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| Messages 1 - 31 of total 31 in this topic |
Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 6, 2004 - 10:30am PT
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Is the Yosemite Point Buttress route an OK route? Reid gives it no stars but that doesn't mean much to me. The only person I know who's climbed it thought it was a piece of schist but she and I have disagreed about route quality in the past.
I have a fairly high tolerance for chimneys & decomposed rock. Can anyone who's climbed it give an opinion on its quality?
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Ben Wah
Social climber
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The approach is long; the descent is longer; there is much decomposed rock; it gets full sun all day.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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I thought it was a piece of crap (by Yosemite standards) at the time. I was probably off-route for 4 or 5 pitches though.
And it's an adventurous piece of crap with a stellar view, good exercise and good adventure.
Ya just have to be in that kinda mood. Just thinking about it makes me kinda want to go back.
Peace
karl
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Fingerlocks
Trad climber
where the climbing's good
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Way to go Karl. That's the spirit.
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rockermike
Mountain climber
Oakland
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I climbed it 2 or 3 times back in the day ('79 or '80). I used to really like the route though others disagree. Chimneys, choss, tricky route finding all sound true to my fading recollection. But the last couple of pitches clean up to a nice hand crack in an amazingly spectacular location. You can do the descent in the dark and you may well have to.
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Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Topic Author's Reply - May 6, 2004 - 08:53pm PT
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Any pointers on finding the start?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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>Any pointers on finding the start?
Assuming you want to do the Direct version:
Gain Sunnyside Bench (via various methods), and traverse to its far left end. Climb a tree there to get past a short steep section off the Bench. Up the gully and slabs towards Lost Arrow Chimney. At a nebulous point where you can see open ground over to the right, head up and right towards the lower/right of 2 corner systems, as pictured in the guidebook (1987 guide p.207, 1994 guide p.155). Solo up this corner system (low class 5) to the crest of the buttress, where the first 5.8 pitch will be directly above you. Allow a couple of hours for this approach. If you are going up there this time of year, brings lots of water and 2 good headlamps.
For the original route, consult the description in the Roper guide.
Have fun,
Clint Cummins
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weekender
climber
Oaklanc CA
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Standard long 5.9 adventure route that goes to the rim. What more could you want? Very scenic and the top out is cool.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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May 10, 2004 - 02:34am PT
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The single coolest move I remember from YPB is at the beginning of Pitch 3 you hand traverse around a corner into a chimney. Pretty wild.
It got dark on us at the end and the last pitch wasn't obvious with headlamps. I climbed left, and then had to downclimb, then went straight up and then had to downclimb, finally, went a bit right and hit the top.
Let us know how it goes
peace
karl
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Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Topic Author's Reply - May 10, 2004 - 12:54pm PT
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"Do you know who first free climbed the YPB?"
I don't have reference materials handy, but I don't even know who did the FA. I remember a pic of Steck on it though.
I'm interested in knowing about the FA and the FFA. If I had to guess about the FFA...sometime in the early to mid sixties. Sacherer, Pratt, Robbins, Roper...? Or some unsung climber?
"It's a rim free climb. How many of those have you done anyway?"
Well, lessee. Not that it matters, but: Royal Arches ('75), Piton Traverse on the Column ('75), E. Butt El Cap ('85), Astroman ('85), Salathe Route on Half Dome ('93). These old bones may not be up to the YPB.
Which is longer/harder overall, Steck/Salathe or YPB?
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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May 10, 2004 - 01:13pm PT
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YPB is the DNB of the south-facing walls.
One of the best moderately long routes in the Valley, right up there with Lost Arrow Chimney.
I give it 2 thumbs up. The rotten chimney below the top of the pedestal is great, and the route has numerous other memorable pitches, some of which Dingus mentions: the two off the pedestal, the wild hand traverse lower down that goes around a corner into a slick, flared bottomless chimney...
Sat out a 6-hour rainstorm atop the pedestal one time, climbing off the top in the dark... 24 hours 3 minutes from sleeping bag to sleeping bag... almost a full-credit day.
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Ctgunkie
Trad climber
New Canaan, CT
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Aug 30, 2004 - 05:57pm PT
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Clint - I was wondering about this climb recently and saw your comment that you assume he was referring to the Direct version. Is there another version? I don't have the Roper guidebook. I remember reading in his Camp 4 history some story about doing a traverse. What is the traverse and is that a worthwhile outing?
I was looking for something with less awfulwidths...
Thanks for any beta!
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Larry
Trad climber
Reno NV
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 30, 2004 - 08:48pm PT
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I'm glad someone brought this topic back up.
My partner and I glassed the route extensively this spring. We saw what looked like a couple of large rockfall scars, especially a round one very near the rim.
From what we could tell, the tree at pitch 7 in the Reid topo has been decapitated about 40 feet up.
We intended to do the approach the day before the climb, so we wouldn't get lost on the big day. But it rained; that, along with uncertainties about a changed route due to big rockfall, our inability to match the (glassed) route with the topo and our general wimpiness led us to not even try (yet).
Any comments about changes in the route due to rockfall?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Ctgunkie wrote:
------
>I was wondering about this climb recently and saw your comment
>that you assume he was referring to the Direct version.
>Is there another version? I don't have the Roper guidebook.
Yes, the original YPB started in a gully to the right. The YPBD was a start which was added later. The Roper guidebook describes them nicely.
>I remember reading in his Camp 4 history some story about doing a traverse.
>What is the traverse and is that a worthwhile outing?
Well, I have the Roper guidebook(s), but not his Camp 4 history, so it seems we will be unable to communicate on this using the books....
>I was looking for something with less awfulwidths...
There aren't any offwidths on it (except on pitch 2, which you can avoid by doing a couple of hard moves using cracks on the face to its left). There are many chimneys, including one (pitch 3) which is quite flaring. As other posts have mentioned, you normally access this by a fun hand traverse, although you can actually skip the hand traverse and enter the flaring chimney at a slightly higher point.
Personally, the part I disliked most on the route was the rotten chimney leading to the Pedestal. The belay anchor we used was rather poor.
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Link
climber
Yosemite, CA
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There's a fixed #4 camalot on pitch three, makes for a killer foothold.
Don't miss the down climb at the start of pitch... something around five? Leaves the corner and goes right. Face climbing off the pedistal was a bit spicy, but the hard crack up above is wonderful.
-Link
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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Link, is that a #4 camalot or a 4.5 camalot!?
Tom McMillan left my new 4.5 on that pitch after I oversunk it. First (and only) route I carried it on, no less. Be interesting if it was still there, after all these years (it was within 6 months of when BD started marketing them.)
Brutus
PS
If you used that fixed piece as a foothold, you get penalty slack.
And *I* think the Rotten Chimney was the best pitch on the route, if only for entertainment value. Gotta love a climbing technique that pressures everything into place!
:)
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Link
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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Nope, just a good old crunched #4, not coming out any time soon. Unfortunately the leader's rope seems to get jammed against one of the cams, can create a bit of a "problem." If someone wants to bring some tools, there's definitely a cleaning job to be done.
-Link
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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First FFA was by Sacherer and Telshaw in summer '64. See Ed's list
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=268647&tn=0
the original aid route went up the dihedral, but Frank & Don climbed a crack about 20 feet left, a sustained but straightforward jam.
Descent is long, but it's on a trail. If benighted, you can still feel your way down.
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Gene
climber
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The book of Roper (1971) credits Yvon Chouinard and Tom Frost with the FFA in 1960 by a variation "destined to receive very few ascents." Said variation "is overshadowed" by one done free by Frank Sacherer and Don Telshaw in 8/1964.
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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Best choss climbing in the Valley, per Ben-Wah.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Last spring, after a long lay-off from Valley climbing and zero long route climbing to lead up to it, this was our "jump in w/ both feet climb." Not a problem for him who ended up being my fearless leader (I swung about 1/2 of it, but then gave up on the goal as it was getting tough to carry my ass in hand and climb at the same time.) Still we topped out in the very last light...later than planned, for sure.
The ball-bearing pitch was memorable though not in a 5 star sort of way...Old J joke: Yosemite classic or classic yosemite? This one is both. That pitch is the latter.
Climbing from the ground to the rim is never a disappointment.
We got DRENCHED coming down the falls trail after dark. Got back to the truck around midnight and had gotten beared. Some kind soul had repacked the back of the truck so that we didn't get ticketed too.
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DrDeeg
Mountain climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Gene,
Roper's original Yosemite Guide ('63) had YPB as an aid climb then. I did it in '63 with Tony Qamar, and then an ascent with Gerughty a few weeks after Sacherer free'd it (but I grabbed a pin, and Frank had seen me with a telescope from the valley floor and got on my case the next morning).
We got caught in the dark on the descent down the Yosemite Falls trail, and I was unable to keep up with Gerughty, who had either incredible night vision or great feel.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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I'd like to know the back story to Clint's offhand comment about bringing "2 good headlamps." That sounds to me like one real epic must have happened to somebody...
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E Robinson
climber
Salinas, CA
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Great route for a nice winter day as I recall.
E
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WBraun
climber
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It's a long epic climb and a more than few have had problems on it.
But Selagenella seems to be one of the king epic climbs in the Valley. During the long summer days and warm fall days, I still see almost every weekend after 9 pm or later headlights up there of parties fighting to finish that beast.
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Largo
Sport climber
Venice, Ca
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If the rock was any good on that wall (it's choss pretty much all the way) there would be 25 routes up there.
JL
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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mongrel,
> I'd like to know the back story to Clint's offhand comment about bringing "2 good headlamps." That sounds to me like one real epic must have happened to somebody...
You guessed it! :-) Dave Coombs and I went up there one February day and had only one (bad) headlamp with us (mine). It got dark on the pitch leaving the Pedestal, and we discovered the headlamp was only good on "impulse power" - light for about 1 second, then wait a few minutes and get another second. So we had to slowly aid the nicest free pitch on the route. Routefinding in the dark on wet rock above, I remember taking a static fall onto a sling when a cam placed in moss didn't hold; fortunately I didn't really get hurt but it was a dumb move. Got back to the car after a 24 hour roundtrip, and had to drive straight back to Oakland, as Dave had a mandatory meeting that morning!
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Yep, score that one in the epic column for sure. The impulse setting bit is hilarious (although I'm sure it wasn't then); climbing by headlamp is bad enough when it's a good one! Thanks for the chuckle at your and Dave's expense. I picture him in that meeting thinking, now which is worse, YPB or this boring meeting?
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Ryan Tetz
Trad climber
Flagstaff, AZ
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May 25, 2012 - 03:13pm PT
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Just did it yesterday. It was a windy day and the upper half of the route was in the shade for us! (probably because we ended up going up the right side of the "spire".
We couldn't figure out where you would traverse right and then back left? After the spectacular 3rd pitch dihedral traverse into chimney/Odub, we ended up climbing straight up a long 4th pitch up offwidths and chimneys and then a short 5th pitch up vertical Odub and then right to a big ledge area big enough to sleep 8. There was no large pine tree in sight anywhere from here or for that matter the 4th pitch and on other than one on the final summit pitch.
We traversed right along that big ledge and ended up in a 5.8 chimney system on the right side of the pedestal between the pedestal and the wall that ended up putting us level with the pedestal but 20 feet to the right. There was a fixed nut here as well! I tension traversed across and my partner did a lower out off the nut from the top of this chimney to get onto the pedestal instead of climbing dangerously loose blocks. I still had to pre trundle some tool box size blocks from the top of the chimney to keep the rope from knocking them off while my partner lowered out on to the pedestal.
To our disbelief we somehow had skipped 3 pitches and were on the pedestal in only 7! We weren't doing particularly long pitches maybe 150 footers? How did we skip 3 pitches?! I almost didn't believe it when we were already on the pedestal staring at the old pins!?
The pitch above was rad and includes the most ring angle pitons I've clipped since doing higher spire!
All in all Yosemite Point Burliness..... Equivalent to the Steck Salathe or DNB type day but way more adventurous with unique route finding "oppurtunities" and more runout on sharp quartzie grainy granite chimneys- hurts more next morning! Sweet top out and so high up above the valley!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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May 25, 2012 - 03:24pm PT
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Oops, Ryan - it was closed on April 13 for peregrine nesting until August 1.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1799122/Yosemite-Seasonal-Closures
Did you see / hear the peregrines up there?
> How did we skip 3 pitches?!
You went up the top right side of the Pedestal instead of the top left side.
[Up from 7 in this photo, instead of over to 8, 8.5, 9 and the 5.8 rotten chimney above 9 (not shown)].
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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May 25, 2012 - 06:30pm PT
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For that matter, did you happen across any Yosemite Point Lesser Bustards up there?
You've been busted, buster.
I did this buttress once and it has the same falling apart syndrome as the tops of a lot of cliffs, the Column comes immediately to mind; the place lies next to the Castle Cliffs, mostly choss. Okay, all choss.
But there is some memorably sound stone on the middle pitches and the position is super. People ought to take the time to try it as the r.t. is a good test of your level of fitness if nothing else.
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