All Locations > California > High Sierra > 14 - Whitney &… > Mt Whitney

Left Wing Extremist

Name: Left Wing Extremist
Rating: 2.5

5.11 YDS 6c+ French 23 Ewbanks VIII- UIAA 23 ZA E4 5c British

Routes in Mount Whitney

L › R R › L A › Z

	Cardiovascular Seizure T 5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b
	Direct East Face T 5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b
	East Buttress T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	East Face T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Great Book, The T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Hairline T 5.10d 6b+ 21 VII+ 21 E3 5b C2+
	Hairline Free T 5.13d 8b 31 X 32 E8 7a PG13
	Happy Cowboy (Whitney Edge Traverse) T 4th 1 2 I 2 M 1b
	If At First… T 5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b
	Inyo Face T 5.11- 6c 22 VIII- 22 E3 5c
	Left Wing Extremist T 5.11 6c+ 23 VIII- 23 E4 5c
	Mount Whitney Trail, The Mod. Snow
	Mountaineer's Route, The 3rd 1- 1 I 1 M 1a Mod. Snow
	North Face T 5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c
	Our Own Devices T 5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c PG13
	SouthWest Edge T 5.5 4b 13 IV+ 11 MS 4a
	SouthWest Ridge T 4th 1 2 I 2 M 1b
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Type:	Trad, Alpine, 2000 ft (606 m), 10 pitches, Grade IV
GPS:	36.57844, -118.29228
FA:	Galen Rowell and David Wilson (1991)
Page Views:	4,286 total · 44/month
Shared By:	Brian Prince on Nov 7, 2017
Admins:	Chris Owen, Lurk Er, Mike Morley, Adam Stackhouse, Salamanizer Ski, Justin Johnsen, Vicki Schwantes Page Updates (admin only)

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Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Access Issue: Certain Peaks: Access limited from May to October every year Details

Some of the peaks in this area are restricted (not all). See the Inyo National Forest's Mount Whitney Zone regulations webpage fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/pas… for current information. Access is usually limited from May to October of every year from the highest elevations of most of the Lone Pine Creek watershed.

Description

Proud route up a monster, iconic face that no one seems to climb. Maybe not as classic as Hairline, but a good option for a quick, free way up the east face. This line holds a notorious splitter offwidth on the right face of a beautiful dihedral halfway up.

3 moderate pitches lead to a belay behind an obvious giant flake.

Next pitch is the crux. Reasonable 11a fingers in a corner leads to a ledge out left where you can belay or keep going. The crack off of this ledge was ridiculously hard for a few moves and seemed impossible with the giant bush growing out of it. Get past this and keep going up some nice splitters to a traverse back out right and a belay.

One more pitch up some steep and scary quartz leads to a marginal belay below the offwidth.

Offwidth is long and sustained. You'd expect, being the high sierra and all, you could mostly cheat the thing. This is true to an extent, but it's also real deal in parts. Overall, I'd say it's not too soft (imho) like David says on supertopo . but maybe not 10+ either, at least compared to something like generator. but that's probably not a fair comparison

After some more moderate pitches we followed the east face route to the top.