Ascent Notes for: The Caverns - 5.8 Average Rating : 3.60/5

Missed the lower traverse shown on supertopo. We traversed closer to tree.

Only climbed this when its wet, which is often apparently. Lots of good liebacking and solid pro. The "Caverns" area is cool looking - top out is easy too. Cool climb!

Fun route and I'd say more physically challenging then Commitment. From reading the reviews I think we missed out on the most exciting part as it was late and we decided to rap at the top of P2. Next time.

I thought this was really good. Very wet when we did it, which added to the spice factor. Pretty heads-up for the grade in parts. A lot of excellent lie-backing.

beautiful location, views to half dome & lost arrow spire. otherwise, what chugar said :)

Yep, there was lots of liebacking with some hand/fist jams. Didn't see any ants or that 20' wide section someone mentioned. The caverns I saw was basically a 3' wide chimney on p4 right before the ledge with the big trees - don't let your rope pull a rock down. I liked the route and might do it again once I check out the other routes here. I think the SuperTopo topo is inaccurate on p3 - the friction traverse occured after the bush and is well-protected. Climbed with SH.

If youlove liebacking this is your climb. The cavern part can be skipped by doing more lieback up the crack system if you don't want to do an easy runout chimney.

This is a great route and doesn't have any loose rock, except at the topout like all routes at the 5 Open Books area. There are several trees growing out of the crack system however which makes it seem a lot less clean than Commitment. The giant chimney near the end is indeed "the caverns" and is the favorite pitch of the climb. There's not any pro in the chimney but it's also about 5.2 and quite impossible to fall out of.

5.8? not likely, even if the grade is correct, the climb still has tons of loose rock, big loose rock. i enjoy liebacks, but not for 4 friggin pitches, its one giant lieback for 400 feet. then theres what Im guessing is the "Cavern", or more like a 20ft wide, 30 deep, crevice up on top of pitch 4. Can anyone tell me ifthis is part of the regular route, or did I take a wrong turn? and if it is, how the F do you go thru it?. We rapped off after pitch 4.5, after I did some "super fun" down climbing/ gear cleaning. I would not recommend this route.

watch for ants on the trees and in the ground cover.