[Hide Comment] Awesome route! We were about 19 hours car-to-car.

We did this route in mid-June and pitches 2, 3, and especially 8 had water running down them. we just dealt with it on pitches 2 and 3, but pitch 8 was a real river and we ended up doing a cool alternate route involving a 5.9 hand crack to the left of the belay to a hand traverse right. I recommend it even if the water isn't flowing. That pitch was the first time I had ever placed a cam in a river.

Some might consider a few of the pitches runout, but it is always on fairly easy ground. Feb 11, 2010

[Hide Comment] Did this route and found it very fun and a great car to car adventure.

As previously noted, we too found pitches 2 and 3 wet. We were able to climb/friction around it. One important point. On pitch 3 the first bolt off the belay was nearly impossible to clip. To make matters worse, it is smack dab in the middle of a water flow. My guess, rocks beat the hanger down.

Suggestion would be the next person planning on doing this climb bring a new hanger and wrench. AT the very least bring a quick link. Not even a BD Oz made it through the hanger and allowed a decent and secure clip. Aug 15, 2010

[Hide Comment] We clipped the bent bolt by girth hitching a nut through it. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Aug 25, 2010

[Hide Comment] Much thanks to Hannah North, Tom Harper, and Tom Malzbender for their effort in establishing it.

8/11/2016 edit: The rotten sling has been removed from the bent bolt (first bolt) on pitch 3. One good way to protect with it would be to thread the wire of a nut up through the hanger, and then clip it from above with a locker which blocks it from being pulled back through. Last, clip the sling / rope by first pushing the nut up the wire to expose the lower end loop of the wire ... maybe adjust the nut that way before leaving the belay given that the stance for clipping the bolt is a little insecure. Aug 3, 2013

[Hide Comment] Did this in Sep. 2012 - after much slab traversing back and forth and soloing some sketchy terrain, finally got on the route at the top of P6 (above the two-bolt anchor, at the base of the 5.8 hand crack). If I were to do it again, here is how I'd approach it - take the airplane gully all the way down to the river, locate the "Golden Boulder" (big golden boulder on the valley floor) - the route is straight above the Golden Boulder - just climb up the slabs the path of the least resistance. I know it adds up vertical footage, but trust me - it's way faster than traversing wet slabs and bushwacking for a couple of miles. You can ask Tuolumne rangers about the airplane gully - it's the gully directly below the Olmstead Point. The fourth class slog after the last pitch was rather long. Aug 26, 2013

[Hide Comment] We climbed the route on 31 Aug in very low visibility conditions with the smoke (couldn't even see the canyon floor) and had no absolutely no issues in finding the start of the route using the beta and photo summitpost.org/my-favorite-… on summitpost, which involves a long slab traverse that starts above the Pywiack Falls. The only thing to add is that there are two circles of bushes at point 5 that mark the start of the route (somewhat obscured by trees in the photo).

Sep 1, 2013

[Hide Comment] Route is unaffected by the 2015 rockfall. Photos of the rockfall show that it fell off to the side of this line. This route follows a narrow spur between two huge gullies which funnel the 4000' face - the only "safe" spot for a climbing route on the wall. All bolted anchors are in great shape. Nice long moderate route on high quality stone. Aug 8, 2016

[Hide Comment] We found finding the start rather confusing. No cairn marks the start anymore & hiking around there doesn't exist any obvious natural line to go up. We did a couple pitches--I think--to the right of the route but never found any anchors & found unappealing climbing above us. Being short on time and not wanting to climb a wandering, runout route by headlight we bailed. I'd suggest having a GPS and getting the coordinates for the start if you do make this long hike. Sep 4, 2018

[Hide Comment] Climbed 9/21/2019, about 11.5 hours car to car. 3 hrs approach, ~5 hrs roped climbing, ~1 hr scramble to the summit, ~2 hrs hike down.

Super fun route, and not as crazy an outing as we expected. We followed the beta and approach from summit post and had no trouble finding the start, especially with the addition of the comment to look for the circles of bushes (thanks MP!), visible from the vertical line of bushes. A few updates since that post was written quite a while ago:

1. We felt it is possible to do the approach while more or less never crossing 4th class slab. What I assume used to be slab, is now talus fields. We thought we must be off route because we hadn’t crossed slab yet, but we eventually found the bushes and a slab crossing after a lot of loose talus.

3. When crossing the slab between the two bush landmarks, staying high and then following the natural ramp down is ~ 2nd class, while traversing directly across like in the approach topo is more like scary 4th. Don’t pay too much attention to exactly where the dotted lines on summit post go, aim to hit the bushes in the right spot and follow the path of least resistance.

The climb itself:

Like others we solo’ed the first pitch. (Felt more like 4th class than 5’4, and you know you’re at the right place when you find the anchors!). We simul’d pitches 2-6 (the 5’7 and 5’8 pitches). This took about 1.5 hrs in total. We brought extra gear, but it really was unnecessary, if you’re doing this approach doubles in small and singles in big is probably plenty. If you’re comfortable simul’ing at the grade, I’d highly recommend. This cut down our climbing time a huge amount. Route finding is straight forward on those pitches and there was plenty of opportunities to keep gear between us even on a half rope.

For me, route finding near the top was rough, especially on pitch 14 and 15. I’d say generally look way more left than you think / the scale of the topo suggests.

Agree with other comments that all the grades feel pretty soft for Yosemite standards, especially if you’re happy on slabby terrain. The 5’9 pitches didn’t feel for the most part harder just a little sparser on gear. Sep 24, 2019

[Hide Comment] We did the standard approach down Tenaya Canyon, it was one of the easier cross country approaches I've done. Definitely check out summit post but I'll include a key piece of beta here: the coordinates for the start of the route are 37.774283, -119.498833

summitpost.org/my-favorite-… Oct 7, 2019

[Hide Comment] gaiagps.com/map/?loc=13.7/-… Link to full approach, climb, descent route.

Completed this past weekend in ~15 hours. Aug 9, 2021

[Hide Comment] Felt like mostly 5.7 R with some polished sections around 5.9. 4 star setting with 2 star adventure climbing. Simuled as party of 3 in 6 blocks. Don't deviate too far left on P14 AND P15. Aug 28, 2024

[Hide Comment] 5.9 R adventure climbing
Routefinding – macro and micro – is part of the package. Belays are indeed bolted – but I wonder if anyone's gone 15 for 15 in finding them.
For those who don't speak GPS (like us): I wouldn't ascribe to doligo's advice above (descend deep in the canyon) simply b/c it's not necessary, but his remark about the route's start vis-a-vis the "Golden Boulder" is spot on. I've attached photographs to that effect. Note the conspicuous/cavernous split in said boulder. Sep 7, 2024

[Hide Comment] Awesome route. To make it more accessible, I compiled MP and SP beta into a single PDF to make it a little easier, along with some markup photos of the route. No guarantees on how long this link will work, but i'll try to keep it up for a few years!

drive.google.com/file/d/1hI… Sep 10, 2024

[Hide Comment] This route is actually just a bolted variation of the old Kamps-Couch route taking some avoidable 5.9-10a sections instead of route finding around them at 5.8, otherwise the lines are nearly identical.

Clouds Rest - Northwest Face
IV, 5.8. Bob Kamps and Bud Couch, July 1963. Sep 22, 2024

[Hide Comment] Fun, full value day! Climbed this a week ago and got lost a few times on pitches 9 and 15. For pitch 9, don't go too far left like I did just because it looks easier (bad idea). Make sure to trend right after the initial bulge and look for the horizontal cracks shown on the topo. For pitch 15, I ended up going right on the slabs and then back left instead of straight up/left like the topo says, and made it into 2 pitches. This was more inconvenient, but also easier and had no 5.9 move. Pitches 2 and 3 were still wet in early September fyi. Pitch 11 was amazinggggg, so fun and well protectable which was a nice break from the runout slabs. Sep 25, 2024