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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 5, 2016 - 12:21pm PT
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Yeah, Eric, thanks for all your help. Just goes to prove that documenting the whole Lee Vining Canyon area would be a huge project fraught with pitfalls and complications.
All I can do is put up a tentative Sphinx topo based on your pic-drawing and wait for information and corrections to flow in. Another way is of course what you suggest: Doing every route on the Sphinx myself! At least any information I put on MP will be plastic and available for instant correction. The electronic medium does have that advantage over ink and print.
Have to take a look at those photos of the Sphinx guidebook entries in Ed Hartouni's original string on "Great Googley Boogley" here on ST. Lonnie Kauk seems quite enthused about those Ellery Bowl aretes of yours. Maybe he's provide some more information about them too. You could do one of those aretes up to Dana Plateau and then climb the Third Pillar of Dana too, couldn't you? Sounds like an excellent all-day adventure!
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Yes, you can solo the farthest left ridge and pop out right next to The Third Pillar of Dana. Essentially, you end up coming up the ridge you usually use to go down to the start of that route.
I checked out your Mountain Project post on the Sphinx. Very cool.
But I feel a bit uncomfortable with the overlay being on there without CLEARLY stating that those are just approximate locations and guesses of where they are. Maybe question marks after there names too. We know the routes exist but not there exact location. Also my last name is spelled Gabel.
I think working on a Lee Vining Canyon guide is a great idea and a natural extension to the book you have. You could just add to it as more information comes in.
Here's another tidbit. Above and left of Speed of Life is a one pitch splitter 1 1/2" crack. I would see it everytime I came down the Ellery Bowl. I was going to go give it a go when I happened to mention it to Kevin Andrews. He said he already did it earlier that same season and it was awesome. 5.10 I think? I was just a little late on that one.
 Eric Gabel
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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I think those 10 pages are all there are in the summit register, at least those are the complete set I shot that day...
...Bruce, if you want a higher resolution image of that face of The Sphinx I can send you one... maybe a way to ask the FA parties (those still around) just where they might have gone.
On the other hand, just posting a slightly more enhanced written description, a la the Roper Guide, would be a service to adventurers...
Vintage Gabel, love you man, really...
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 6, 2016 - 12:15am PT
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If you look on MP, Ed, you'll see that I do have a very high resolution jpeg of the face of the Sphinx taken with my trusty Nikon D7100. A DSLR may be like a boat-anchor, but all that processing power does get the job done.
Eric: Any guidebook is an approximation of the real truth, the vrai verite! I checked those written entries in the "Great Googley Boogley" string. What else do you have to go on? Maybe I'll say in the Sphinx main entry that the information given is based on conjecture and surmise? There a comment section where people could chime in with corrections and updates. If they go up to climb any route on a piece of rock that looks like the Sphinx, they better be adventurist to begin with.
Thanks for the information on that splitter 5.10 crack above "Speed of Life". Have to check that out next time I wander around in that rubble pile.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 6, 2016 - 12:11pm PT
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Hey Eric. Lonnie Kauk just soloed your 5.7 arete on Ellery Peak and made a video of it! Wow. It really looks spectacular and pretty safe. Like a smaller version of the West Ridge of Conness. What amazing views of Lee Vining Canyon and the Tioga Road. Bet people are going to get on it all the time now. Unfortunately, the video isn't on YouTube but it is on Lonnie's FB site. That's a pretty good quality endorsement, huh?
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 7, 2016 - 01:00pm PT
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Lonnie Kauk took this pic looking back down the 5.7 Ellery Arete after soloing it a couple days ago:
That sure looks like a new Sierra classic! Thanks for your route, Eric Gabel! Just look at the sweeping view of Tioga Road and Mono Lake.
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Hey Bruce,
Glad to see someone getting on that, and glad to hear Lonnie liked it. I checked out a little peace of video he posted on Instagram. It is a very good line. We called that one the "Backbone" 5.7, for the long feature about half way up that felt like you were walking on a dinosaurs back. Hopefully he'll check out the others to the left too. They are also worth the effort.
Eric Gabel
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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We also put up some good routes on some of those cliffs that are in the background on Lonnie's summit photo.
-Eric Gabel
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2016 - 12:26am PT
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We also put up some good routes on some of those cliffs that are in the background on Lonnie's summit photo.
I see that Lonnie has published another video of him climbing the arete on Instagram. Check it out. Pretty dramatic.
I don't think he just liked the route. It sounds like he's wildly enthused about it. That's a pretty good product endorsement!
You mean those cliffs down in Lee Vining Canyon above the Tioga Road? You really have been digging around there, Eric. Took some telephotos of those cliffs at sunset once and started to see things popping out. Bit of an approach, no?
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i'm gumby dammit
Sport climber
da ow
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had a fun time there last weekend. something easy without a name on the dinosaur crag
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 8, 2016 - 12:25pm PT
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Looks like someone's been up to the Dinosaur Crag and done "Acid House" (5.10a)? Nice polished granite with better protection than you'd expect from looking at it. You're probably the first people who have climbed there since we mobbed that place back in August-September 1990. Over-popularity certainly won't wreck that crag.
Or is that a new route a little to the right of "Acid House"? Or did you just start down low instead of off the pedestal? In any case, that obscure destination is finally getting some traffic.
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i'm gumby dammit
Sport climber
da ow
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to the right of acid house. maybe 5.7 with an easy roof and well protected crack, til almost to the top anyway
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 9, 2016 - 12:07am PT
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Will have to add it to the Dinosaur Crag topo.
There are a couple of other unclimbed moderate cracks on both sides of the Lizard Princess on the right side of the crag waiting for the tread of climbing shoes.
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 10, 2016 - 07:51am PT
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Here is another climb Ed Hartouni and I did in Warren Canyon. If you've ever been driving up the pass and wondered what those towers were high on the ridge, your not alone. One day I had to find out, and once again, Ed had given me a free pass, saying "he was up for anything".
So up we went. It's a long hike with a great summit reward.Our route went up just left of the main chimney system, and followed the arete on the right to the summit. The main chimney up the center was done by Rick Cashner and Claude Fiddler in 1987. Ascended again by Rick Cashner and Roy McLenahan in 1988
Here's a shot of Ed coming up the route.
There is a very old summit register up there from 1930. The older entry's are faded away. But they were in 1930 and 1958 I believe. Then Rick, Claude, and Roy's in '87 and '88. Unfortunately we forgot the pencil in the pack at the base of the climb, so we did not sign in.
Here's Ed on the summit
You can just see the Ellery Ridge in the background, and where it tops out next to Third Pillar Of Dana, just under Mt. Dana in the photo.
There are two other towers up there that have seen ascents. We could see the summit carns from our summit. No idea who or when, but that's another adventure to be had.
Eric Gabel
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2016 - 12:07pm PT
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Let's hope you picked a very hot day for that approach up Warren Canyon, Eric. I've looked up too (who hasn't?) but was discouraged by the hike. But still, another entry for a projected Lee Vining Canyon guidebook to be sure! That whole canyon is like a graveyard of obscurities. Me and Marc Hill and Dave Yerian did a two-pitch 5.10 crack on the cliffs above the Power Station up at the end of Pool Power Plant Road c. 1988, but just can't remember where it was exactly. Lots of red brittle metamorphic rock.
Going to take a hike up Warren Canyon in a few days to summit Mt Warren, so will have to check out your and Ed's 'masterpiece'.
The ridge on the left is over a mile long and ends up right next to Third Pillar of Dana.
I seem to recall that the far-east ridge-arete that ends near Third Pillar was done pre-1975 by the same team that did the Pillar. Saw a topo long ago before my dementia began to get the upper hand. Think Phil Bircheff was involved and it was rated 5.6. Wonder what ever happened to Vern Clevenger's antique note book full of hand-drawn topos of early Tuolumne climbs? Think it contained some of Tom Geraty's (sp?) topos including the original of the dike route. That would be a world-class precious document today.
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2016 - 12:35pm PT
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Was wondering about the Unnamed Roof to Dihedral (5.6) on the Spillway Crag at Ellery Lake Mining Road?
Heard a rumor in the Lembert Dome Parking Lot one evening that it was done by Norman Boles sometime in the 1980s. Have actually seen people on it several times, but don't have clue to its history. "Just for the sake of obsessive completeness"!
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 10, 2016 - 12:56pm PT
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Here is a some pictures of the other towers.
The tower on the right had a summit cairn.
This tower is just right of the other two, and also had a summit cairn.
Count on about a two and a half hour approach for all these... You've got to earn it.
Eric Gabel
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2016 - 02:41pm PT
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First, take a 30-mile bike ride. Then, run 8-miles of trail. Finally, begin the 2.5 hour approach to the Warren Canyon granite towers. When you get back to camp, make sure you do your core work-out. You'll be beginning to get ready for the high moutains.
Something tells me those Towers aren't going to be too popular with the masses. But they certainly belong in a "complete" Lee Vining Canyon guide.
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ablegabel
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 10, 2016 - 06:12pm PT
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It was done in 1930 ! I have no idea what route was taken then, but there is no easy way up. Nothing easier than 5.6. The rock is of very good quality too. I think climbers are just getting soft these days?
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Bruce Morris
Social climber
Belmont, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 11, 2016 - 12:31am PT
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I think climbers are just getting soft these days?
I think BITD climbing was 'summit oriented'. I bet everyone of those little pinnacles was summited 40 years ago by peak baggers. Interesting though that no route to the top was easier than 5.6. Norman Clyde did some pretty hairy stuff back then. People called it 4th class but that could include a wide range of difficulties.
Isn't there a link somewhere on ST on your Warren Canyon adventure? Those granite pinnacles are much more impressive close up than they look from way down in Lee Vining Canyon.
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