[Hide Comment] Here's a bit more beta:

To find the route, park in one of the pullouts below and east of Lower Cathedral rock. Hike up from the road to the nice wide hiking trail. Follow it west past Lower Cathedral until you reach the toe of the buttress, and then scramble up the talus to reach it. Go up and left along the base of the cliff for maybe 100 yards to the start of the route. The beautiful left facing corner on the top of the first pitch is barely visible 100' off the ground. You can start on the left (5.7), or up bolts to the right (5.10). Both options meet up at the base of the corner, which features fingers, then fists (11a).

From here, trend up and right for the next 3-4 pitches. Along the way you will pass the really cool 5.10d cave/alcove/roof with a burly handcrack. There's much 5.8-5.9 crack climbing on these pitches, along with a good amount of loose rock. Around pitch 4 or 5, you'll reach a big ledge about halfway up the route.

About 200' of easy climbing (there's a fixed rope here for some reason...) takes you up to another ledge with a small tree. Directly above the tree is a clean crack/corner system. This is not the route, but a variation called "Going Nowhere" (11b). Beggar's Buttress starts up this for about 8' before stepping right to a steep, loose handcrack (10b). The routefinding is tricky here, but generally stay right and end up at a belay on a ledge/block with a fixed pin and slung horn.

The next pitch is the business, starting out with some stout face moves right to gain a thin crack with fixed pin (11b), and then a stellar steep corner that widens from fingers to OW/Squeeze. (Also 11b). We built a hanging belay at the top of the chimney, just below a roof. There's some small gear here for the belay, but it's pretty nice to have a bigger piece (#2-#4 Camalot) to make it really bomber.

Next, lie-back around the roof via a flake on the left wall of the dihedral. Continue up the handcrack to an optional belay at a small tree. The last bit of the corner is the crux, featuring steep finger jamming and liebacking with some lichen-ous rock. (11c)

The Descent: The route does not end on top of Lower Cathedral, but rather on a big ledge atop a buttress. From here, walk Southwest, past some cairns, to find the first of two bolted raps (60m rope required). From the base of the raps, I can't really give too much beta because it was dark and we got off route (ended up doing 5 raps off trees down a steep, very loose cliff). I'm thinking you stay west, contouring around the rock and follow 3rd class ledges down.

As for gear: a full single rack from Small to #4 Camalot (new style works fine) with doubles from thin fingers to wide hands. A single set of wires, and many long slings. Helmets. Jul 15, 2009

[Hide Comment] route in the shade in August from 11am to 5pm.
If done with Giblet and Tiblet instead of p1 plus p3-5 { all class 4 to easyclass5} can be link in one 60m pitch. The result 7 clean and good pitches or very good ( especially 11a/b clean corner) and one not.
The decent is probably worst I've ever done- take something avay from the route Aug 13, 2012

[Hide Comment] I wouldn't have minded one extra purple (.5) camalot (3 total) for the 11.b fingers corner, and may give you a little more confidence to send. I also felt that two blue (#3) camalots was really good to have for the upper section of that pitch. But I try and keep things pretty safe. Jun 2, 2014

[Hide Comment] More like Sandbagger's Buttress. What a grovel! Hans is right that Astroman has nothing on this climb. The 10d handcrack out of the alcove on p2 is as scary as the Harding slot (although much easier). Get rid of your helmet for that one unless you have +6 or more ape index. I laughed when I saw the "5.9 thin" at the end of that pitch. It's thin inside a 10a flaring chimney. NOT 5.9. The two pitches of megachoss following that makes you think that you are the first person climbing that stretch of rock.

The enduro layback on pitch 7 is hella pumpy. If that's 11b, then enduro corner would be a 10d easy warm up. Add to that the V4 face climbing crux at the start of that pitch and the 10d OW/squeeze at the end and you'd be wishing there were bail anchors there instead of a fully hanging belay. By the way, the topo shows the hanging belay right in the middle of the crux of the OW. Is this one of those things where you get to build the anchor whenever you run out of juice and hang and still call it a free climb? I think it would be preferable to link this with the next 10b pitch for a full value 12a ledge-to-ledge endurofest, but I'm not sure a 60 m rope would reach (might be close). Then you'd actually have to climb the heinous OW all the way without stopping. Anyone have beta for linking these?

The last pitch is actually not that bad (I think 11c is right on) and it's short - only 45 feet, but considering that you've just climbed p7 not long ago - you'll flail anyway. There's a painful kneebar just before the crux that lets you place a 00 or 0 C3. After that jam right foot as high up in the open part of the crack as you can and reach way up past the seam to the good locks.

Some beta on the season for this climb: DO NOT DO THIS ONE IN THE SUMMER. It was 65F in the valley and we were sweating up every pitch of this epic grovel in the end of October in a thin t-shirt, even though it gets no sun at all this time of the year. Oct 20, 2014

[Hide Comment] To put things in perspective, consider that Mark and I first climbed this route forty years ago, both of us were 20 yrs old. No cams, no bolts, no food, no water, no helmets, no harnesses, no sticky rubber, no whining. There was some loose rock and hollow flakes - welcome to the real deal. Climb around them carefully.

As to the route being "a grovel", I guess it depends on your definition of grovel. Just because the route kicked yer ass don't mean it's a grovel! It's hard and tricky and strenuous, but it tests every aspect of your crack climbing ability, and if your skills are lacking you take a whacking. There's a reason this route is Hans Florine's favorite.

Pitch one is a clean easy flare and some scrambling. Tidbit variation to the right looks really good, they end at the same belay, I think. The roof on the second pitch is intimidating and tricky to start, but turns on bomber hands. The next pitch is easy well protected mixed climbing with some dirt and vegetation, overall fun, but the worst pitch on the route. It ends on a big terraced ledge system.

The "200 ft" of easy climbing is more like a hundred feet of steep unroped hiking on dirt ledges with big trees. This ends at the start of the upper four pitches which are the meat of the route. It's basically one long crack system, with the first pitch being the center of three possibilities. Weird sections of different types of steep and sometimes cranker climbing take you to a belay perch hidden from below under stacked roofs. The next pitch is exposed vertical 5.11 face climbing right off the belay.The lie back higher on this pitch is one of the most classic splitter hard cracks I've done. It starts of tips and over about 60 ft gradually opens bit by bit into thin hands, then fat hands, then fists snd finally offsize. Superb airy position, and a lonely challenge for the leader with your belayer out of sight under the roof below. The hanging belay in the middle of an offsize described above is a no hands stance of sorts in the middle of what might be 5.2 climbing.

The next pitch turns a big roof by a couple of different methods, both tricky, strenuous and well protected. The leader is rewarded after negotiating the roof by twin bomber hand cracks with 5.9 fun climbing. The next pitch is moderate mixed thin crack with a shallow squeeze section. I liebacked that on the FA because there was a cubic foot block precariously wedged inside touching the walls at only two small points. Werner sent it on a later ascent.

The top pitch crux is thin stemming and fingertip lie backing which ends abruptly on a flat rock ledge with a belay tree. A classic topout.

The line is as direct and obvious as it gets. Look at it from ElCap Meadow before you do it.

The comments about the descent are baffling to me. We scrambled down and west to a big tree, made one two rope rappel, and dirt skied down a series of slopes between small cliffs. We were at the road in less than 15 minutes after the rap. I remember laughing about how quick and easy it was.

Route finding skill isn't only for climbing up, guys.

It's a route for climbers who appreciate and understand wild terrain, not fer city bred gym spawn, that's for sure. Jun 3, 2015

[Hide Comment] Awesome climb, and not a sandbag! Middle pitches are a bit dirty and it's better to move quickly through them because of all the ants at the belays.
The sport route up to the splitter corner (11a) is a great alternative to pitch one.
Would recommend some micros, doubles .3 to #3 and a #4, with triple .5s

It'd be worth scoping the line of the descent from the parking lot beforehand Jun 30, 2015

[Hide Comment] Fantastic route and some of my favorite pitches in Yosemite for sure. I thought that the offwidth was way harder than 5.9+ but maybe that was because it was dark when I was climbing it.

Positives of the route:
Amazing splitter cracks that go on forever
Unique moves
Exposed terrain
A beautiful view the whole climb

The negatives of the route include:

Ants at many of the belays
Many hanging belays
A terrible descent
Loose rock May 30, 2017

[Hide Comment] Great route! Not so bad in the summer, a little more slippery but just did it on a 90 degree day and didn't find it too miserable. Pretending you are climbing in Thailand is key here.

I'm going to attempt to take a little bit of adventure out of the descent. I'm pretty sure this is the correct descent beta:

From last pitch head south west (skier's left) skirting along the side of the cliff, trending down slightly. You will come to a 20-ish-ft cliff, below the cliff there is a ledge, on this ledge is the first of two bolted rappels. Scramble or (short) rappel to the ledge with the first belay. Rappel down (long rappel) look for next bolted anchor slightly on the left.

Take the second bolted rappel to a large ledge. Once at this ledge scramble down south west to a second ledge. Continue walking south west along the side of the cliff, through a small corridor of bushes, down another small scramble, through a wooded area. If you have continued southwest you will come to something that looks like it cliffs out for 20ft. It doesnt scramble or short rappel down this.

Continue walking southwest forever, there are a few little down-climb areas nothing serious. After it has been approximately forever you will come to a small notch with an actual cliff. There is a tree with a sling and a single brown rap ring. rap down this. From here it is straight forward, you guessed it, continue walking south west! No more rappels yay!

Moral of the story, walk south west, don't panic and start rappelling to early. Jun 19, 2017

[Hide Comment] If this route is Hans Florine's favorite (see the Fifty Favorite Climbs book), he hasn't shown it. Having followed his social media for a while, I have not once seen him mention, let alone climb, this route. Wonder if he was serious when he was being interviewed for the book. Even the author made note of his "intentionally controversial smile." Or, maybe he just wanted to keep people off of the big stone across the valley floor.

Two related threads on ST:
supertopo.com/climbers-foru…
supertopo.com/climbing/thre… Jul 3, 2017

[Hide Comment] More people should climb this route. Its a fun adventure and the enduro corner pitch is as good as it gets. Probably more fun than waiting behind 33 parties on the rostrum. Sep 30, 2018

[Hide Comment] Really fun climbing and nice to have zero crowds. Route-finding was pretty straight-forward. One set of TCUs, doubles 0.3-3, 1#4 BD cam felt like plenty. Pin at 11b pitch in good condition, and there is an old fixed #3 in the offwidth section above. Offwidth bit was full-value fer sure. Felt like climbing in the Black, but in reverse. Jun 6, 2021

[Hide Comment] Great route - not a sandbag, but definitely a full value 11c. The crux of the route, both in terms of technical difficulty and grovel factor, is the last two pitches.

Lower pitches get morning sun until about 11:30am.

The 10d bolted Gimlet and 11a corner Tiblet are a great way to start. There’s a birds nest on p3, just below the 10d alcove roof; I know nothing about birds, the nest wasn’t there a few years ago, but it looks to be abandoned, and doesn’t affect the climbing.

Rustie’s descent beta is right on. We did two single 60m rope raps off bolted anchors, then walked west for a long, long time, essentially hugging the wall, with a few 3rd-4th class down-climbing sections. Eventually, Bridalveil Falls comes into view, and we finally turned right (north) into a broad gully; on the skiers left was a tree slung with a red Mammit dyneema sling and some cord, with a locking biner. We did another single 60m rope rap, scrambled skiers right down a short chimney, then continued west to eventually hit Bridalveil Creek, followed the creek north to finally intersect the valley loop trail and get back to our car. Jun 11, 2021

[Hide Comment] Drew's rack and Rustie's descent beta are pretty good. One of our 0.5's was an orange metolius which was nice.
There is a bit of loose rock on the route but nothing to write home about. That being said, climbing as a party of 3, hauling, or climbing below another party on this route would be a bad idea. At the end of September this route does not get morning sun. Now to the fun stuff.

Mountain project spray section:
Ah what a refreshing reprieve from the power drilled bolt fest that characterizes the typical Yosemite descent! We found the descent to be pretty straight forward be it a bit bushy. It took us 1.5 hours in flip flops. I could certainly see how the FA party dirt skied down after the first rap(s) however with open toed shoes we were more inclined to stop and smell the roses along the way. Rustie's decent beta was pretty descent although I could see how if one dropped fall line more promptly they could avoid the final rap or two. I am not sure what is worse, to climb the route with approach shoes on your harness or walk down in flip flops.

Valuable beta section:
P1 Giblet: supplemental finger cams are nice.
P2 Tidbit: Climb past the hanging belay inside the tree (Sloan topo) to a nice ledge half way up the chimney.
P3: Pull down not out.
P4: Mind the sap under the tree.
P5: Belay down and left of the obvious widening splitter.
P6: Sick 10c.
P7: No great spot to belay but I believe the best option is to belay off #2-3 camalots at the top of the reds section where there is a good right foot ledge. This allows the leader of the next pitch to climb the OW without having to worry about ass hatting the belayer. We climbed with a follower pack and hauled it the second half of this pitch and for the final 40' 11c pitch.
p8: Climb 30' past the optional belay at the tree (Sloan topo) to a small ledge directly below the crux and belay off tips to fingers sizes.
p9: Green c3 and 0.5 camalot protect crux well. Oct 1, 2021

[Hide Comment] Great Route! A little bit of everything. The death blocks above the roof on P2 have been trundled. Allow time for the descent. It's a bit tedious but no big deal. Jun 21, 2022

[Hide Comment] What a great route! Definitely not a buffed out, polished route. It has adventure and some incredible pitches.
We found the descent to be affected by rockfall from sometime during the 2021-2022 winter or spring. It is still doable but debris and loose rock exists on the middle scrambling section. Be careful not to knock rocks down on your friends! Aug 27, 2022

[Hide Comment] Incredible climb that I would repeat often except for the descent! Potentially the worst/stupidest hanging stance I have ever encountered at a rappel anchor...
The topo belays (Sloan) are sometimes in stupid spots, but it's easy to find big comfy belay ledges for every stance except the last one (which was semi-hanging--maybe a 62m pitch from the slung flake belay)
Very little loose rock on the climb and endless crack climbing. I was blown away by the quality of the line Nov 12, 2023