Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Is there a bolted rap route to the left of the climb somewhere? Yes. 12 bolted/ringed anchors, down a fairly clean east-facing wall (left around the corner from the East Buttress route).
Rappable with a single 60m rope - no raps longer than 90'.
The first rappel is very diagonal to climber's left, to reach a station at a block on the top of the wall (you actually tie off your ATC and climb up a couple of moves to the anchor). Then mostly straight down. Stances 3 and 4 are small, the others are fairly easy to stand on.
You end up 2 minutes uphill from the start of the climb, so you avoid the Kat Walk / Cathedral Chimney entirely.
Whether it's faster than the Kat Walk / Cathedral Chimney, I'm not sure.
That descent will probably continue to be popular, but the rap route removes most rockfall hazard and the hangup risk is fairly low (if using a single rope; if attempted with 2 ropes, your rope might hang up on trees).
It should at least be useful when there is lots of snow in the Cathedral Chimney.
When we chose locations for the anchors, there were a few instances when there were trees close to the rappel route (3, 5 and 6 on the overlay photo). In these cases we placed the station about level with the tree, but off to the side.
When pulling the rope down from above, if the wind takes it into a tree, it will be just to the side of you and hopefully easy to pull it out. And on the next rappel, the rope is very unlikely to contact the tree.
However, if you tried to rappel with 2 ropes and skipped one of these stations next to a tree, your rope might hang up in the tree, 90' above you.
As jvSF mentions, the first rappel is diagonal, and your rope runs over a flake with trees below. I wrapped an old sling around the notch where the flake contacts the wall, so if your rope goes in there, it should pull over/down smoothly.
Neither descent is 100% safe; you could die on the rap route if you go off the end of your rope, or if your rope hangs up and you can't retrieve it (and a storm or cold night comes in). There is no fast rescue from this route (same as Royal Arches Rappels), because it's not fast to hike to the top. You can be cited (fined) for a rescue ("creating a hazardous situation") in the Valley if you take unusual risks. So this descent option is just one possible choice.
Job Alexander and I placed these anchors over 3 days, finishing on May 4.
This was after doing the Kat Walk / Cathedral Chimney descent a few weeks earlier, with a fair amount of snow / water. And the mangled/missing rap bolts there.
Job just observed that for such a beautiful climb, he felt the descent was fairly ugly and detracted.
I knew I didn't recommend the "Penny Pinnacle rap route", but thought this face might have good potential for a clean rappel route.
Part of my own motivation for considering rappel route alternatives to the Kat Walk / Cathedral Chimney is that my partner and I almost died in there a few years back when a huge boulder came down it.
Bolts and hangers were my own, not ASCA (ASCA are for replacement only).
[Click to View Linked Image]
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Rip
Trad climber
Norman, OK
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Climbed the EB route on June 4, 2012. Everything went well except the rappels down the descent gully. The beta here was quite helpful, and anyone planning to climb this route should read the entire list of beta. I agree, the topo marking Penny Pinnacle was quite helpful, but finding the rappel gully, Cathedral Chimney, was actually pretty straight forward because someone had marked the descent route from the top of EB to the gully with a series of small cairns.
Warning: The descent route down the gully (as described in Supertopo's Yosemite Valley Free Climbs guide book) has a warning about rock fall. However, it fails to mention the potential for flash-floods in the gully.
We started the rappels in a light mist, but within less than 5 minutes the gully was flooded and extremely dangerous. Water had risen from a mere trickle to knee level within a matter of minutes, soaking my partner who was about 50-75 ft down into the steep narrow section. The water came from the West, from above the chasm between Higher and Middle Cathedral. Remarkably, this all happened before it started to rain hard within the gully itself, indicating that runoff from up high, above the chasm, can quickly flood the descent gully. The roaring water also brought down rocks into the gully, pinning our rappel line. I won't bore you with all the details here, but this caused a miserable 8-hour epic of life-threatening hypothermia and near exhaustion.
Given the layout of this gully, perhaps the risk for flash floods is merely common sense. However, having never seen the actual gully itself, we had no way of knowing that the water from the upper parts of the East side of Higher and Middle Cathedral could eventually funnel directly into this narrow descent gully.
My suggestion is to avoid this gully completely if there is any chance of rain, or consider the Penny Pinnacle descent route instead (although we had difficulty finding it). If anyone has had a similar experience in this gully, please post it.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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This might help.
The carabiner signs are often missing, so don't depend on finding them.
Sometimes people take them.
The lower carabiner sign is near a high point in the paved Valley Loop trail. If you start to go downhill and get below the Central Pillar of Frenzy, you went too far. (There is supposed to be another carabiner sign below the Central Pillar, where its approach trail leaves the paved trail).
The official approach trail goes slightly left and up a few stone steps to reach a prominent erosion gully, which has various sizes of boulders (some of which are loose).
The upper carabiner sign is in a steep section of the loose erosion gully, and may move if boulders roll down or if there is some rain.
The final section of the East Buttress approach trail traverses west out of the erosion gully to reach the Pedestal.
The key to finding this traverse is to spot the Pedestal from the gully, and start the traverse before you are above the top of the Pedestal.
I prefer using the old/original approach trail, which leaves the erosion gully about 100' from the paved trail. It goes up the west rim of the erosion gully (and sometimes rejoins it). It is also the best way to reach the Kor-Beck. Eventually it goes very close to the Pedestal and does some small switchbacks left of the Pedestal.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Here are photos of the descent and rappel anchor bolts from May 2007 (in some years there can be snow here in May):
[Click to View Linked Image]
upper anchor - left hanger a little bent
[4/21/09 update from Brian Biega's forum post - the upper/right hanger is missing - the lower/left bent hanger is still there]
[Click to View Linked Image]
the upper rappel. We had one 60m rope, so my partner rappelled first on a single strand (115').
[Click to View Linked Image]
I rappelled second, on a double strand. The gully and overhang are longer than 30m, so I rappelled 80' to this slung chockstone and did a second 35' rappel to rejoin my partner.
[Click to View Linked Image]
lower anchor - bolts a little rusty, hangers bent.
No hanger on lower 3rd bolt.
Note: you can downclimb this section (with or without a belay) instead of rappelling; it's about 5.4.
[Click to View Linked Image]
This shows the rappels accurately.
I do not recommend the Penny Pinnacle rappel route center/right side of the above topo), since it is slower/longer, it is hard to find, and there is a higher chance of rope hangup.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Is it legit to add a bolted rappel to such a venerable climb? The answer probably depends on who you ask.
I was surprised when the Royal Arches Rappel Route appeared, but it has been there for many years now and seems to get used frequently.
It does change the experience, not hiking over and down North Dome Gully. Some people still do that descent, too.
Neither of these rappel routes goes down the path of the climb - they are independent.
So they are different than "adding bolts to an existing climb".
We did not want to add bolts to every belay station of the East Buttress and make that the rap route. That would definitely change the experience of building gear anchors on the East Buttress, and create lots of conflict between people ascending and descending.
We also didn't want the rap route to be easily visible from the East Buttress (like over to the right).
I could list other popular rappel routes which were not originally used:
 Nose (OK, used mostly for bailing from Dolt)
East Ledges of El Cap (the right side is partly an old route)
the arete left of Central Pillar of Frenzy (actually a newish route)
and less popular rappel routes
down from notch behind Lost Arrow Spire (for LA Chimney and LA Direct)
Coonyard Pinnacle
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Park
Trad climber
Reno
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The new rappel route on the left side of East Buttress of Middle Cathedral is awesome! Great work Clint and Job. Thanks for making the whole climb/rappel experience that much more enjoyable. It's nice to have 2 options now for the decent, kat walk or rappel route. The new rappel route makes the climb that much more classic!
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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[Click to View Linked Image]
Here is a more detailed overlay of the start of the rap route.
Normally I make a gear belay at the end of the 5.8 corner pitch (10), on a white ledge. Then you could start the next pitch (11) by underclinging right and going up a chimney/groove.
To rappel, you just go 20' left (east) on the white ledge to the first anchor (2 bolts with double ring hangers).
The first rap goes down and to climber's left, to just below a 6' fir tree. Tie off your rappel on your right thigh and grab the flake/ledge where the tree is growing, scramble up 6' (4th class) and stand on the ledge. The next anchor is above the left end of this ledge, at the brink of the steep East Face.
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Anaphylactic Shock dude
Intermediate climber
SF Bay area, CA
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If you do the left finish to the last pitch (5.10a fingers), don’t belay at the first obvious belay tree, there’s a nasty hornet nest under it - stings all over the place, and they go for the head! That last pitch finger crack is killer!
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Mike Duzinski
Intermediate climber
SF Bay area, CA
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I have yet to do the entire climb, and rapped off the 5th pitch. Be very careful if you take this option. After rapping from the 4th pitch chains, after passing bolts with slings and opting for the flake with many slings down a little bit further, I stopped at the flake. When my partner arrived, the flake moved significantly. This beta is from the fall, but if the flake is still there DO NOT use it as a rap anchor. It is extremely dangerous. Other that that the climb is excellent, the first two pitches are not as classic as the next three, but all well worth it.
Enjoy
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bezeee
climber
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I did this on June 8th when it was hot but not unbearable. Even though the temperature was not extreme I finished 3 liters of water while my partner finished 2 about halfway up. Bring plenty of water!
At the beginning of the 3rd pitch be careful of the biting ants that start to swarm during the stem move. They climbed up my leg and dug right in.
The last pitch is strange and I think it's at least a 5.7. My partner led this pitch an opted to climb onto the face on the left of the gully. This option may involve some harder climbing than the gully but is maybe a little bit easier to protect.
The decent route is very easy to find but long. After you reach the top scramble up and right until you stumble upon a well worn trail. Follow this trail all the way to the end where you'll end up in an amphitheater surrounded by granite walls. Just go down from there where you'll find 3 rap anchors eventually.
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Andrew
Intermediate climber
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Just did this climb on June 16th and it was quite enjoyable. By the way, the Supertopo of it was excellent and helped quite a bit. We didn't follow ALL the belay stances and cut the climb down to about 7 pitches using a 60m rope. The most confusing thing about the entire climb was the decent. The description of it was a bit confusing. It would have been easier to say, "Follow the trail all the way until the end". We spent 30 minutes looking for bolts at the large expanse, right before the gully. We gave up and decided to try and walk down. Lo and behold, we found the bolts.
Oh, and the climb is in the sun until about 3:00. So, wear sunscreen and bring plenty of water.
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Bill Whiteley
Intermediate climber
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Completed the route on June 14. There were fire ants on the third pitch but other than that it was a great route and good topo. I highly recommend the finger crack variation on the last pitch, and the Hornets must be gone (message below) because I did not encounter any.
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Erik
Intermediate climber
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1. I agree withe Andrew (below) that the descent is easiest described as "Follow the obvious trail with cairns." We made the descent in the dark and had no trouble following the trail and finding the rappels. The
only routefinding trouble we had were at the end of the gully were the topo says "look for the approach trail on the left". At this point there are no cairns and the trail is faint, so maybe due to the dark we first tried to follow the base of the cliff before we realised it was the wrong way and we continued straight down the gully ( with one short rappel ) which soon took us to the two carabiner posts.
Also, I don't know if this has happened frequently enough to warrant a warning. But at the end of the gully we were exposed to a huge rockfall. We only survived by lunging ourselfs behind some rocks. The rock coming down must have been huge because the air was full of dust afterwards.
2. The endless discussion of gradings. I found the upper 5 pitches very stiff. Not as straightforward as the ratings might imply.
3. At least one trip report on the web (i.e Bill and Junes) and one party we met suggests that the traversing 6th pitch is difficult to protect and the second might potentially take huge pendelums if falling. I disagree with this. I found good placements for smaller camming devices, and at the end of the traverse it is possible to step up and place a cam behind a flake to
protect the second.
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tom
Advanced climber
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Don't bring aiders for the bolt ladder. You can French Free the sucker easily. The bolts are so close, you can stand in a quickdraw or runner to reach the next one. What the descent, though. Make sure you go high enough before turning left towards the gully that separates Higher from Middle Cathedral rocks.
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Tony
Intermediate climber
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Has anybody done this route recently? We hope to do it this weekend, but I was wondering what was the condition of the descent in Cathedral Chimney. I suspect it still might have a lot of snow. Maybe May would be a better bet.
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Bob
Intermediate climber
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Tony-- Route in great shape, not wet. Descent wet, long undercut snow/ice sections in gully, wedge between wall and snow, not fun but doable, 1st rap very wet, 3rd class sections of descent very,very loose and unsettled, stay close(bowling alley potential.) We did route, party of three SUN 3/31
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David
Intermediate climber
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pitches can be linked via a 60M rope: pitches 1 and 2; as well as 3 and 4 were easily linked and really sped things up. 5 and 6 also linked up if the belayer was willing to unclip and walk over 10ft to the start of the bolt ladder.
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b$
Trad climber
sf
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If you climb once a week, and are comfortable with placing gear, and trad-leading 5.7-5.8…the East But is still a major challenge! Even though I left it up to WestOzzy to lead the 5.8 roof, 5.9 roof, and the 5.7 flared groove (pitch 9? probably the hardest for me), I was still scared to bejeezus at times! I think I’m an exposure wimp. Nevertheless, this climbed was insanely good!!! Easy approach, consistently challenging, a variety in the type of climbing, and amazing views of El Cap, east up the valley, and the Cathedral c-c-chasm. The descent was wet and wild (watchout for rockfall/slide). Total approach, climbing, and descent time = 10.5 hours. Can someone explain to me how the groove on the last pitch is a 5.4? I thought I was going to slide straight down to hell (okay since it was the valley…heaven)!
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Mr Lucky
Novice climber
sf
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pulled up & parked @ 7:20am sunday 5/19/02 & we were the 9th car @ the cathedral rocks parking area. 20 minutes later, when we'd racked up & eaten a bit, there were 10.
what the hell- we're already here, we might as well check it out, right? so we walked up to the the base of the climb just to see...
hmmm- kinda quiet up there-
look- nobody on the ledge-
hey- no bags on the ledge-
nobody on the whole damn climb!
how can this be??
we started climbing in the sun on our own private cliff right in the middle of yosemite valley at ~8:30am on a beautiful sunday in the middle of may!
finally another party joined in the fun once we were up on pitch 6 or 7- there really musta been quite a lineup on the higher spire & the ne butt of higher!
just goes to show- you never know until you go!
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Mike Rawdon
Advanced climber
sf
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Great route, but the descent gully is a death trap of recent rockfall. Climbed it yesterday (5/25/02) and the busted trees at the Ampitheater still had leaves on them. In the gully itself there is no living thing and everything is ready to roll. The two rap bolts we saw had both been hit by rockfall. The upper on the hanger and the lower directly on the bolt. It was nerve wracking and I would never put myself in that situation again.
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Rob B.
Intermediate climber
sf
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This from a friend who just got back:
"As we reach the end of the Cat walk it becomes quite apparent that a
huge rock slide has come through this area as everything is devastated.
There are rock scars 70ft up the wall. We can hear the party below us
trundling stuff as they go. Clint and I proceed very slowly and
cautiously to avoid sending stuff down on them. Once part way down
the Gully it become apparent that the rock slide came from higher
up the Gully and not from the cliffs. We made it past the 1st rappel
point without any incident except my new rope gettin dirty and wet.
We were at the second rappel I was slowly down climbin and while using
an old fixed line with a 1ft core shot the rock wall was sandy and wet.
I did not trust the rope so I was movin slow. I heard rock. Then more
rock. I suddenly realized this was not little stuff from Clint movin
around. Clint yelled that it was from up above. I started back up
the rope then quickly realized at the bottom of the rappel is a
fairly large cave formed from a huge boulder. I slid down a foot
then jumped. I dove into the cave as stuff started shoot out from
above. It was loud and moving very fast. I was trying to think of
what Clint could possibly be hiding under up there and could not
imagine how he survived that onslaught. After that there was a
brief intermission. I yelled for Clint to come down the rope quick.
He said he was under his pack. In my mind I could see this 20yr old
pack that is smaller than most book bags with a pair of climbin shoes
and a dozen cams in it. I knew it would not protect him from sh#t.
I think it was at this point he yelled it's Big and movin slow. The
loud rumbling was very apparent. I hunkered down in the back of the
cave and covered my ears with my palms. This thing was as loud as
an earthquake and just kept comin. I did not figure there was any
way it could miss him and I did not want to here it. Even with my
palms pressed firmly against my ears this thing was loud. Finally
it barreled over the top and crashed down the scree below.
Hesitantly I stood up the adrenaline was pumpin and my legs shaked
I yelled to see if Clint was ok and to my amazement he reply'd. I
think he was lookin up the canyon cuz I could barely hear him so
I yelled again then I heard him and knew he was ok. After a bit he
came down into the cave we stood there a bit then headed quickly
out. Without having to dodge any other bullets.
In summary it appeared that the major rock fall is less than a month
old. But, the Gully is still active. So if you are goin to do a
route on Middle Cathedral Rock pack an extra rope and rap the East
Buttress. I have not tried it but there are trees and one set of
chains. I think that it would go.
Here's ta sweat and not rock in your eye
des"
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joec
Novice climber
sf
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Wow, quite an adventure in the Cathedral gulley. I did this descent in mid-May after climbing the DNB, and though the recent rockfall was obvious, the descent was uneventful. Maybe it helped that we were doing it in pitch-black-night but it didn't seem that bad to me. The descent from the Sentinal is still far looser and sketchier.
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Jason Boyd
Intermediate climber
sf
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WARNING:
On May 27 at about 5:30 PM there was a major rock fall from the top of Middle Cathedral into the Cathedral gully.
I had just summited the East Butt. and was about to decend when the rock fall occured. The whole gully is now very loose and unstable. It seems as though the rap bolts are still OK (the hanger on the second station has been bent almost flat) Nothing came down on me while decending, however there are tons of loose blocks ready to roll. I would strongly recomend finding alternate meens of decent, maybe the ASCA could put a couple rap bolts on the upper section of the route (pitches 7, 8, & 9, pitches 10 & 11 have good trees) If you do intend on using the gully decent be EXTREMLY careful not to kick down rocks on the heads of climbers below you in the gully.
climb safe, stay tied in.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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I strongly disagree with any suggestion that folks rap this route. I have done this route dozens of times and find that it already has some of the most dangerous rockfall of any popular valley route. Rapping could create even more dangerous situations and increase the cluster that already happens on the route. I took a picture from Taft point of the area and traced the approximate route and posted it on my website as a tool for folks who might want to devise an alternate rap route on the SouthEast corner of the buttress away from other climbers. You can check it out at
http://member.newsguy.com/~climbing/Eastbuttressoverview.html
If the gully has become as dangerous as some very experienced climbers have said (Cummins, Cosgrove and others I hear) then something may have to be developed so nobody gets hurt
Peace
karl
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Scott Bullock
Novice climber
Yosemite, Ca
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RE: Rock Fall in Cathedral Gully. I spoke with Scott Cosgrove in the vallye this morning on the phone he informed me that Yosemite Mt School has declared the decent gully off limits and won't be guiding in it until...
Scott and I climbed the E. Butt last Thursday and it was awesome. He pulled me up the route in 3 hours, cardio! We had a blast until we got to the gully.
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Rob
Intermediate climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Found this on SFgate just now. Hmmmm? EB of MC??? Strange though that MC is 5,700 ft above the ground. Jackass media trying to speak to things they know nothing about.
(06-03) 12:46 PDT YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) --
Park officials rescued a rock climber dangling from a rock wall about 5,700 feet above the ground Monday, a day after he was injured in a fall.
The man, whose name was not immediately available, suffered a shoulder or elbow injury after he fell several feet or a rock hit him while climbing on Sunday, said park spokesman Scott Gediman.
He was expected to be airlifted to a nearby hospital in Modesto, Gediman said.
The man spent the night on the wall after search crews were unable to get to him. The man was discovered around dusk Sunday after some experienced climbers on the valley floor saw the man was in distress and called park officials, Gediman said.
The man was climbing Cathedral Rocks, a popular, advanced climbing area across from El Capitan.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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The route with the rescue was the DNB.
I just posted an updated photo, topo, and beta for the descent, thanks to Clint Cummins on my site at
http://member.newsguy.com/~climbing/Eastbuttressoverview.html
If this alternative gets used over time, folks will want to beef up the anchors. There are a few other alternatives that might be better long term solutions if the gully stays bad, we've gotta scout em out before I spew about them..
PEace
Karl
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Rob
Intermediate climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Thanks for working on that Karl!
Thanks Clint (more excellent work)!
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George
Intermediate climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Saturday June 8th. Climbed EB of Middle Cathedral and used the 'Kat Walk and Penny Pinnacle rappel route' as described by Clint Cummins. After evaluating the Cathedral chimney first hand, it was obvious that the rap route was the correct choice. Cathedral chimney is obviously extremely dangerous with lots ( many thousands of tons )of loose rock above on ledges and in the gully. Nothing appears stable. During the rappel, I heard several large rocks roll down the gully and was happy not to be in it.
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Dan Zimmerlin
Advanced climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Hi,
Below is a posting from a friend of mine who recently did the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral and found the descent wiped out by rockfall leaving it very dangerous.
-DanZ
Hello,
May 25th I climbed the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral with Ron. The
climb was a lot of fun but because the descent had suffered recent
rockfall/landslide(s) and has become pretty dangerous with continuing
rockfall I wanted to give the list a heads up in case anyone had plans to
climb that route this year.
A TR description of the descent just two days after us and even scarier than
our descent can be found here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=ad0kps%24dlu%241%40usenet.Stanford.EDU
In response to some questions about our descent, I posted to the above
Usenet thread and got some good answers, so the whole thread is worth a
read. To read the whole Usenet thread click on "View: Complete Thread" on
the right hand side.
The same close-call but from the other partner's perspective can be found
here:
http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/route.html?r=yomceast
(look for the posts from Mike Rawdon and Rob B dated May 28th near the
bottom of the page).
A note about the rappell bolts in the descent gully: In the gully, there
was only 1 bolt at each of the 3 places we had to rappell. Both of the upper
rappel station's single bolts looked like they had taken rock hits so you've
got single bolts in a condition you know to be compromised: definitely not a
good situation. But Ron said they were still solid enough and every day they
are holding dozens of parties: despite the rock/landfall lots of people are
going down every day. Still if rock keeps falling, as it did Monday, then
they are probably getting hammered regularly. Ron actually found an entire
bolt and hanger with a biner on it - not sure where it came from as I hadn't
noticed a 2nd bolt hole at any rappell ponit but then again I hadn't looked.
My take on both my own descent and especially Clints TR is that this route
is no longer safe to descend via the gully. Most posters agreed that
Rapping the whole thing is not practical. However there were mixed opinions
as to whether going up and over the summit was feasible/worth it in terms of
time and scambling. Read the thread and make your own decision.
hth,
Adam
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Greg Barnes
climber
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To answer Scott about adding rap anchors:
First off, "no way!" to adding rap stations on E Butt MC.
But in general for adding rappel anchors in other places:
The ASCA does not, and will not, assist in the addition of new rappel routes. In CERTAIN cases on routes where fixed anchors exist and have so for long periods of time, we feel it is appropriate to sometimes replace a huge boatload of ugly webbing or slings around deteriorating trees, etc with bolts.
Replacing damaged/missing bolts in the Cathedral gully once it stabilizes is a different matter of course.
Personally, if an appropriate rap route can be found by Karl or Clint or others, I'd applaud its establishment/reinforcement - but the ASCA won't be adding rap routes.
Hope that clarifies things - Greg
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George
Intermediate climber
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As I previously posted, I climbed the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral on June 8th. I brought along a digital camera and took several photos of the gully and the 'Kat Walk and Penny Pinnacle rappel route'. If anyone would like photos, I have emailed them to both Supertopo and Clint Cummins. They will be posted shortly in both places. In the mean time, I can email to anyone who would like to see the gully first hand. Also, I have a photo of the tree for the start of the rappel route to Penny Pinacle from the Kat Walk.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Clint Cummins has a topo for the 'Kat Walk to Penny Pinnacle Rappel Route'. It is better that a stroll through the Cathedral death gully, but needs some improvement at several of the rap stations before I would recommend it for the average climber, high adventure here too. There are 9 rap stations. The topo along with a detailed description of the rappel route is on his web site.
<A HREF='http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/katpen.htm'>http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/katpen.htm</a>
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Here are some photos of the middle Cathedral Gully kindly provided by George Patterson:
<A HREF='http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/gallery.html?r=yomceast&n=2'>http://www.supertopo.com/rockclimbing/gallery.html?r=yomceast&n=2</a>;
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Here's an option for getting down the gully that is probably safer than than surfing the loose stuff and pulling rap lines through it and is easier to find than Penny Pinnacle:
When you get to west edge of the gully before turning right/south to go up to the head of it, there should be a huge tree w/ the trunk growing horizontaly for a ways. If you scoot out the tree like you are riding a horse, you can make and anchor and get some footing on a _very_ exposed somewhat sloping bit of slap to set up your rap.
With TWO 60 meter ropes you can get most of the way down. You may want to tie knots in the end of your rope since you'll be going all the way to the end before you get all the way down and there's not much for them to catch on. (Don't even think about trying it w/ shorter or you'll be lost in space since the rap is pretty much free-hanging to the bottom.) If you stay right under the tree or error on the side of rapping to the south, you'll get down to where you only have abou 20 feet of pretty easy downclimbing (that is still a little scarey b/c everything is so sandy right now.) Since the rap is so steep, there's not much to knock of when you pull the ropes.
This rap avoids both raps in the gully. There is one more creamed rap bolt over a cave just down the gully, but this section is pretty straightforward to down climb. Alternatively, you can scoot belly/foot-first through a hole in the top of the cave for even easier/less exposed down climbing.
Note: There is a smaller vertically growing tree at the top of the gully w/ a red sling on it at the moment. This is NOT the tree that I'm talking about.
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Ken Zemach
Intermediate climber
berkeley, ca
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Feedback on Descent: We did this climb on the 31rst of August. My take on the gully is as follows:
Yes, there are a lot of loose rocks. Yes, if you are not ULTRA careful, you'll knock some down. And even then there's the possibility... We were the only people to climb it, so we were the only ones in the gully: no one above, no one below. Since we stayed next to each other, it was, in my opinion, pretty darn safe. The real danger is if you have gumbies above you, or knock rocks on people below you. THEN it is definitely not safe. If there's another party climbing behind you, you may want to arrange for them not to start down the gully until you yell up to them that you're well away from the bottom of the first rap. And, of course, show the same courtesy to those below you.
We had a 60m rope, and were able to do both of the raps as one pitch (total of 2 raps, not three). One 60m rope BARELY finishes the first rap. WATCH YOUR ENDS!
Any questions, feel free to email me.
Ken
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Steve Ansell
Intermediate climber
berkeley, ca
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We did this route on Sept. 17. The best and longest I have done to date. A fabulous all-day climb!
A couple notes on previous comments and an update on the descent:
1) Linking pitches 1 & 2 will create a lot of rope drag for the leader. However, this provided me with my first leader fall trying to pull the 5.8 roof while fighting the rope.
2) I agree that the last pitch is a bit stiff at 5.4. Never seen a 5.4 where I had to use a finger lock to pull a move; stiff even for this route!
3) We did the descent in the dark and didn't have much problem. Stayed as close to the gully walls as possible. The rap stations were restored and even had fixed ropes on them!
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Just did this climb for the first time after the rockfall, but have done it many times before including ropeless. We did it in 7 pitches with a 70 meter rope (but you have to use sparse pro to make it work)
Yes, there are fixed ropes on the raps and I hope folks don't disturb them since pulling rap ropes given the current conditions would rain rocks down. I wouldn't call the stations "restored" though, they are single bolt stations where the hangers have been bent by rockfall. At least they are reasonable sized bolts.
The gully is loaded with unconsolidated scree and rocks. It's way more dangerous than any climb you did to get there by. Maybe a big winter will fix it up a bit. There are no slings on "Mellisa's tree" FYI.
Peace
Karl
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Rafael De Santiago
Trad climber
San Diego, CA
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We did the East Buttress on March 28. There were only a couple of wet spots which could be easily avoided.
The route is great, very enjoyable. And we were the only party on the route!
The descent was quite a different business because there were still two huge snowfields in the gully.
The bolts for the third rappel are very poorly placed: they're inviting falling rocks to hit them.
It wouldn't be hard to place some bolts in well protected areas and make the descent easier, especially
in winter conditions, or in case of an accident or a rescue operation.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Did the East Buttress yesterday. It still had some wet, seeping, spots (and this was before the afternoon rain).
The descent gully is problematic. When the valley drys out (if it ever dries out), and there are a lot of parties coming down, of all different skill levels in scrambling, this gully is going to be a scary place. Besides the problem of knocking loose big rocks, there were several spots where I felt that I was on the verge of starting a more serious rock slide. I would hate to have an experienced scrambling party above me (let alone one less so).
The gully is pretty much free of snow, but the rap bolts need improving. Or as an alternate to drilling/replacing the rap bolts in the gully, it might make more sense to put in a rap line down the north wall of the gully. This way, instead of having to start at the very top of the gully, climbers could rap into the middle of the gully. There would still be loose sections, but there wouldn’t be as many and the number of potential parties above you (dislodging rocks) would also be fewer.
At the very least, I would recommend rapping Melissa’s tree (see above post), although it does not currently have slings on it. But a new rap route even farther to the east, would, I think, reduce accidents.
The original route (go left after the bolt ladder pitch), is a fun place to practice wide crack skills.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
Roger Breedlove wrote an awesome article on the history of Middle Cathedral that first appeared in the 1976 edition of Mountain Magazine. You can download the article at the following link
http://www.supertopo.com/images/temp/MiddleCathHistory.pdf
WARNING: this PDF file is 3.3MB large and will take a long time to download on a dial up connection
PS: here are some comments from Roger on photos:
On page 25, I cannot remember who is leading on the first pitch of the Bircheff/Willaims route. It might be Kevin Worrall on the first free ascent (with the rope swing). On 26, Rik Reider is jamming and I am belaying on the Central Pillar. On 27 and 29, George Meyers is climbing on the first ascent of Freewheeling. On page 30, the last, it is the first pitch of Freewheeling. I cannot tell if it is George or me. I know that we all lead the pitch on different days and different tries. Ken Wilson was struck by the run outs on Middle and used this long and narrow picture with the rope showing to illustrated it.
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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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I just got this beta from Zander:
We climbed East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Saturday 3/20/04. We had a
great time on the climb.
We also had a blast on the decent. The gully is like something out of
Tolkien. Its also filled with snow and running water. The snow near the top was
fairly hard so we skirted above it , through the falling water, and scrabbled
down the other side until we had to kick step down to the first rappel station
which is a slung chockstone and a bolt. We did one 200ft. rope rappel through
the V slot and over the edge into the dank alcove where the second rappel
station is a bunch of slings around a moss covered chockstone. The water was
falling and running down the rope so we were pretty wet by this time. We rappelled
over another edge into a hole between the rock and snow. A little scrambling
put us back on the snow to continue the rappel to some rocks on the right side.
We put a sling through a couple of big boulders and rappelled again and then
two more times with some scrambling in between, once at some existing slings
and once on some brush. The wind was blowing cold downhill by then. All and
all it was a great adventure in a wild and beautiful place.
Where not covered with snow the gully is loose and very dirty.
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smitty
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Ca
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We did this route in June, and had a wonderful, all-be-it hot, time. I thought this was a really awesome line. The climbing was physical. We freed the bolt ladder (very fun). I don't remember the gully being all that scary. I just remember being tired and having fun conversation on the way down...no epics. The view at the top is worth millions.
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Denali
Trad climber
Pleasant Hill
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We climbed the first 4 pitches of this route on Sat. Aug. 30th 2003 (Labor Day Weekend) and no one else was on the route all day! This is a great route and actually ends up being in the shade most of the day at this time of year. Good protection on each pitch and the rock quality is excellent. We were able to rappel with two 60m ropes from top of 4th pitch to about ten feet from the large pine tree on the first pitch. (Tie a big knot in end of both ropes!). Had to down climb last ten feet to tree. Funny story: We had a bear approach as I was climbing first pitch and had to simul-climb last part to avoid becoming breakfast! Can't wait to do the whole climb.
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malabarista
Trad climber
Pleasant Hill
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Wow, an incredible route! This is the longest free (mostly) route I have done to date...
So many pitches are wonderful but pitches 8
(great crack climbing) and 10 (sustained, sandbagged?) were my favorites. I wish I would have had the guts to free the bolt ladder, I got thru the first three bolts free but then it seemed like the line went right away from the bolts and from there I pulled on draws.
We decided to do the route on the fly and underestimated the time it would take -ended up on the gully descent in the dark by headlamp. The stars were so bright we paused multiple times just to enjoy them.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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I've been down the Cathedral Gully this year. The loose rock situation has improved on the raps although it's still easy to knock rocks down the gully on your partner or the team below while hiking. Folks who have done the penny pinnacle rap route have told me that they wondered whether it wouldn't have just been better to deal with the usual descent.
The first rap is still off one bolt. It's a beefy one but has been hit by rockfall. Pulling the ropes here no longer knocks down tons of rocks and it's possible to stand out of the way at the bottom of the rap if you combine the two raps by using two ropes.
Pulling the ropes on the third rap poses no risk of knocking down rocks.
Except for the possibiltiy of major rockfall from above (kiss your butt goodbye) this descent is now probably a bit better than Sentinel but far worse than it used to be. If there are other parties going down when you're going down, see if you can work it out to stagger your trips down the gully by 30 minutes or so, or go down together carefully
Peace
karl
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ct
climber
WA
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Climbed the route Sat. 4/24/04. Left the car at 7:00, on the route a few after 7:30 with two parties directly behind us. Early start necessary if you want it to yourself. Also saw two more parties on the route in the afternoon. Excellent warm weather, not too hot. The route is in great condition, not wet anywhere. Topped out at 1:30. The trail to the descent gully at the top is marked well with cairns, look for them at all times. The descent gully is in better condition than I expected. Plenty of loose rock from top to bottom, but all of it can be navigated safely and without dislodging anything if you are careful and precise. No snow at the top, two smallish patches of snow towards the bottom of the gully, but plenty of running water in the base of the gulley where the ropes run. Dry rope a definite plus here as the ropes run through wet sections. The top rap achor is one bolt, manky slings. Second rap achor is a soaking wet chock with 15+ slings wrapped around it. The third anchor is two bolts, two slings on each. The problem here is that the hangars have been flattened by the rockfall, and it is extremely difficult to back up or add new slings to the anchor. Definitely a good idea to bring some cord and a few rings to back up all three raps. After the third rap, long slog down the scree to the bottom. Back to the car by 3. Great route, fantastic day.
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