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 We climbed the middle rib, more or less along the sun-shade boundary in this picture. Credit: bradL |
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 This is what we climbed. Credit: bradL |
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Did we even climb "Section 20"? I'm not sure. It seems plausible, though.
Approach
We followed Carville's approach beta by hiking up the creek bed from 90 Foot Wall. It turns out that this wasn't necessary. When there isn't any water in the creek, you can just follow the Eagle Lake Trail until the section of large granite slabs. At this point, identify Eagle Point Buttress to the North and b-line for the obvious tallus field beneath the buttress toe.
Section 20 is to the left of the buttress toe, not to the right as Carville claims. The climb starts underneath a prominent triangle of white rock that is about 20 feet tall.
The Climb
Pitch by pitch:
1. and 2. Climb a face broken with lots of cracks and small ledges. Gain a ridge. Try to avoid manzanita. This wont always be possible. Options for harder and easier climbing.
3. Fun 5.7 offwidth to the right of a tall Jeffrey Pine tree with few branches. You could probably avoid this to the left, but why would you?
4. The real climbing begins. There was a runout face to the left that we avoided. This looked like lots of fun, though. Instead, we stayed left toward a system of parallel cracks that we saw from the base. This section ended up being the crux with a 4" crack that felt like 5.9. Easy 5th class above lead to an anchor.
5. Last pitch was low 5th class, with a memorable topout that involved a 5.6 lieback handcrack.
From here, you can scramble 3rd class (with fun 5th class options) to the top of Eagle Point. We didn't summit because we got lost in the pinnacles that surround the true summit.
The descent
The descent has been described using lots of colorful language but we didn't find it to be that bad. We walked off due West, and then wrapped around to the South, towards Maggie's Peak. We eventually met the Eagle Lake Trail and were back at the car, from the summit, in about an hour.
