Hide Photo] Elizabeth Scott, age 12 setting up for the thin moves to the horizontal
John's "warm up"
[Hide Photo] John's "warm up"
Elias and the paws
[Hide Photo] Elias and the paws
Amina Hughes reaching before the cruxy last 1/3
[Hide Photo] Amina Hughes reaching before the cruxy last 1/3
Lucas Price fighting gravity.
[Hide Photo] Lucas Price fighting gravity.
Tyler Junker, past the roof
[Hide Photo] Tyler Junker, past the roof
Some trickier moves higher up.
[Hide Photo] Some trickier moves higher up.
Pulling over the crux roof.
[Hide Photo] Pulling over the crux roof.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Brandon14
[Hide Comment] A great climb to push your trad ability to the next level - good protection and good to fall on. Took a 20'+ fall about 10' above the horizontal - 0.5" friend held perfectly Mar 7, 2009
Evan Riley
San Francisco, CA
 
[Hide Comment] Great route, clean falls, great pro, just make sure you bring your offsets. A really good route to push the grade on. Jul 27, 2013
kolamjr
Tahoma, California
[Hide Comment] Hello
Great climb!
There is a great photo of Mike Carville free solo on Monkey Paws. Jan 15, 2015
Crimper E6
cheltenham, UK, SW is the BEST
[Hide Comment] Fun UK E56B, polished and chalked to fuck. Aug 24, 2015
MorganH
  5.12a
[Hide Comment] Awesome route!

0.75x2, yellow alien X 2, red camalot X 1, red alien X 1, green alien

Bullet rock, and cool moves. Probably closer to 11c most trad areas. Aug 28, 2017
Gumby boy king
 
[Hide Comment] For all the sand bagged shit at snowshed, this ain't one of them. A nice fluffy .12a.... Jul 24, 2020
Francois-Xavier Ahart
 
[Hide Comment] This feels like a sport climb. Try to avoid the masses by going ground up and not toproping the shit out of this thing. I would give it the same grade as Manic Depression with the gear being better on Monkey. I am not one to sandbag at all. Dec 5, 2020
Fraser Query
Guilford, VT
[Hide Comment] Once the moves are sussed out, I'd agree that the difficulty of climbing feels to be around 11c Jun 14, 2021
Connor Dobson
Louisville, CO
  5.11c/d
[Hide Comment] My gear beta that you could probably skip half of: #2 & .4, .75, .4 totem or .4/.5 offset, .5, .4 (yellow alien or z4), .2, .2. Optional .3 protects the start but may make the moves harder. Super well protected and more of a sport climb with handjams to place gear from. Jun 29, 2021