The Details: A wonderful contrast to the far more popular Yosemite Valley. Up here in the alpine meadows it's like touching the sky, and roaring up classic routes on Fairview or Tenaya or any of the other peaks only adds to the wonderful feeling of openness and freedom. Also a good place to escape the heat and the crowds during summer. Olmsted Point has great views of Half Dome and Lake Tenaya and other massive granite domes!
Access: Drive, from the W via Crane Flat or from the E via Bishop. NOTE: from LA to Tuolumne, it is quicker to go via Bishop (6.5hrs), than to go through the Valley.
Here's a view of the meadows from the top of Lembert Dome, with Cathedral Peak on the L, Marioulumne Dome in the middle, and Fairview Dome being the rear, higher, of the 2 domes at centre R.
Described E to W, based on where you need to park on the 120.
The walk-in is longer than it looks! Park in the carpark at the E end of Tenaya Lake. The quickest way would be to start at the E end of the carpark (ie the end farthest from the lake), and plunge straight into the bush heading directly for the peak. After about 100m it will open out into meadows, you'll cross a creek, and then you start heading up the hill, trending L around a lower cliffband. Alternatively, walk S along the E beach of the lake then head E up the creek to the same open meadows. The walk down follows the W ridge for almost an hour all the way to some open slabs which you can walk down in hiking shoes. These slabs are more than halfway along the lake. Once down the slabs, cut back NE down forested slopes forever until you hit the lake, then skirt around the E end of the lake. It took us 2 hours to get from the summit to the car.
*** Northeast Buttress 400m 5.4 (10) (OS)
Judging by consistent difficulty, aesthetic line, consistently great rock and consistently great pro, this is one of the best routes I have ever done, and there's no doubt that it's better for it’s grade than Fairview Dome Regular Route. But, having said all that, it is really easy so it’s more of a fun day out than the climb of a lifetime, but still, it’s a megaclassic!! It also has heaps of route variations all the way so that fast parties and slow parties can all co-exist quite happily without getting in each other's way. This adds a real taste of adventure too because it is a bit like new-routing when you’re not following the same path as anyone else. Some parties do it pitch-by-pitch with fixed belays (it’s 14 pitches this way, probably takes 6-8 hours of climbing), while others just solo it. We simul-climbed the whole thing, which I thought was ideal, it gives a bit of security but is still really quick. The climbing itself is just great, low angle smearing, layback flakes, splitter cracks, etc! My recommendations are:
1) put climbing shoes on right from the start - we did the first 40m in hiking shoes and some of it is quite slick and there are wet bits, and a fall would be nasty.
2) Solo for about 80m, as the start is really easy and there’s not a huge amount of gear anyway. (This puts you about 50m diagonally down and L of an obvious desk-sized boulder balanced on a ledge)
3) Simul-climb the rest, because this route is steep enough and has few enough ledges that any fall while soloing would definitely be very nasty and would likely be fatal.
Initially, stay about 15-30m L of the balanced boulder, there’s lots of friendly flakes which are all attractive and offer great fun climbing with sufficient gear. About 150m off the deck the rock steepens slightly, but the steepening is breached by several flakes/corners. There is a larger corner to the left but we stayed about 15m R of that, the climbing is barely any harder than below and it’s really nice, more of those lovely flakes.
50m above the steepening and about 200m off the deck, almost halfway up the buttress, is a ‘ledge’ or rounded platform, a good spot to stop for a breather, snacks, and to refresh the leader’s rack. Continuing on from this ledge, roped parties seem to prefer the "nose" of the buttress (ie, staying left). Because of that we simulclimbed up beautiful cracks and flakes about 15m to the R of there, it’s really fun just finding your own way up here and the climbing goes on and on for about 200m and just gets better and better! This bit was awesome!
As you get within about 150m of the steep headwall of the peak, some obvious ramps/gullies start leading diagonally up and L. It’s a shame to finish the awesome direct climbing up the face but easily follow these and you’ll get to a great ledge about 80m below the top, which overlooks the scree/gully to the left. Another great place for a breather.
Go straight up the slab above the ledge, then delicately move left to a nice steep layback flake and cruise up it, I thought this was the crux. Follow ramps diagonally up and L past 2 pitons for 40m to where they end, here you need to pull steeply up onto a ledge and move a little R to your first fixed belay. You should be below and L of a corner with 2 cracks, which leads to some loose looking large blocks. The corner is NWBDF. You should be able to get here after about 2 hours of simulclimbing at a moderate pace. If you don’t want to do the direct finish, don’t set the belay but instead keep following the easiest path around to the left and you’ll be up in no time.
* Northeast Buttress Direct Finish 45m 5.7 (16) (OS)
Nice cruxy moves up the corner crack lead to the overhanging large blocks, swing R around the arete under the roof/block then easily walk R and rock-hop to the 10m headwall. Rope-drag inspired us to belay below the headwall then simul-climb the finish together.
Here's a view of Nic finishing the lower half of the buttress, showing Tenaya Lake and Stately Pleasure Dome below.
And here's a view of a roped party on the "nose" of the buttress, a little over half way up the route. Beautiful expanse of rock eh? Pywiack Dome is visible in the valley below.
These routes are on the R side of the dome.
** Alimony Cracks 50m 5.8 (15) (YP)
A lovely diagonal hand crack. Here's Peter OSing it.
** Great Circle 50m 5.10a (20) (OS)
A great slabby crack followed by some really hard slab climbing on tiny edges and smears on super-smooth glacier polished rock.
*** Regular Route 380m 5.9/18 (OS alt)
An awesome climb. 1) (*** 68m 19) Probably 18 if dry, but the crux was wet as usual so the fingerlocks were pretty insecure...it was good though!! Don't expect it to be a doddle after the crux, it's sustained 5.7/5.8 hands/fists all the way to the belay. We did a super long pitch to bypass the crowded ledge at the little tree. 2) (*** 65m 17) The most amazing pitch and I was glad I got to lead it!! 60m of 5.7/16 up a smooth corner crack, a few 5.8/17 moves here and there, amazingly sustained, the best pitch I've done in the US so far. Again we did a super long pitch to bypass the crowded second belay, luckily I was on jugs for the last 5m when my second was simul-climbing. 3) (* 62m 15) Up crack system past big detached block/flake, then trend R onto Crescent Ledge. Instead of belaying here, we continued 20m up L to a ledge just after a steep section. 4) (** 58m 15) Very easy first 25m up ramp, but then a few 5.6/14 knob moves past a hollow flake lead to a juggy 5.7/16 roof 200m off the deck, great stuff! A short 5.6 corner leads to the most awesome belay ledge, with sinker wires and the perfect reclining position!! 5) (* 150m 15) We did a conventional lead for about 20m, there's a few 5.7 moves to start but then it's easy (5.3 or less) all the way so we started simul-climbing and went straight to the top. After the tricky little start, traverse R along obvious ledges to flake/corner system, follow this for about 100m as it gets more blocky and some trees start to appear. Then break back L for the last 60m or so to some nice tricky little moves up short walls right below the summit.
Here's a view of the route from the base, showing what you do NOT want to see at the start of pitch 1!
And here's a view from the 4th belay (2nd belay the way we did it), looking back down the incredible corner-pitch of fingers and hands.
Cautionary Tale: To beat the crowds you probably have to walk in before first light by torchlight. We made a pre-dawn start just after first light but we were still only the 3rd party in queue!! The first party of 2 moved quickly, but the second party was 6 people, of which only 2 could lead!! It took them over 2.5 hours to clear the first pitch, so we didn't start climbing until after 9am, but thankfully we had some beta to do the extremely long pitches described above, which allowed us to use different ledges and climb past them. We appreciated their tolerance of us climbing past. Apart from the wait at the bottom, we managed to move reasonably quickly thanks to their cooperation. It took us 4 hours from base to summit, which we thought wasn't too bad considering all the overlap with them. On the other hand, they started at 7am and were just reaching Crescent Ledge when we topped out at 1pm....
On the walk down you'll go past several routes, the guys here are on Magical Mystery Tour, there's another party up and to their L on another route.
And here's a shot of some people high on Lucky Streaks, the other mega classic of Fairview. This shot shows only the upper half of the route, the crux is out of view down to the R.
*** Northwest Books 110m 5.6 (13) (OS)
A great climb, 2 long pitches, 3 stars for a 5.6 party. There's a nice variation on the second pitch which is a 5.8/17 corner.
Here's 2 shots of Nic smearing her way up pitch 1.
And here's me on the alternate 2nd pitch 5.8 corner.
And a view from the top.
© 2002 Will