Avg: 3.8 from 18
votes
This amazing route climbs some of the best rock found in the High Sierra. The climbing mostly follows laser cut thin cracks and clean faces up an almost vertical wall. All pitches are super safe with bolts whenever the gear is not bomber. All belays are bolted and equipped for rappelling and the route can be safely rapped with a 70m rope.
Pitch 1- Start up a few moves over ledgy 5th class trending left until a large sloping ledge leads right and up to the super clean white right facing finger crack. Follow this for 30 feet to the belay bolts. 20 m, 5.10a.
Pitch 2- A few bolts of easier climbing lead to the right facing flare, stem up and surmount the roof (crux), follow the clean splitter above past another crux to the belay. 35 m, 5.11c
Pitch 3- A clean offset splitter leads directly up and eventually exits out left to the belay. 30 m, 5.12a.
Pitch 4 - Follow easy ledges and cracks up to the vertical clean wall with the obvious “Joint” cracks which are where Puff the Magic Dragon and Shield of Dreams cross each other. 20 m, 5.6.
Pitch 5- Climb the right leaning cutter crack on the clean flat wall. 20 m, 5.11c.
Pitch 6- Start on the slab left of the belay, traverse the slab right and climb up through easier terrain until reaching an inobvious large white flake which cuts back left 10 feet to an invisible short left facing steep corner which leads up to the obvious crack (do not go up and right into the large triangular roof recess, but traverse left 10 feet below this feature as described above). Follow the crack for 30 feet up to the awesome bolted face above. 35 m, 5.12b.
The leftmost route on the incredible face of Trapezoid. To get to the base, follow the steep scree/talus and locate the large flat safe ledges directly under the vertical green wall. The left side of these ledges mark the spot to rope up for Puff the Magic Dragon. The belay bolts at the top of pitch 1 can be seen up and left about 70 feet up. Begin up somewhat dirty 5th class ledges until reaching the base of the clean sharp short white 5.10a lieback finger crack which leads to the belay.
Double cams through hand sized pieces (#2 Camelot), no number 3 Camelot needed. Triples on all finger sized cams (purple, blue, yellow, orange Metolius). Full set of stoppers including small brass nuts. 8 quickdraws + slings.
Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Grand Junction, CO
Big Bear Lake
Pitch 6 seemed a bit whacky to us... Maybe finish on last pitch of Shield of Dreams instead? Or maybe just crag several routes' first few pitches instead? The first 400 ft of the cliff looks incredible for that whole zone.
Also, I think we would have been just fine doubles tiny to #1 and 1x #2. Nuts were handy. Aug 11, 2022
Pitches 2, 3, and 5 are amazing crack climbing on rock that is as good as I've seen in the High Sierra! To me, they all felt about the same difficulty (5.11+) albeit in different styles (powerful, techy, and pumpy respectively).
Pitch 6 was wild and varied, quite a contrast to the splitter crack climbing below. It features bouldery and pumpy sequences that for me, culminated in a knee bar (not to be confused with an "alpine knee") at 13,000ft! My partner and I both lead this pitch to get the full effect.
This route is both challenging and civilized. It's well protected with minimal route-finding necessary and fully equipped anchors. Pitches 1 and 4 go very quickly and the raps are straightforward. My partner and I got an early start, summited around 2pm, made some phone calls on the summit, and were back in Bishop for a BBQ with a few hours of daylight to spare.
If you can climb these grades at a crag, there's no reason not to give this route a try!
Thanks Chase and Andy, can't wait to try some of your other routes on this wall! Aug 19, 2022
Mammoth Lakes, CA
Each crux pitch is different, and p6 though it has a 12b rating felt well protected. I don't regularly climb 5.12 in the alpine, and didn't find any pitch scary -- the crux on p3 is protectable with small brass, and the cruxes on p6 are above bolts.
Thank you to the FA team for cleaning and equipping this route, and making it such a pleasure to climb! Now if we could get enough traffic to buff a trail into the endless talus approach... Aug 31, 2022
Bishop
Bishop, CA
Bishop, CA
Triples seemed like a heavy rack and I'm a huge wuss, liking to sew things up. Doubles in the micro to purple .5 camalot and singles from .75 camalot to #2 camalot, plus brass and standard nuts would be absolutely sufficient.
The last pitch is pretty fun and I wouldn't suggested skipping it as others have mentioned doing. It's just straight up sport climbing towards the end in a really cool position in the mountains.
Constructive criticism to the FA homies: the anchor position at the stance at the top of pitch two is so frustratingly low and uncomfortable. Keep the anchors nice and high in the future... for the sake of my lower back! haha! Jul 13, 2024