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Southwest Face Midsummer's Dome

5.7+, Trad, Alpine, 1000 ft (303 m), 5 pitches, Grade III,  Avg: 3.1 from 17 votes
FA: Andrew Embick, Dave Goeddel, & Jack Norris 1974
Wyoming > Wind River Range > E Fork Valley > Midsummer's Dome

Description

A moderately sandbagged route on the southwest face of this classic rouche moutonee situated in the middle of the East Fork Valley. Lots of good belay ledges, a bit wandering at first, not much loose rock, and a bit (200+') of fourth class at the top all combine to make this a good route.

I did the route in 6 pitches, with the first two being about 57 meters long. Many options exist for weaving your way up the SW face. (Following Kelsey's description, I found a move of 5.8 and 5.9, but have stuck with his rating in the book) Here is what I did.

P.1 Start below and left of large beautiful right facing corner 200 feet up the southwest face. Climb up and trending left for about 200' to a sizeable ledge. Belay here

P.2 Continue up, trending left and aiming for a ledge with krumholtz on it. Move left to the trees and belay at a crack that trends up and rightish (200')

P.3 Climb up crack, trend right, traverse to big ledge and belay (75')

P.4 Climb up cracks above moving onto a sloping ledge. Climb some flakes and corners up until on a small ledge with some small blocks below a funky looking section of crack. (100')

P.5 Climb short funky section of crack to sizeable ledge below a right facing corner and a set of double cracks to the right (50' 5.8)

P.6 Step right and climb double cracks that are just right of a black water streak. Climb double cracks to a right facing chimney. Belay at top (150' 5.9)

Top out by continued scrambling over 4th class terrain.

Location

The route is located on point 11,172 on the Mount Bonneville USGS quadrangle. This outcropping of rock likes in the middle of the East Fork Valley.

To get to the valley one could do many things. I suggest hiking the Fremont Trail from Big Sandy Opening Trailhead and then taking the Pyramid Lake Trail to Pyramid Lake. This is about 11-13 miles. One could camp below Midsummer's Dome or at Pyramid Lake.

To find the bottom: From the south face and its grassy base, move left until below and left of a large corner 200+' up (this corner is part of the South Face Left route (III 5.10a)) Scramble up some fourth class terrain and belay.

To get down from the top, scramble down 3rd class terrain to the NW to gain easy terrain on the north side.

Protection

Standard Rack. Set of cams, stoppers, tri-cams

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

View from the summit of Midsummer's Dome looking at Ambush Peak (left) and Mount Bonneville (right)
[Hide Photo] View from the summit of Midsummer's Dome looking at Ambush Peak (left) and Mount Bonneville (right)
Dotted line is left variation to last pitch. Roughly 5.10a.
[Hide Photo] Dotted line is left variation to last pitch. Roughly 5.10a.
Looking at Midsummer's Dome coming in from the East
[Hide Photo] Looking at Midsummer's Dome coming in from the East
Eric Hobday enjoying a sunny day on Midsummer Dome.
[Hide Photo] Eric Hobday enjoying a sunny day on Midsummer Dome.
One route on the southwest face wanders up corners roughly between the light-colored wall on the left of Midsummer Dome, and the darker rock to the right. We climbed ourselves into some 5.9 terrain at about 2/3's height, and would say it's got some routefinding issues. Good ledges, really good rock and moves, a fun climb.
[Hide Photo] One route on the southwest face wanders up corners roughly between the light-colored wall on the left of Midsummer Dome, and the darker rock to the right. We climbed ourselves into some 5.9 terrain…
James at the 5.8 move on pitch 5.
[Hide Photo] James at the 5.8 move on pitch 5.
A view of the East Fork Valley upon entering from the south. Midsummer's Dome is the prominent dome on the right side.
[Hide Photo] A view of the East Fork Valley upon entering from the south. Midsummer's Dome is the prominent dome on the right side.
A not too exact topo photo of the route I took up Midsummer's Dome's SW Face.
[Hide Photo] A not too exact topo photo of the route I took up Midsummer's Dome's SW Face.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Brian B Ballard
Laramie, WY
 
[Hide Comment] Great route up top. We stayed a bit right at start to get out hearts pumping with a triple lieback straight up on pitch one before trending left. We tried the corner left of the last pitch described here, with no avail. Does anyone know if it tops out nicely?
We agreed with described pitch ratings. Aug 27, 2012
Mike McNeil
Spearfish, South Dakota
[Hide Comment] Steve Arsenault and I did this in 2011 and we ended up doing a nice steep dihedral that is about 100ft left of the fifth and sixth pitch on the topo for this route on this site. It was very thin and probably had a hard 5.9 move right before topping out of the pillar it makes. Fairly easy climbing from there to the top. Of the 8 man crew we were with that day there was easily 200 years of experience which included the guideook author, but no one knew what route we were on. Guess it didn't matter as I believe we all top out with significant variations of the same route. Sep 13, 2013
James Gurian
Wayne
[Hide Comment] I climbed this a few months ago, so I may have some details wrong, but the route as described here doesn't have much to do with what's in Kelsey. We climbed one ~100 ft pitch to reach the large ledge which is the end of pitch two in this description. From there, there certainly are multiple ways to go and I don't think we stuck to Kelsey's description exactly. Never felt harder than 5.7, but sometimes sort of insecure and difficult to protect. To keep the route at 5.7, avoid the double cracks on P6 as listed here. Instead, climb up the neat little stairs and step right around the corner, or I believe you can traverse directly around the corner. Either way, climb the easy dihedral around the corner. Nov 9, 2017
Terry Price
Mancos CO
[Hide Comment] Be prepared to be confused by route finding and unable to find 5.7 only climbing. I only followed what I consider the vaguely "correct" route on my fourth attempt on this route. Thus, must agree with A. Carson's comment to his photo that there are route finding issues. I was part of the "8 man crew" McNeil mentions in his post and we retreated in confusion at about the third belay position on Jared's photo approximate top. My successful "correct" completion of the route follows Jared's photo too for the most part, but not exactly at the trickiest route finding problem up high. My line was more devious and less direct. For the Wind Rivers, that's more than enough explanation. Feb 29, 2020
Greg Gavin
SLC, UT
 
[Hide Comment] Fun route. The bottom is pretty wandering, but it's a fun route finding adventure to keep it easy. Once you establish the final dihedral system it's more straight forward. We chose the left variation to finish the climb which bumped up the grade to about 5.10a. Highly recommend the alternate finish as it was a great piece of climbing and a long 40 meter pitch. Aug 3, 2020