tshimkus's Logbook (29 ascents)

The rat's tooth chimney proved to be a fine adversary. Could not figure out where the actual line was from there and ended up doing a series of variations and rappels looking for the right line.

This route is somewhat bold because gear placements are fairly sparse compared to most at Lovers Leap. The huge flakes make for excellent climbing but have a tendency to be flared. The resulting mandatory runouts over steep but solid climbing lends to its exposure.

We jumped on this route because most of the other popular climbs had lines at their base. We lucked out and got on this classic climb without a wait.

The arete on the second pitch was one of the most exciting 5.7 pitches due to the sustained vertical grade of the rock. Great dike ladders and good protection for the majority of the climb

it was cloudy in the morning as we approached the climb but the sky did not look too threatening so we decided to go for it. While we were simul-climbing the knife-edge a thunderstorm was approaching from the valley. Lightning was striking only a couple miles away as we got to the notch.

As I reached the pinnacle just beyond the notch my hair was standing on end and the rocks were buzzing and crackling like a transformer. It began sleeting on us and we were certain we would be struck by lightning if we finished the traverse. I set a sling around a round flake in a hurry and we rapped down as fast as we could.

The rappel from the notch was probably intended for a 70m rope but we had a 60m so each rappel went straight of the ends of the rope. At the last rappel we traversed about 60 feet completely exposed across a slab to a tree.

I was never happier to be back on terra firma at the end of that adventure.

There were a handful of parties on this face while we were climbing but there are enough variations along the way that there was no waiting or bottlenecks. Beautiful knobby granite. Minimal exposure.

this pitch is an essential addition to any cathedral peak ascent

I lead pitch 2 and 4 on this climb. Giant cystals and flawless granite made this climb one of my favorites. Also our first epic.

Awesome route. The constricting finger cracks appear to make for great nut placements. Would love to come back and lead this one.

An exceptional climb. the large knobs seem to be in all the right places.