Type: Trad, Alpine, 1500 ft (455 m), 8 pitches, Grade IV
GPS: 36.53776, -118.31063
FA: Chris Brown & Josh Finkelstein 2011
Page Views: 817 total · 14/month
Shared By: Alex S on Aug 11, 2021 · Updates
Admins: Chris Owen, Lurk Er, Mike Morley, Adam Stackhouse, Salamanizer Ski, Justin Johnsen, Vicki Schwantes

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Warning Access Issue: Certain Peaks: Access limited from May to October every year DetailsDrop down

Description Suggest change

A link to the FA story which also appears in a copy of Rock and Ice.

http://highexposures.com/blog/2011/06/17/storming-castles-part-2-the-sequel/

***This is the way i climbed the route, i may have been off route in places.  please edit or update if you have better info.***

pitch 1: 5.8+  start climbing up the orange coral like rock, and follow the low angle thin cracks.  gear is spares at the start.  higher up an alcove will appear with steep stacked blocks and a large wet streak.  climb the stacked blocks and continue up until the low angle crack ends at a ledge.  some simulclimbing is required. 80m

pitch 2: 5.10- climb the left crack that goes straight up from the ledge. this crack runs out at a sloping ledge at the base of a clean cut right facing corner. climb thin cracks at the far right side of the sloping ledge, working back left. build a belay under the crystal roof. 60m

pitch 3: 5.10+ pull the crystal roof, and continue up the hand crack above. follow the crack as it leans right and goes thru a second roof. continue following the crack as it traverse further right and pull a third roof. after the last roof the angle backs off and 40 feet of climbing brings you to a multi tiered ledge system. 70m

pitch 4: 5.10- climb the lowest angle crack off the right end of the ledges. aim for the large budging grey chimney feature above. just before entering into the wide grey corner/chimney cut left and climb some flakes to a sloping ledge with a small undercut and build a belay. 40m

pitch 5: 5.10. climb flakes and cracks upward (this is the safe passage section as called out in the route overlay done by the FA team), and then traverse left into the top section of the grey chimney. after a little bit of chimney, climb flakes to small roofs. after pulling thru the roofs climb the knobby crack heading left, then cut back right following a dike feature to a nice ledge. 65m

pitch 6: 5.8 head left off the ledge and then up discontinuous cracks and flakes. about half way up the angle backs off and the climbing turns into knobby slab. there are many ways to go on this pitch, in general aim for the separated tower above 70m

pitch 7 5.9 continue upwards thru steeper giants stairway type terrain. aiming for the left side of the tower will deposit you in a 2nd class loose gully, climb up left to a huge rubble cover and sandy ledge and belay. 60m

*Alternatively stay further right and aim to climb up the obvious corner system up the face of the free standing tower. belay at the base of the tower(45m). climb another pitch(40m) to the top of the tower, and rappel off the back into the 2nd class gully, then scramble downhill to the left to rejoin the route.

*we didn't climb the tower as it looked steep and wide from below.

pitch 8 5.7 climb up cracks, ramps, and ledges generally trending right until you run out of technical climbing. many many options exist thru this section. 70m

Location Suggest change

On the west buttress of the north face of Mt. Chamberlain.

Protection Suggest change

Gear: one set of nuts. singles 00 .1, .2. doubles .3 thru #3. single #4. a few extra wide fingers to tight hands pieces useful.
doing the tower many need some bigger gear.

Photos

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