5.11c or 5.10 C1

Approach: 2 to 2.5 hours. Fisherman's trail towards Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Wildcat Point is the beautiful dome about a mile downstream of Glen Aulin.

Pitch 1: 10b, 100'

Start by a juniper at base of cliff. Leftward crack traverse to a tree and rooflet. Bolt protected lieback of a wide pod, then easier terrain to a ledge at the base of a splitter finger crack.

Pitch 2: 5.9, 160'

Follow beautiful crack up and right to a big ledge. Make an anchor on upper left side of ledge below impressive dihedral.

Pitch 3: 11c or 5.10 C1, 110'

Fingers and hands in corner. Tricky pull over onto the lower angle slab. Fire through the roof crack traverse for the next 20 or 30 feet. Cruxy climbing, make sure to mind rope drag. Access the glory hands corner then traverse over to a great perch on the arete. Anchor is a bolt and a #3 or #4 cam.

Pitch 4: 10b, 60'

Wide pod to good cracks that lead to a stance below the patina covered headwall.

Pitch 5: 5.8, 100'

Follow the groove and weakness leftward to a two bolt anchor.

Pitch 6: 10a, 100'

Continue left following the crack through good climbing and a steeper section guarding the top out.

Look for a slung big tree just left of the top out. From there begin the six single 70m rope rappels back to the base. Three rappels down you will reach Terrapin Station, a large ledge. The fourth rappel station is reached by scrambling to the lower right side of the ledge.

Smitten By Kittens

Splitter boulder finger crack

Clementine

California Corner

Unknown *Mountain Pride

Wildcat

Just the Tips

Buckin' Bronco

The Fortress

Splitter boulder hand crack

It takes a Village

Approach: 2 to 2.5 hours. Fisherman's trail towards Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Wildcat Point is the beautiful dome about a mile downstream of Glen Aulin.

Pitch 1: 5.12a, 130'

Single rack to #1, doubles to .5

Chickenheads past 2 bolts to cruxy step across/down. Hard lieback move to crack and flake features, then a traverse to the anchor.

Anchor: 1 bolt and gear.

Pitch 2: 5.12b, 90'

Single rack to #1

Step up and right to thin crack. Sustained jams and liebacking to a bolt protected crack switch. Rest, then pull the roof and cruise to the anchor. Awesome.

Anchor: One bolt and gear

Pitch 3: 5.10b, 130'

Full rack

Traverse up and right on flakes to glory crack system.

Anchor: One bolt and #1 or #2 cam

Pitch 4: 5.9, 70'

Single rack

Up short 5.7 flare to middle of three flake systems. Beautiful hand sized crack.

Anchor: 2 bolts

Atop pitch 4 is Terrapin Station, a huge ledge.

From here there are two options:

1) Traverse the ledge to the right and scramble down to a pin and bolt anchor. Make 3 single 70m rope rappels to the ground.

2) Continue to the top by way of Wildcat Buttress 5.9 A4 (not recommended).

This looks amazing and hard. Thin finger splitter. I didn't climb this route and Sevve didn't mention a grade in his AAJ description, but it looked to me at least hard 5.11 and probably 5.12. It shares the anchor and is on the other side of the boulder as the hand crack, so you could top rope it. If I remember correctly it's a single bolt anchor so might want to bring up the drill.

The name came from the conditions we experienced on route. It was during the rim fire and it was raining ash on us and super smokey out. It felt like the apocalypse!

Pitch Description:

Pitch 1: 5.7x

The approach pitch. Easy climbing leads to a 5.7 move with no pro on entire pitch that we could find. 200+ feet. Make a belay at the start of the corner.

Pitch 2: 5.9

The crux. Move up into the corner and negotiate some awkward wide climbing. After this bit the climbing eases to super enjoyable hands to offwidth clean corner climbing for 200 feet. 70 meter rope stretcher pitch

Pitch 3: 5.8

Leave the corner and move left into a splitter hand and fist crack through a steeper section. Continue following the crack as it becomes lower angle. When the crack veers off left, move back right into the corner. Make a belay at a small stance/ledge. 70 meter rope stretcher pitch

Pitch 4: 5th class.

Continue up the dome following the same crack system until you feel comfortable un-roping.

Descent:

Continue up 2nd class slabs for a few hundred feet to the top of the dome. Move right into the gully and back down to the base.

No fixed gear or bolted anchors on route. I wouldn't be surprised if this line has been done before us as it's such an obvious and not too difficult line, however I found no mention of it any literature or did we find any evidence of previous ascents.

I climbed this route with Jon Griffin in 2014. We thought we were doing a first ascent but later learned it had already been climbed by Sevve Stember et al. in 2010.

*We named it Mountain Pride for the huge clump of the flower, Penstemon newberryi, growing at the base of the route.

Pitch 1: 5.10b/c - The crux and best pitch of the route. A clean right facing corner. Awesome climbing! A few funky flakes are wedged in the corner but didn't budge when we tried to pull them out. 180 feet.

Pitch 2: 5.6 - Face climb up and left and belay at the base of a 4th class slab. 100ft

Pitch 3: 4th class - Up the slab and belay at a tree. 200 feet

Pitch 4: Move to the right up a short 5.6 offwidth, then continue right up 2nd class slab. 120 feet.

Pitch 5:  Up a short 5.8 hand crack, slab and then the top of the feature. 50 feet

4 and 5 should link easily with some long slings and/or rope drag.

Description from Erik Lynch:

Pitch 1: 55m; Long moderate pitch up to the ledge. It follows the crack system left of the big corner. Great climbing, good rock, a little bit bushy. 5.10-

Pitch 2: 35m?; Bump the belay about 20 meters right to the base of possibly the best crack in Tuolumne, definitely not 12a. Burly climbing leads through the initial bulge (12a), to an easier section of hands. Rest up for the crack switch, hard liebacking, and final boulder problem waiting above. 5.12+?

Pitch 3: 20-30m; Move the belay back left, or just deal with some drag. Climb the obvious corner up to the base of the roof. Its dirty and bushy(some mandatory bush grabbing), but protects well. Keep an eye out for fixed pro. 5.10

Pitch 4: 20m; Wild climbing out the roof. Brian's comments say it all. Enjoy some seriously 3 dimensional movement! 5.11+

Pitch 5: 30m; Climb the double cracks up and right. The climbing is quite good, but not obvious and dirty, making the lead quite exciting. Belay below the large OW corner. 5.11

Pitch 6: 40m; Climb the easier OW to where it widens into a flare. Then it gets a bit real. Liebacking is the easiest - but wow, very scary. You eventually have to get into a lieback as the flare pinches down. The crux lies in getting back into the safety of the chimney. Once back in the safe womb of the mountain climb an unprotected chimney up to the summit

This is the splitter flared tips crack on golden granite just 10 feet right of the Buckin' Bronco corner. It has not yet been freed on lead. Only aided and top roped, so get out there and go for it! Guessing its about 12c/d-ish. The first 25 or so feet are tips or less and you have to make use of the crack edge and face holds. Protection would be good, but will be difficult to place due to the nature of how you climb it. I would not be opposed to adding a bolt or two at the start. You can aid up it at c1 and it eases to 5.11 after about 25 feet. After about 50 feet the climb eases considerably to 5.9 but is still enjoyable climbing until the anchor. A single 70 meter barely makes it down. Tie knots!

Start up the splitter finger crack just left of the left facing corner. Make crux moves as the crack narrows to tips just before a ledge and the start of the wide left leaning liebacking. Plug in a few pieces and sack up for about 25-30 feet of unprotected liebacking up the crisp corner. (5.9R). Try not to get bucked at the top as the edge becomes rounded and you have to figure out how to get into the chimney and move over right. Pheewww! Relax and enjoy the remainder easy part of the climb to the bolted anchor.

*Alternatively one can double kneebar shuffle most of the wideness, but you still have to make the awkward moves to move into the chimney at the end.

Single 70 meter rope barely makes it down.

I haven't climbed this route. Below description is from Sevve Stember and AAJ.

"This July, I had the honor of fulfilling the mission of the Mountain Fellowship Award by establishing new routes on unnamed features near Waterwheel Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, Yosemite National Park. Over the course of two weeks Alan Holzkopf, Scott Rysdahl, Maura LaRiviere, and I established four new routes. The most notable route, the Fortress Wall (700?, 8 pitches, IV 5.11- A2+), took us three days. To find the formation, walk down river from Glen Aulin (roughly one hour), past the prominent dome known as Wild Cat Point, until you see a striking wall on the north side of the canyon. Our route links a series of fantastic crack systems, with some exciting face climbing and tenuous glacially polished traverses, on the east end of the south face. The free climbing is high quality, with only one pitch of aid. The route is best descended by rappel.

We also established three other shorter lines. Two are splitter crack systems on a detached boulder east of the main wall. The third is a four-pitch climb that summits a smaller feature that is also east of the main wall.

Furthermore, we found evidence of previously unreported routes that likely date back to the original Yosemite hardmen. The climbing here, of which I could find no information or documentation, is extremely clean and aesthetic in a breathtaking wilderness setting. The opportunity to work on new lines with great climbing partners, while looking over Waterwheel Falls and the Tuolumne River, was an experience I will remember for years to come."

There is an awesome boulder in the gully on the way up to the Unknown*Mountain Pride route. Might just be worth the bushwack. The most laser cut splitter I've seen. Mostly thin hands. Single bolt anchor on top.

The name 'It takes a Vilage' comes partly from all the different people that helped me put up this route. It took me 5 partners over 3 seasons of weekend trips to finish the route. The 'village' also includes those friends who aren't with us anymore. This route is dedicated to Zach Orman who died in a paragliding accident in 2013. He was an inspiring friend in my life and my thoughts were with him often while adventuring down in the canyon.

This is a beautiful 5 pitch line up an unnamed wall.  One of many such walls in the GCT. The route faces south and bakes in the sun so later season or an early start are key for the crux slab moves. The route is mostly crack climbing with some face climbing cruxes thrown in. Pitches 2 and 3 are beautiful and require a variety of crack techniques. Pitch 4 is the crux and is entirely face climbing with 4 bolts protecting the harder moves. The crux is on near vertical techy crimpy slab. After the bolts the climbing eases and follows beautiful golden edges with intermittent pro. This part is runout but never harder than 5.8. Pitch 5 features a mix of crack and face with one bolt. The route could continue to the right of the 5th pitch anchor along a weakness and then up a 30 ft slab to another massive ledge. Then there is another 300-400 ft dome above. Go get it!

The next party that goes up may want to bring some webbing and/or quicklinks and rap rings to add to the 1st and 2nd pitch anchor. Webbing up there is probably getting sun baked.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne