[Hide Comment] The belay in the corner below the crux is shady. Froze my a$$ off while my partner sent it. Moral of the story, lead it, don't follow it. The crux is short and sweet but is right at the start. If the leader blows it, they are coming down to the belay ledge, so be heads up. Jul 24, 2013

[Hide Comment] P1 - sustained 5.9 up the wide crack. You can stay on the outside for some of it but it does require some mandatory offwidthy skills higher up to gain the belay ledge.

P2 - Stay left for the direct variation. Sustained 5.8 hand cracks. mmmmm.......hand crack!

P3 - 15 feet of 5.10- right off the belay to gain the ridge then run it out on 5.easy as far as you can. Nice views!

P4 - 3rd class to 5.easy. Wind your way up and left around a pillar up into a corner. Many options here.

P5 - Many options. Choose what you like to the top. I stayed left for some tremendous exposure and 5.8 rib wrestling. You can go strait up for some more 5.9 offwidthy goodness. Jul 12, 2016

[Hide Comment] P3-easy moves for 10b
P5-left variation (5.8) is best described as awkward, off-balance Jul 14, 2016

[Hide Comment] Super fun route! We made the mistake of climbing too early - DO NOT do this. We had numb fingers and toes for the first couple pitches. The first offwidth pitch isn't too bad, can mostly stem around with a couple mandatory sections. The 10b layback/finger crack was pretty mellow although the feet are slippery. None of the cruxes on this route are sustained. Would recommend scrambling up and taking the Cathedral trail down instead of the slab descent. Sep 8, 2017

[Hide Comment] As a consistent 5.8 climber working to gain technique and strength by climbing in the Sierras, I knew this route would be challenging. I led every pitch except for the 3rd/4th class. I considered the first pitch to be the technical and psychological crux of the route. I proudly pulled on gear, including two 4" cams. OOF. A 5" or 6" cam would more appropriately protect the bulge on the first pitch, but they wouldn't help much on the other pitches (whereas I could place one or two 4" cams on every pitch.) I sent the second pitch clean, and did not consider the 5.10b at the start of the third pitch to be terribly challenging. The final pitch was more challenging than the second IMO. I couldn't tell exactly which part of the SuperTopo topo I climbed, but It was a steep hand crack which required stemming. In addition, I frustratingly developed bad rope drag on the last pitch and had to setup an extra belay/pitch. The first and second belay stations are nicely positioned with a fixed piton. They were in the shade even well in the afternoon.

My partner and I rappelled from the top and went down the slab descent because we had gear at the base of the route. It was a fine descent, yet if you descend this way and pick a poor path you could be in for danger.

Great route, I cant wait to come back and tackle the off-width with better style! Jun 21, 2018

[Hide Comment] The second pitch is absolutely wild for a 5.8! What a climb overall-- I felt like I had just run a marathon after I chose the offwidth way up the final pitch. Sep 6, 2018

[Hide Comment] My friend and I simul-climbed cathedral peak and then came around and did this route on Eichorn. It was a bigger day, but manageable. We started around 6:30am and were climbing Cathedral by 8am. Summitted at 10am. Descended via the Cathedral descent, ate lunch, and easily traversed around south side of the formation to the base of Eichorn by noon. We summited around 4pm. We rapped and descended via the cathedral descent again, retrieved our packs at the base of Cathedral and hiked out. We were to the car by 6pm. I thought I'd add this beta in case anyone was curious about logistics. It was a fun link up and easier logistically than we expected. We opted not to try the Eichorn slab descent because it seemed harder to route find. We were happy with our choice. Stashing extra water at the base of Cathedral would have been a good choice also. Aug 12, 2020

[Hide Comment] Phenomenal climb that has just become our new Tuolumne favorite. The route climbs through so many interesting features with all sorts of different techniques and ends with a great summit! I will disagree with other comments that wide skills are required. As someone who isn't a very strong wide climber, I was pretty easily able to stem around all the challenging wide portions on the first pitch, and my partner was able to pull on good gear through the short cruxes. I wouldn't let a fear of wide climbing keep you off this one. I brought a #4 and a #5, never used the #5 and placed the #4 once on the first pitch. I found places for a #3 on a few other pitches so doubles to #2 and a single #3 and #4 would work next time. We approached via the Cathedral Peak climbers trail, left one bag at the base of SE Buttress then followed a faint climbers trail through some scree and down to the base of the climb that took about 20 minutes and was pretty straight forward. For those concerned about the crux over the belay on P3, there is good pro that initially takes small gear (blue and black totem) that you can sew up to keep your belayer safe. Once done, we descended via the standard Cathedral Peak descent, grabbed our other bag and headed back. 1:50 for the approach, 4 hours for the climb, 1:40 for the descent. Jul 27, 2023

[Hide Comment] I messed up the approach; would recommend going off trail once it starts going downhill to cathedral lakes, and instead traverse climbers right and uphill to reach the tree/slab line, at which point you'll be able to see the start climb far climbers right. For the descent, I would recommend the cathedral peak climbers trail, and not do the 3rd/4th slab descent to the base of West pillar. It was sketchy and slow going. Super fun climb, no OW skills required despite some wide parts. Jun 18, 2024

[Hide Comment] Couple of thoughts on this excellent climb. The scramble up to the base from JMT isn't easy and it's loose.

Pitch 1 is likely 5.9+ and helps to have a #4 and #5.

Pitch 2 goes all the way to the sloping ledge with a fixed piton.

Pitch 3 crux goes straight up the corner and there's a fixed wire.

Pitch 4 is .5 easy.

Pitch 5 goes left around the double cracks to the summit.

This climb does not have good belay ledges, fyi. And the rap station is poor. Aug 5, 2024

[Hide Comment] I thought that P1 was the crux of the route. We took only a single #4 and I wished that I had a #5. I took the 5.6 fingers variation indicated in the supertopo guide to gain the belay ledge at the top of P1 and found it to be poorly protected and quite runout. A fall here would be really, really bad. The 10b technical crux on P3 was pretty straightforward and well protected, and the rest of that pitch is a low 5th class romp. Aug 21, 2024

[Hide Comment] def bring the #5! i led pitch 1 and 3 and found pitch 1 to be far more psychologically demanding. yes you can stem to avoid the OW, but some of the knobs are slick, and you're forced to use some OW technique if you want to get gear in. trust the foot jams and heel toe cams though, they're solid! some bumping and back cleaning was required to make sure I had the right size pieces for the anchor. pitch 3 crux was over so fast, no layback required. i opted for some delicate stemming using the edges on the crack out right. gear was amazing and easy to place Jul 7, 2025

[Hide Comment] Trip report with some more beta photos:
themtsarecalling.com/eichorn/ Oct 14, 2025