This is not the first Roseanne TR on Supertopo. I thought it was going to be, but then I did a search and discovered an excellent mini-TR by Russ Walling in the Mike Waugh appreciation thread. It's spot-on.
Russ Walling's Roseanne mini-TR
That TR can't be improved upon but, nevertheless, here are a few more pictures and comments on the route.
Last week my friend Eric and I met up in Tuolumne Meadows and hung out at the campsite talking about route possibilities, looking for something neither of us had climbed yet. "Roseanne" came up, and the next morning found us on our way to Fairview Dome where after a bit of minor searching we arrived at the base of the route. My version of the route topo:
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It was still in the shade and we opted to start from the top of the 'first' (5.3) pitch, which wasn't hard to scramble up especially considering that snow still covered half of it!
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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The first pitch was a good attention-focusing warmup lead and here's Eric coming up afterwards:
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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Meanwhile at the anchor I eventually relaxed enough to look around and discover that I skipped one of the bolts. (Somehow I forgot the topo showed 3, not 2, bolts on the first pitch.) Oh well, why clip a bolt when you can place marginal gear underneath a loose flake?
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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Eric led the 2nd pitch and here he is coolly making his way towards the right-facing corner, just after clipping the 2nd bolt on that pitch.
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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The Earth steadily revolved on its axis and the sun's rays swept across Fairview Dome.
The good news: Sunlight enhances all the little features and knobs on the rock surface and makes it look less scary.
The bad news: Sunlight reflects off of the slick glassiness of the rock surface and makes it look more terrifying.
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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I was back on lead for the 3rd pitch. The first bolt was not TOO far out but I felt better girth-hitching a sling around a miniature knob anyway that Eric said later never would've held. (Details, details...) After the bolt, though, there was nothing to be seen for a loonnnnggggggg ways up. Anywhere. Nada. I wandered back and forth looking for tiny hope-giving knobs and making my way slowly towards a sloping seam where I was elated to place not one but TWO small cams. WHOO-HOO!
Still no 'next bolt' in sight, even though there was one clearly marked on the topo. (I double-checked. It's on page 151.) The unrelenting search-and-find tiny-knob ordeal continued until finally I spotted a rusty old bolt. SELL MY CLOTHES I'M GOIN' TO HEAVEN! After that it was (somewhat) easier ground past a series of sloping ledges to the (much newer) anchor bolts.
Here's the view down from the 3rd belay. (For some reason this picture reminded me of an old SNL sketch...)
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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Looking at the roof above it was hard to believe it was "only 5.3". Maybe there was a topo typo and it should say "5.13" instead? I had to find out, and managed to talk Eric into letting me lead the last pitch. Amazingly enough, that huge, imposing roof actually IS relatively easy. If anything, the crux of the pitch is probably the face section just getting up to it.
Looking down from the ramp that forms the roof:
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 Credit: Trad Muenter |
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What a great route! Roseanne is excellent. But runout.
