Bitterfingers

Hornet's Rest

Waltz, The

Fat Man's Misery

Chicken Chickenhead

Tenderloin

Scumbag Crack

Five Fingers

One route with a whole lot of climbing options, Five Fingers is a series of bottoming cracks and grooves that parallel each other, creating "fingers" in between.  Most of these options are easy, but the climbing is technical.  The rock quality is sharp and gritty, which tends to exfoliate individual crystals.  Deeper in the cracks, the rock quality improves significantly, providing more security for jamming and the occasional jug.  There crack on the far right is wider than the rest, and is probably the most difficult (5.7).

This climb starts from the anchors of Half-a-Finger.  First do Half-a-Finger, or I think maybe this ledge is reachable from the top of the Five Fingers buttress (?).

The pitch climbs a short hand crack in a right facing dihedral to a huge ledge.  Then a few delicate moves up a very thin finger crack/seam in a dihedral lead to a roof.  Hand traverse right along the roof and then up a groove/crack to the anchors atop Satan's Corner.

One 60m rope can rap here down to a ledge at the start of Lisa's Shoulder.

An interesting start leads to a an easy wide crack.  The start is an undercling that leads to a length of liebacking, along good rock.  It then has the odd move as you work from one wide crack to another.  Finally, after you pass a slung tree and horn, you come to a divergence: a really steep offwidth/squeeze on the right or an easy wide crack to the left.  The climb goes left.  I tried right but the rock was rotten.

All in all a nice lower sequence followed by an easy upper sequence.

WARNING !!  One last thing, after the lieback sequence, the next sequence involves a crack with a thin death flake.  Beware.  Helmets are advised.

At the base of Five Finger Wall, to the left of the "five fingers" is a large pine tree with a 3rd class scramble below it.  Get to this pine tree.  It then climbs up the relatively easy slab-corner system to the big chimney.  Climb the right wall of the chimney using the crack.  Fun hand and fist jams, and easy footwork.

Start up a fist crack between a slab on your right and a steep face on your left.  Several large chickenheads provide jugs for those with poor crack climbing technique.  Stem through a long trough chimney to what appears to be a belay underneath a right-facing dihedral.  The crux is getting into the dihedral.  I'm pretty sure that the chickenhead at the crux is the reason for the route's name.

This is the rightmost route that ascends from the belay ledges beneath 'Chicken Chickenhead' and 'The Waltz'.

This route has clean & straightforward 5.5 chimneying, with ample opportunity for small gear, making this a good early chimney lead. However, this is a real chimney that requires proper chimney technique, so it will not feel as easy as 5.5 without proper technique.

Ruckman's calls this an 'unpleasant squeeze chimney'. The more recent "Ferguson to Lone Pine Peak" guide describes this as "A dirty squeeze chimney. Have fun..."

Fun I did have, but I disagree with these sentiments! The crack, while short, is sustained at wide technique and surprisingly difficult for a so-called 5.6. It has two distinct cruxes, the entry above the pine tree and then a harder one at the second tier beyond. The rock is cleaner than most other routes in the area, and it takes pro well. Just make sure to leapfrog your wide cams...

Also, I don't know if a missing hold broke off or I missed something, but the second crux felt way harder than 5.6. I would have rated it more like 5.8-5.9 (based on my experience. I led a lot of wide in Yosemite, including the NEB of Higher Cathedral Rock & Harding Route on Conness).

Not shown in any guidebooks is a short but fun second pitch continuation in order to access anchors above Fat Man's Misery and The Waltz. Continue scrambling up the corner and you will encounter a juicy arcing hand crack. While you can step left to slab halfway up, why would you do that?! Go for the awkward wide exit with the fun chickenhead face hold. This crack takes BD #2-3 pieces, and a #4 nicely protects the exit.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Five Fingers Area