[Hide Comment] P1 and P3 (P4 in Reid) are good, P2 (P2 & P3 in Reid) is great! The 4th class approach and top-out are nice: they keep the riff-raff away.

I would compare this to the Northeast Face of Lower Cathedral Spire, another "former classic" that I really enjoyed.

Take two pieces in the 4-5 inch range. Jun 9, 2009

[Hide Comment] I've done this twice within the last couple of months since I really enjoyed the climbing. Take plenty of # .75-1 pieces for the splitter crack. Jun 16, 2009

[Hide Comment] A topout variation to the right avoids the wide via finger-sized laybacking through a series of corners, 5.9.

Rapping with 2 60's is pretty straightforward. Bring a big piece of webbing/cordelette in case the slung boulder on top has been unslung. Jun 17, 2009

[Hide Comment] Painfully obvious linkup is to continue up Hawkman's Escape, another 8 pitches of old school 5.9 climbing that lead to one of the great, obscure, Yosemite summits. The top of Lower Brother is wild.

Buyer beware with Hawkman's - it's serious up there. DNF zones, "5.9," and can't pull through some cruxes on gear.

Some good pics: supertopo.com/climbing/thre…

And here:

supertopo.com/climbing/thre… Jul 18, 2009

[Hide Comment] Great route that deserves more traffic. I found the last part of the 4th class to be.....5th. Sep 18, 2009

[Hide Comment] This climb is up there with the best of them. Its not too difficult to find and you may not know you are at the bottom of a classic when you do get to the start.

Leave your bags in your car so you don't have to walk back to the start of the climb after descending Michael's Ledge.

I've always taken the variation (.8) out left then up for the last pitch. Apr 2, 2010

[Hide Comment] Both the approach and descent were more straightforward than expected. We roped up for the approach and reached the start in 1.5 pitches. I found the splitter crack pretty hard...wish I had smaller hands. Definitely take a #5 for P3. Oct 14, 2011

[Hide Comment] The approach isn't bad, the climbing is very fun, but the descent totally blows (took us longer than the climb), costing the overall experience at least a star. The ideal rack: doubles, green through blue, a #4 and a #5. Dec 30, 2011

[Hide Comment] What an stellar route! Definitely some low 5th on the approach and descent. Was gripped a couple times in my crappy approach shoes.
The Reid guide says pro to 3" on this one and I would be inclined to agree. We took one #4 but never used it. Makes me wonder if the first ascent team avoided the offwidth on the last pitch also? The finger crack left of the offwidth is way fun and aesthetic.
All the stuff you read about the splitter pitch being awesome is totally true!
Didn't have much trouble with Michaels Ledge either. When in doubt stay close to the wall. Apr 16, 2013

[Hide Comment] No intact rap stations on route, and walk-off isn't that bad (but probably knocks rocks onto the base routes). Feb 17, 2015

[Hide Comment] We did this in 4 pitches, breaking up P2 into two. New looking rap rings are atop P1 and out on the face left of route, left of the perfect splitter on P2. New-ish rope around tree atop P2. Could probably rap this route easily with 2 ropes. We had a single 70, but decided to do the walk off. A single 70 might be close. Also spotted some tat around a tree to rap the approach gully. May 11, 2016

[Hide Comment] We took doubles to #3, single #4, single #5

TR here: supertopo.com/tr/Absolutely… May 16, 2016

[Hide Comment] Did it yesterday. There are 3 sets of rap bolts and you can get down just fine with a single 70m rope. Just make sure to bring a sling for the boulder above the offwidth if you plan on rapping.

Brought doubles to #3 c4 and an extra .75 and #1 would be nice to not run it out much. Did the right variation on the 4th pitch and it was super enjoyable 5.9 lie backing. A good way to end a pretty cool route. Aug 2, 2016

[Hide Comment] Why rap an old school adventure route? The top out and Michaels Ledge are part of the adventure, no? Anyhow the prospect of rapping did not appeal to us, with plenty of loose rock and snag potential. To each his own. Agree that the p4 lieback variation is stellar. Sep 24, 2016

[Hide Comment] Highly recommend not trying the walk off for the first time in the dark... Had a bit of an epic the other night.... The 200' of 5th up to Michaels ledge was terrifying with a very dim headlamp. Eventually found the trail and thrashed back down to the car with iPhone light taped to helmet. All in all a fun route. I really enjoyed the 5.9 OW variation and the chimney above looks much worse than it is. Sparse pro can be found inside. Oct 9, 2016

[Hide Comment] just did this a few days ago. there are bolts at the top of the first pitch Oct 20, 2016

[Hide Comment] Just did this today - a hidden gem with a fantastic thin hands section! Rapping can be done with a single 70 but careful of the many trees and rope stuckage. Anchor before the top off width has only 1 rap ring. Next there is a dedicated station down to climbers left of the actual route. My partner and I couldn't find any other rap station besides the anchor on the route with 2 hangers and no rings (if someone could add quick links to these it would be great). From there it's possible to walk to climbers right and rap from a tree to the path. Nov 12, 2016

[Hide Comment] We setup a rappel with rap rings off the chock stone at the top of the chimney on pitch 3. It is mandatory to use a 70 m rope to reach the belay ledge below. We also put rap rings on the two hanger anchor at the top of pitch 1. You can rap the route quite easily with a 70 m rope doing 4 rappels. Mar 14, 2017

[Hide Comment] Walk off beta: After you top out, walk back towards a large boulder climber's left. Go right around this boulder and scramble back upwards climber's left behind it. It will feel a bit bush whacky in a switch back manner in the bouldery formations you encounter. Finally, you will reach kind of a dead end looking at two sets of gullies 12ft apart on your left. We assumed the gully closest to the wall was the 5.2 and decided to rope up for one move as roping up seemed faster than putting on climbing shoes again. From here, the path is more obvious on even terrain which sometimes gets close to the cliff edge for a short sections. Next, when you enter a talus field, don't do down it, cross it, there was a nice rock with an arrow indicating such. There will be more handy cairns along the rest of the decent which is more intuitive from here! May 15, 2017

[Hide Comment] Climbed the 5.8 corner on the first pitch instead of the chimney and it was really awesome movement all the way through that pitch, but it was a little dirty since it seems to be the most neglected of all 3 options. The rest of the climb was also amazing and will have to be repeated a few times to get all the variations in. Jun 4, 2017

[Hide Comment] I think this is a great route if you can ignore the approach and topout pitches, or at least get through them more efficiently than we did. We found the topo in the Sloan et al guidebook for those pitches confusing. I'm not really sure there is a good way to describe where to go other than just follow the path of least resistance.

Regarding the approach: It was relatively easy to find the 5.6 slab that marks the base of the route. The gigantic right facing corner that is to the right of the route is also very clear from the base. Go up the gully to the right of the slab. Don't bother climbing the slab itself - it is unprotected and kinda sketchy in approach shoes. At this point, you might want to put climbing shoes on, but my advice is to stay unroped. Leading this pitch creates heinous rope drag. Climb up and left. Eventually you get to a grassy ramp that has been trampled. Continue up the ramp and up some blocky terrain until you see a steep gully with some trees on the left. The first "real" pitch starts at the top of the gully. We climbed the left-facing corner that is somewhat dirty and vegetated. It gets cleaner the higher you go.

Regarding the topout: After the last 5.9 pitch, continue up and climber's right. You will find a vegetated right-facing corner. Go up the corner and climber's left to gain Michael's Ledge. We placed some half-assed cairns since we weren't 100% certain we were going the right way. But I think it's pretty logical way to go...

As the route gains more traffic, most of this will become more obvious, but right now there's a lot of dirt and we found the topos hard to decipher. Jun 5, 2017

[Hide Comment] Having climbed this route twice now. I have a few recommendations. P1- I found the chimney/ o.w to be much more fun than the left flake variation, which was very dirty. P3- I preferred the right side crack variation to the squeeze chimney.

As far as the decent goes, we were able to rap from the chockstone in the last chimney, down to the intermediate bolts next to the p2 splitter, then 2 more raps down with a 70m. This was much more efficient than the walk off in my opinion. After reversing a bit of the 4th/5th class stuff, there is a tree with some slings that can be rapped off to the base. Aug 9, 2017

[Hide Comment] Thanks for the feedback on the new topo in our book. I agree that not roping up for the approach pitch is the best way to go, but no doubt folks who take beginners will want to at least belay them up that section.

Rapping vs. Walking Off? In this case the descent is long, and creates major erosion walking down Michael's Ledge, so from a ecological standpoint a rappel route is preferred. I've descended both ways, and think rappelling is way better because it is much faster, and doesn't involve the scrambling to get up / on to Michael's Ledge.

As many have said, rapping with one 70m is no problem. There are bolts on the top of the first 5.9 pitch. From the base of this pitch walk downhill on a grassy hillside until you have to make a couple downclimbing moves (5.3) and you can look skier's left and see a rappel station on a ledge. This straightens the final descent bit, allowing you to rap straight down to a tree that is right above the base ledge.

Such a great route. Go For It!
Erik Sloan
RockclimbYosemite.com - Yosemitebigwall.com Aug 23, 2017

[Hide Comment] BE CAREFUL when rappelling this route with a 70m rope. At the top of the chimney there are 2 chockstones; if you rappel from the higher one (which has slings and rap rings as of early October 2017) you will not reach the ledge prior to P3 and instead end up 2-3 meters above it.

Also, for some reason there is a bolted, hanging belay one meter below the cushy P3 belay ledge. Who would use this instead of a 5x10 foot flat ledge with trees on it?

Otherwise, it's a great climb. Splitting P2 into two makes the most sense; you get two great pitches the first to the tree, second to the ledge. Otherwise its a long pitch where you might be light on pro. Oct 15, 2017

[Hide Comment] -Approach beta: Walk right along the base until the trail pretty much ends, then head up. Don't go up the 5.6 slab just before. Aim for trees with rap rings. You can see the chimney section of P1 from the base/approach if you want to aim for that. You'll end up in an obvious gully with a grassy left crack and varied wide / chimney section on the right. I don't recommend roping up for the approach. If you feel uncomfortable on easy 5th moves unroped, you might not belong on this route! -P1: Chimney moves are awesome! -P2 (the long splitter pitch): If you do it in one long pitch, you might want triples of #1 and maybe a couple other common pieces. If split into two, belay around the horn that sticks out left and it's a little uncomfy. I see that some people went right to the wide corner to LB after the horn, but I'm not sure why. Straight up past the tree was fine and a little wide. -P3: Crux for me on entire route was the 5.9 fingery LB on the last pitch, but it was superb. Maybe I'll opt for the OW finish next time. -Descent beta: Walkoff looks a little better than the rapp IMO because of snag potential. 1) Head right around the first set of boulders behind the summit 2) You'll see a corner, go up this with an easy 5th lieback letting you know you're on the right track 3) keep going up and stem. A little exposed at the top but easy. 4) Travel left through dirt and a little bit of bushes to the trail. A couple cairns and evidence of being travelled will let you know you're on the correct descent. Dec 18, 2017

[Hide Comment] What is the 5.9 variation at the start? There is a giant flake to the right that looks super well climbed. but it's offwidth size and would need huge gear and is also fairly overhung. Hard to imagine it's a 5.9... my partner whipped and landed upside down in the manzanita which made us decide to concede and do the normal chimney start. Anyone climb this gnarly thing? Dec 18, 2017

[Hide Comment] Can someone who has climbed the 5.9 flake variation of pitch 1 confirm where it is? I'm trying to figure out what I just climbed.

I was trying to follow the beta from this photo of someone's trip report: supertopo.com/photos/33/56/…

I've added a red line to show where I climbed: mountainproject.com/photo/1…
Here is another angle of it: mountainproject.com/photo/1…

So what did I climb? I'm questioning whether it was the 5.9 variation because:
1. It felt harder than 5.9. It would definitely be the crux of the whole route.
2. Past the manzanita tree, it's a slightly overhanging ow crack until the roof. I placed an almost fully open #5 ~10 feet above the tree and then it gets too wide for anything but the super wide stuff for the next ~20 feet to the roof. It's probably R without a #5, and PG-13 with it given the ledge below you. Seems weird no one would mention this?
3. Max Rausch below talks about it as a "LEFT flake variation, which was very dirty". This was clean and very far RIGHT.

Thanks! Dec 18, 2017

[Hide Comment] A little adventure leads to a beautiful crack with great views of the valley. One of my favorite routes on my first trip to the Valley and easy walking distance from Camp 4. A great way to avoid the crowds. Mar 26, 2018

[Hide Comment] This is an exceptional 3 or 4 pitch climb with a fun 5.0 approach and a character building descent. We did it in 4 pitches; splitting pitch 2 in half at the tree on the left. You need a triple rack or long run-outs to do it in 3 pitches. We chose the right-side finger crack for the last pitch and it was total glory and it means you don't need anything bigger than a #3; I assume easier than the OW center. We also chose not to rope-up to get to Michael's ledge but it was tricky ~5.4 and you'll definitely want climbing shoes. I would compare the pitches to the quality of central pillar but the climb overall is not as good. Jul 17, 2018

[Hide Comment] Climbed this route yesterday.Here are my thoughts........ If it had an easier approach and descent there would be very long lineups on this route. Good climb. For the approach walk up and right from the toe of Lower Brother. As you walk up look left for some cairns going up through the bushes. The photos found here are somewhat helpful. If you go up too far the ground will level off to the right. Turn around and go back looking for the cairns - they will be easier to find on the way back. The climbing up to the base of the route is 3rd and 4th class. Many people will want and or need a rope. It is about 80 meters from the cairns to the base of the route. Look for rappel stations as you are climbing up through the approach. There are three all very close to one another about halfway through the approach. One is good, the other two -not so good. Go relatively straight up from the rappel station (the one with the rings on a good live tree). This will lead you to the base of the climb. For pitch 1 we took the 5.9 finger/hand crack that breaks out left instead of the chimney offwidth straight up. It was ok but there were a lot of tree leaves and dirt in the cracks taking a lot of the fun away. I found it also had tricky movement with only pg gear near the crux. If you follow through with this variation taking the logical path it will lead you up to a couple of cool layback, left facing corners (fun!). Continue moving up and right through easier terrain. Problem is this brings you about 30 feet above the bolted belay/rappel station. It's not really a problem. You can easily build a gear anchor here and belay on a nice ledge. You can still get to the second pitch ok but be aware you will actually be bypassing the beginning of pitch 2. For pitch 2 we followed the splitter cracks. I did it in one long pitch. For the crack up to the tree I used just two #1 C4's. I did bump them a few times. The crack is ok but not perfect hands which makes it less enjoyable. Your 10 year nephew might be able to find perfect hand jams on this but most will not. After the tree (optional belay) the crack widens to fists and slightly bigger. There may have been some finger and hand jams way inside. I bumped a #3 a long way and exited via the beauty corner near the top just below the ledge. The next time I would head right into the left facing corner near the bottom and follow it right to the top. It is gorgeous. For pitch 3 I went straight up into the big groove which is super cool and then got into the off width. I have climbed many Yosemite offwidths in the last month and this one is by far the most enjoyable with excellent protection. The #5 was really nice here. It fit well and was bumped all the way up. A pumpy layback will have you exit the crux of the offwidth and then up easier climbing to a small ledge below the chimney. I took a look at that chimney and almost bailed right to easier looking flakes but decided to suck it up and go for it. Glad I did this thing is the best part of the entire climb. So fun and good pro. We decided to rappel the route and with a 70 meter rope it works just fine but beware the first rappel is a bit of a rope stretcher to the ledge. Four raps for the climb and one or two for the approach. A short rappel here takes you to the tree (optional belay) on pitch 2 and then the bolted station for pitch 1 will take you to the ground. A word of caution re loose rock should be mentioned. On every ledge there are loose rocks that could easily be dislodged. Wear helmets and tred lightly. I had a double rack to #2, single #3,4 and 5, 10 draws. You could use the 4 and 5 on every pitch. Sep 29, 2018

[Hide Comment] There is a rap anchor above the approach 4th/5th class section, but it is hard to see from the base of P1, and I’ve noticed many people build rap stations around trees instead. As Eric said above, from the base of P1 walk / scramble down the gully to skiers left. There is a short down climb and a large ledge on the left. The bolts kind of blend in, but they are there and it is an easy rap to the base of the 4th / 5th section. Save the trees! Nov 20, 2020

[Hide Comment] An old school adventure route for sure. A good introduction to true Yosemite routes, id say. The big mean brother to Nutcracker or Super Slide (if you enjoyed those routes this one will having you begging for more).

The climbing itself is pretty straightforward, albeit a little thuggy, looking at you mega-pitch 2. The chimney is easy and with a #5 you can be on TR basically the whole time which is reassuring. 3rd pitch lieback is money to top things off.

The 4th and 5th class at the bottom is real and can be a little run out for a baby like me.

The adventure is only halfway over though after you finish. Follow what others have said but to add, you are basically climbing to the base of the upper wall after pitch "3", which you'll prolly end up roping up for. The descent is pretty easy from there but no one places any cairns in this upper section because they're lost too. Any feelings of "omg is this it this is exposed!!" more than likely mean you went the wrong way.

IMO the walk off does complete the adventure, rapping takes away from the spirit of the route at least for a first timer. Mar 21, 2021

[Hide Comment] This is a fantastic route! Protects well and is great to break into 5.9 multipitch. I was pleasantly surprised to find it completely empty on a nice Saturday in May; the approach and involved descent must keep the crowds away.

I pitched this out as 5 shorter pitches. This resulted in little to no rope drag and let me have a tight belay above some ledges. The route description doing it this way would be as follows:

Pitch 0: junky approach pitch, rope up if/when you feel like it. Lots of 4th/low 5th terrain everywhere, hard to tell what the path of least resistance is.

Pitch 1: Climb the steep chimney, which looks intimidating but is actually fairly casual. Good jams and holds appear when you need them. Exit the chimney to a ledge on the right with a bolted anchor (and some tat as of May 2021). This pitch was very fun and creative.

Pitch 2: Climb the nice handcrack just to the right of the bolted anchor. You will get to a ledge on the left, but don't belay here; do some face climbing up and right to get to a higher ledge on the right that is right at the base of the splitter crack. Build a gear anchor here, it means you will have little rope drag and a tight belay for the tougher finger crack right off the ledge, which will be comforting if 5.9 is near your limit. This is a short pitch but it's fun and a good warmup for the tougher thin hands on the next pitch.

Pitch 3: Start up the finger crack which quickly turns into a splitter thin hands crack. Bring several number BD #1s. Belay at the obvious tree growing out of the crack. This is a great pitch!

Pitch 4: Continue up the crack (not the corner to the right of the crack), which gets a little wide right above the tree. You can reach deep inside the wide crack for wide hand jams; BD #3s are great here. I found this section very physical but at the same time very secure. Pull a fun small roof using great holds, and continue up the left facing corner to a nice ledge with trees. Another great pitch! Belay high up on the ledge at the base of whichever finish variation you choose; I built a gear belay right underneath the start of the lieback variation, which is marked by a short left facing corner below a small roof. You could easily combine this with the previous pitch; it wouldn't result in extra rope drag, and it would protect well as the previous pitch wants BD #1s whereas this pitch wants #3s and maybe a #4; it would also skip the hanging belay at the tree.

Pitch 5: I did the lieback variation, which is a fantastic pitch. Follow the short left facing corner, pull around the small roof, and continue up and occasionally to the right on liebacks and finger cracks in corners.

We decided to rope up for one short section of the approach, but didn't feel the need to rope up for the scramble to Michael's Ledge. Both have some easy 5th class sections.

Pro: I brought triples of hand size cams (BD 0.75-3) which was nice to have to really sew up the 5.9 handcrack sections; doubles in smaller sizes. You could get away with doubles with some bumping/backcleaning. I brought a #4 which was nice in a few spots but not really necessary. No #5 as I did not do the OW variation for the last pitch. Also nuts which I used sparingly. May 10, 2021

[Hide Comment] HEADS UP on the first rap from the chockstone - maybe it's always been that way, but that chockstone barely qualifies as one. I tested the rap while on belay and at the right angle, the chockstone moved. I could've lifted it out of there easily with my hands if I wanted to. It's like a snow bollard - fine if you weight it straight down, but lean back too much and you're levering it out of there.

We decided to walk off instead (goes easy, great trail once you gain the ledge) - that anchor is just an unjustifiable hazard. There's a pinch point about 10 feet back from the chockstone that would make a solid rap, but you'd either need a rope longer than 70, or a massive amount of tat to extend it to a similar masterpoint. Oct 24, 2021

[Hide Comment] Triple ones for the thin hands is the move (if you want it to feel fairly protected). The approach pitches are fine if you're comfortable leading around the grade of this route, but felt a bit heads up to me in approach shoes. For what it's worth, the last pitch was the crux for me, it ate up small cams. Nov 7, 2021

[Hide Comment] Two things:

1. Re Matthew's comment from 10/2021: I climbed Absolutely Free for the first time on 4/9/22. Someone has moved the rap anchor at the top from the sketchy chock stone to the pinch point that Matthew described. As a result, you need to downclimb about 10 feet to get back to the ledge, even with a 70m rope.

2. I don't consider myself a particularly strong 5.9 climber, but I disagree on bringing triples of #1 and #3 sized cams. You can definitely bump your #1s and #3s safely on the crux hands sections. Apr 10, 2022

[Hide Comment] We took the right side variation on p3 (fingercrack) and I thought it was amazing, equally memorable as the money pitch 2. Excellent climb all around May 28, 2022