Although rated 5.10a by Don Reid's guide, this nice two pitch crack route on the southwest corner of West Cottage Dome seems harder to us compared to other routes in Tuolumne.

Pitch one is a very nice finger crack with some hands and liebacks, sustained 5.10- that ends on a nice ledge.  Move the belay left about 20 feet on the ledge and climb the super physical corner/roof with bomber hand jams.  The crux is in the first 15 feet followed by a short, easy offwidth and then some 5.7ish hand crack climbing.  Despite great jams, lots of large holds around and great protection, this second pitch seemed really hard!

Cottage Cheese

Geekin' Hard

Pencil-Necked Geek

Fun, overlooked gem of a route.  Starts just to the right of Geekin' Hard.  Starts off with a tough little 11a boulder problem and then moves into a sustained 10a hand crack.  "10a+" I'd say.  The next 2 pitches we linked to the top without much problem, but they involve a couple balancey traverses and one big mantle to an easyish finger crack to the top.

This route is an overlooked little gem.  It is right next to pencil necked geek and shares its first pitch anchors.  It makes a good start if you want to finish up on pencil necked geek as well.

Starts with a 10d boulder problem right off the deck, to some interesting crack and a mantle.  The real fun part is the committing 10c lieback moves around the block.  Once there, cut right and you're at the anchors.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in North Face