Fairview Dome rt. description
Bob Harrington
This is a description of a combination several routes on the west
face of Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, California. The motivating
idea of the linkage was to combine sections of various criss-crossing
routes in a way that the climbing is relatively safe, not too hard, and
high quality. Since the possibility of this linkage is not obvious
from the Reid and Falkenstein guide, I thought a few of you might
be interested in a description of this route. It combines some of
best pitches on Fairview, it's never harder than 10+, and you never
have to do any 5.10 more than a few feet out. My partner and I did
it yesterday, and he suggested that it is the kind of route that
would be good for one of those Route of the Month features in R&I,
so I suppose it must be worth a rec.climbing post too. Caveat time:
there are a few sections of 5.9 that are 4 or 5 m above protection,
so there are definitely a few, ah, stimulating passages.
Also, a few years ago a rock fall altered this section of the rock,
so the guidebook is not accurate for pitches 2 and 3 of Scavenger,
hence this description corrects that. IMHO, this is a really great
route -- Pitches 1, 2, 5, and 6 are all stellar, and it's one of
the easiest and safest routes between Lucky Streaks and the Regular
Route.
******************************************************************
Fairview West Face Combination (Scavenger to New Scavenger to Heart
of Stone to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to Sorcerer's Apprentice) III 5.10+
RO stands for run out, i.e. a bad spot to fall.
How to find the start (of Scavenger): About 75 m left of Lucky
Streaks is a long ~1 m overhang about 15 m off the deck. Look for
bolts heading up and left to the overhang.
P1 -- Climb up and left past three bolts (10+) to an overhang, pass
it at a fixed pin, then head up and left on knobs to a small right
facing corner, past two bolts, then up and right to a belay ledge
(9 RO).
P2 -- This is different than the topo in Reid and Falkensteins
guide, because rock fall wiped out P2 of Scavenger, so New Scavenger
reestablishes the route to the right of the old route. Go up to a
bolt, up and *right* to another, then head up and left to the base
of a right facing arch/corner (10, small cams and tiny wires), go
up the arch/corner (biggish cams) and exit left (10) to a belay on
a big knob.
P3 -- Climb up to a bolt at a dike (9 RO), then follow the dike up
and left to easy climbing where you can traverse left to a three
bolt belay (on Heart of Stone). Follow P4 of Heart of Stone up
and left along the dike and up a flake to the base of a huge left
facing corner (10-, weird route finding and rope drag).
P4 -- Easy climbing up the corner until you can exit right to a
stance (8).
P5 -- Now you're on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, just right of the huge
left facing corner. Follow thin cracks up till they start to fade,
then go up and left to a bolt, and do some nervy climbing up the
outside edge of the corner (10- RO) to another bolt, up, then right
and belay at a right facing flake.
P6 -- Step right (onto Sorcerer's Apprentice) and follow a flake
up and right to a good ledge with a bolt (we moved the belay to
here), go up and right to another bolt up to an overhang (10 RO),
past another bolt (10-), over another overhang, then go right to
a left facing corner and belay at its top on a good ledge.
P7 -- Go straight right past a cave, fixed pin, two bolts (10),
then up and right past another bolt, then left to an easy right
facing corner which leads to the top.
Tiny wires to 2 1/2 inch cam. Watch the rope drag -- double ropes
would be a good call, though we didn't use them. I'm not sure where
the best place to belay is at the end of P5. We had a 55 m rope and
it didn't look like we could make it to the good ledge described on
P6, so we belayed at the flake described above and then moved the
belay 10 m to the good ledge. I'll bet you could make it with a 60
m rope. The route is equipped with 3/8 bolts up to where you join
Heart of Stone (two and a half pitches up); from there on, it's rusty
1/4 inch bolts, so the top part of the route could benefit from a bolt
upgrade.
BLATANT PLUG -- I won a Fish Atom Smasher in the trivia contest
last year, and the thing is *perfect* for this type of climbing.
If I hadn't won one, I'd for sure go out and buy one! Thanks Fish.
Cheers,
Bob
Clint Cummins
Bob Harrington <bo...@qnet.com> wrote:
>This is a description of a combination several routes on the west
>face of Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, California. The motivating
>idea of the linkage was to combine sections of various criss-crossing
>routes in a way that the climbing is relatively safe, not too hard, and
>high quality. Since the possibility of this linkage is not obvious
>from the Reid and Falkenstein guide, I thought a few of you might
>be interested in a description of this route.
>It combines some of
>best pitches on Fairview, it's never harder than 10+, and you never
>have to do any 5.10 more than a few feet out. My partner and I did
>it yesterday, and he suggested that it is the kind of route that
>would be good for one of those Route of the Month features in R&I,
>so I suppose it must be worth a rec.climbing post too. Caveat time:
>there are a few sections of 5.9 that are 4 or 5 m above protection,
>so there are definitely a few, ah, stimulating passages.
I think there may be an even better route right in this area --
Sorcerer's Apprentice 5.10c, done with a variation to avoid the 5.11
and runout sections given in the topo. I'll make a separate post on it.
But to be honest, I haven't done the route Bob describes, and its
outside corner pitch (P5) is one I've wanted to do for years (now, armed
with the beta...!).
>it's one of the easiest and safest routes between Lucky Streaks
>and the Regular Route.
That's for sure. The only other one besides Sorcerer's Apprentice
that I've been able to manage is Fairest of All. For the rest, I
suspect most people (like me) are "unworthy"!
>How to find the start (of Scavenger): About 75 m left of Lucky
>Streaks is a long ~1 m overhang about 15 m off the deck. Look for
>bolts heading up and left to the overhang.
Later you mention that these are retroed as 3/8". Before that,
it was pretty frustrating to find the start, as the 1/4" black-hanger
bolts blended perfectly with the rock! You had to look for a wide
"tongue" of rock below the main roof.
>P6 -- Step right (onto Sorcerer's Apprentice) and follow a flake
>up and right to a good ledge with a bolt (we moved the belay to
>here), go up and right to another bolt up to an overhang (10 RO),
>past another bolt (10-), over another overhang, then go right to
>a left facing corner and belay at its top on a good ledge.
Since this pitch can be done via the (sane but heretofore
undocumented) variation to Sorcerer's Apprentice, I've gotta wonder
how the left hand finish to Heart/Toad's is -- does it go at 5.10a
sanely? I have heard the '92 guide topo is wildly inaccurate on the
5.10a pitch -- apparently the first 3x go straight up, and the
pitch traverses 50' right at the end. With this finish, perhaps
the route can be called "Heart of Toad" (name of the old linkup
version).
Have fun,
Clint Cummins
Clint Cummins
Here is some beta for doing Sorcerer's Apprentice in a way that
is never harder than 5.10c, and not run out on 5.10. Besides being
one of the few feasible routes on the West Face of Fairview for mere
mortals, it also has some great pitches (2, 5/Sea, 6, and 7).
Finding the start (sometimes the crux on these routes...). Look at
the topo for Mr. Kamps, which shows 3 cracks. Sorcerer's starts in
the middle crack, which has some grass, then a little right-facing
corner, and a pod (brief wide bit -- no, not ow). This crack slants
right at the start. I'm working with the topo from the '86 guide here.
1. Past the grass, which is not as heinous as it looks -- pro can
be placed. If your second is averse to grass, the left crack can
be done with a 5.10+ traverse right to the main crack (to just above
the pod).
2. 5.10b crux pitch, fairly sustained, but good pro. The 5.9 is
the lower of 2 traverse options, just below a overlap on the left side
of the right crack. A bit higher in the left crack, there is a
flake/stance left of the crack for a rest. The 5.10b is a sustained
lieback of the thin crack. Traverse at the higher of the two options.
3. 5.8 (not 5.9+), and you face climb straight up to the LFC, instead
of a rising traverse. We belayed atop the big flakey ledge at the bolt.
Short pitch. We stopped to try the 5.11(c/d) version, but couldn't
hang onto the teeny holds, and didn't like the pendulum fall into
the corner down below the belay.
4. 5.7 -- go right, climb down, then up an easy flake the 2x belay
shown in the topo.
5. 5.10c. 5.10b face off the belay to reach the first bolt, up high
near the arch. Good gear in the arch. There's a bolt above the arch
that must belong to a harder route. Follow the topo where it says
5.10+ (about 5.10c as I recall), with a bolt right at the hard move.
Instead of a rising left traverse past the seam, go straight up to the
top of the seam. If you're lucky, you can get some RPs in the seam,
to protect your second from a huge swing off the hard move. A bolt
would be handy here if the RPs are bunk. What we did was to instead
go straight up, on nice knobs, past 2 more bolts, 5.8R above the last,
to a 2-level belay ledge (1x at higher ledge, then 2x a bit higher).
5B. From here, we rapped down and right to the 3x triangle belay
straight left of the RP(?) seam on p5. We originally tried to
force a traverse left to the ledge belay on Sorcerer's, above
the Sea of Knobs, but there was a lack of pro.... The bolts on the
pitch above went 5.9, then 5.10+ to a roof, and I'm not sure if it
goes above. So instead we rapped. Perhaps not so appealling for
a purist. Just one retro bolt to protect the second would avoid
this, but it was a fun pitch on the knobs.
6. The Sea of Knobs -- an incredible pitch. Follow the topo,
and skip the "(A,B)" 2x belay. The "Sea" is directly above this,
mostly easy ground, but very airy. We belayed at the 2x just
above the 5.9R.
7. A 5.9 mantle leads up and left, then back right on ledges to the
belay on the topo.
8,9. Nice pitches, as described in the topo, and by Bob. There is
a hole with a crow's nest, down and left of the "Cave".
Gear is RPs to a #3 Friend.
Have fun,
Clint Cummins
Bob Harrington
In article <5r49mo$r...@power.Stanford.EDU>,
Clint Cummins <cl...@leland.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
>outside corner pitch (P5) is one I've wanted to do for years (now, armed
>with the beta...!).
Clint, you're going to love it! The lieback on Heart is pretty
doable too.
>>How to find the start (of Scavenger): About 75 m left of Lucky
>>Streaks is a long ~1 m overhang about 15 m off the deck. Look for
>>bolts heading up and left to the overhang.
> Later you mention that these are retroed as 3/8". Before that,
>it was pretty frustrating to find the start, as the 1/4" black-hanger
>bolts blended perfectly with the rock! You had to look for a wide
>"tongue" of rock below the main roof.
The bolts are still hard to see, however presently the third one
has a bail sling. Another thing you can look for is the detritus
from the rock fall -- it's about thirty feet to the left of the
start.
>>P6 -- Step right (onto Sorcerer's Apprentice) and follow a flake
>>up and right to a good ledge with a bolt (we moved the belay to
>>here), go up and right to another bolt up to an overhang (10 RO),
>>past another bolt (10-), over another overhang, then go right to
>>a left facing corner and belay at its top on a good ledge.
> Since this pitch can be done via the (sane but heretofore
>undocumented) variation to Sorcerer's Apprentice, I've gotta wonder
>how the left hand finish to Heart/Toad's is -- does it go at 5.10a
>sanely? I have heard the '92 guide topo is wildly inaccurate on the
>5.10a pitch -- apparently the first 3x go straight up, and the
>pitch traverses 50' right at the end. With this finish, perhaps
>the route can be called "Heart of Toad" (name of the old linkup
>version).
I'm looking at the '86 guide. The "10b undercling" on Toad's
is more like 10c or d, alternatively, you could do a 10a pitch
on Heart that starts 50' (?) to the left off the same ledge, that,
yes, traverses way right at the end, Heart and Toad's sharing this
belay; the pitch after that (on Toad's) that traverses left is has
weird route finding and crummy pro, but isn't too hard, Reid and
Falkenstein call it 5.8 and I don't remember if that's right or not;
the alternative to that is an 11c pitch on Heart that is quite hard
for a couple of moves. IMHO, one of these alternatives are as nice
as the exit on Sorcerer's.
Thanks for the clue about avoiding the crux on Sorcerer's. I didn't
know about that.
Bob
Pliable
> b...@news.qnet.com (Bob Harrington) writes
>
>This is a description of a combination several routes ...
Sorry Bob, this response has nothing to do with Fairview.
I just wanted to know if you are the same Bob Harrington who is quoted in
the 100 Sierra Classics book about Charlotte Dome. I had trouble e-mailing
you, so I thought I would try to contact you via this post.
I am trying to gather information on Charlotte's Web, and if you are *the*
Bob Harrington, you would be a good source of that information. Please
send me e-mail whether you are he or not, just so I know. And, of course,
any info. on C.W. would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
-Bob Foley
Pli...@aol.com