PRINT: Rock Climb East Face, Central Gully, Sierra Eastside

East Face, Central Gully

5.7 Mod. Snow, Trad, Snow, Alpine, 300 ft (91 m), 3 pitches, Grade II,

Avg: 3.1 from 7 votes
FA: Preston Rhea - 4.10.12
California > Sierra Eastside > Mammoth Lakes Area > Lake George > Crystal Crag > Other Alpine Routes

Description

The route name accurately describes the route in full: climb the central gully on the east face of Crystal Crag. Beyond the boring name and description, it is a fine winter route on a fun and easily accessible peak. The first known ascent was done in winter conditions so the route description will reflect that.

The route starts immediately with a short step of steep though blocky and moderate rock climbing (5.7). The step gives way to lower angle slabs with more of a "mixed" quality. Above the slabs the upper snowfield can be readily seen. Take a more or less straight line to the summit avoiding rock bands where needed to the south (climber's left).

Location

The route starts in the gully immediately south (looker's left) of the Schoolboy Buttress. On the right side of the gully is the sport climb Bagpipe, an 8 bolt, 11a that follows a prominent blunt arete left of an overhanging face.

To descend, use the West Face or South Arete routes on Crystal Crag, both in the summer are rated 3rd class.

Protection

A standard alpine rock rack should suffice. Pickets or stakes for snow protection may or may not be usable on the upper snowfield.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Jared cruising up our second pitch. Our tracks up to the base of the route can be seen on the lower right side of the image.

2/20/2021 - Alex starting up P2. We opted for straight up, then left, rather than left then up.

2/20/2021 - Alex coming up the easier ground on P1 after emerging from the steeper corner feature below.

2/20/2021 Skiing up toward the route.

2/20/2021 Nice scenery on the approach.

A close-up of the start of the central gully on Crystal Crag.

A view of the east face of Crystal Crag from a bit more to the south. This shows the start of the gully better as well as the relative steepness of the upper snowfield.

A view of the east face of Crystal Crag. The route takes the obvious central notch past the first steep band of rock and then trends left up the snowfields to the summit.

The rough line with approximate pitches marked of the East Face, Central Gully on Crystal Crag in winter conditions.

Crystal Crag in winter conditions.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Preston Rhea
Mammoth Lakes

5.7 Mod. Snow

I soloed this route in a fairly low snow year (Mammoth Mountain Ski Area reported 263 inches of snow for the 11/12 season). The upper snowfield was fully "in" however. It is unknown to me if I actually did the first ascent since Crystal Crag is such a close and popular summit in an area with a long history of climbing. There are two routes, mentioned in Mammoth Area Rock Climbs by Marty Lewis and John Moynier, that are close to the route I took, but distinctly different. In the summer, the climb would be ugly, as the upper snowfield would be replaced by loose moderate slabs. From asking around, as much as I can tell the line had not yet been climbed, at least in winter conditions. If anyone here knows more than I, I'd love to hear about it and will gladly change the FA information. Dec 25, 2013

Ian McEleney
Mammoth Lakes, CA

Climbed this 5 days ago. It was cold (7F at Twin Lakes at 8am) and there was snow on the route. The route gets pretty much no sun at this time of year. We started the same but dealt with the snowfield differently than Preston's description.

We climbed the first step in about 30m to a ledge. From here we climbed another maybe 30m pitch left and up. These two pitches were fairly easy, we felt like they clocked in at maybe M3. From here we climbed easier terrain for 50m+ following the lower left edge of the snowfield in Preston's beta photo. Finally another long pitch directly to the summit up a low angle slab covered in snow. The rock quality on this last pitch was good but because it was less featured and covered in snow it was an interesting lead.

We brought a single rack from .3 - 3 BD and a few small pins. Dec 3, 2015

Josh Linker
Burlington, VT

Attempted 2/20/2021. Overall this is a sweet route, especially considering the accessibility and scenery.

We started with a 30m pitch staying mostly to the right and heading up through a couple small rock steps interspersed with pockets of snow and one steeper but well featured corner. This brought us to the right end of a downward sloping bench. Options included traversing 20' left on blocky but poorly unprotected terrain and possibly getting onto the lower tongue of the upper snowfield, climbing a 10-15' slab up and left onto the snowfield, or continuing another 30 or so feet straight up a snowy rocky gully. Ultimately, we continued straight up the gully and then diagonally up and left onto the main snowfield (30m). From here, we thought we'd be able to cruise up snow to the top, however the snow conditions were quite challenging. Essentially there was a 6-12" layer of faceted snow encased by a sun crust. The effect was that in deeper areas, the snow was somewhat supportable. In thinner areas, the snow was increasingly faceted. You'd step and have a bit of support, then commit a little bit more weight to the foot and the whole region around your foot just disintegrated, leaving behind slab covered in facets. Another effect of this was that each step was "disposable." We tried going up and left, straight up, and tension traversing down and left into a slightly deeper tongue of snow (I believe this is the "lower left edge" that Ian mentioned), but no dice. With more time, we may have been able to find a rightward work around up toward the saddle or just clear a ton of snow and climb the rock with more confidence, but ultimately we ended up doing one 60ish meter rap off two KBs to the base of the route.

We brought single .3-3 BD plus master cams from yellow to black (~.4-1 BD equivalent). The #3 was nice to have for the steeper corner on the first pitch. We brought nuts and placed a couple, but they weren't necessary. Screws would be useless. Mar 1, 2021