Trip Report: June 4, 2006
Ed Hartouni & Gary Carpenter

Split Pinnacle, East Arete, 5.8, A1

Well I'm slightly bumming since my camera was apparently not working during this climb... oh, well, y'all will have to do without my snap shots this time (although I seem to be having a lot of trouble actually getting shots these days...).

Split Pinnacle is a 1958 climb FA'd by Chuck Pratt and Krehe Ritter. It is located relatively close to the road by Yosemite Valley approach standards, yet it seems to be obscure, I'd say O1 or O2, it's in the guide book, and there is even a topo, but I don't think it get's done very often. However, the slings we found on the climb were not completely faded.

The approach is up Eagle Creek, and this year it really is up the creek, boulder hopping and trying to stay dry. Split Pinnacle is visible almost immediately on the hike up, it is a cool looking fluke of tan colored rock. As you get closer and the top of the pinnacle rises above the valley rim, you notice a proud pine tree which appears to be like a flag pole, the branches swept as if blown by the wind.

You walk up the creek bed until you can see the toe of the pinnacle, then you walk up, carefully on a lot of loose stuff, but not far, until you are face-to-face with the start of the climb, an obvious crack to chimney feature.

There are trip reports out there, most notably two on rec.climbing one from 1999 by Dingus and another from 1994 by William Wright. There doesn't seem to be much of anything else out there... Dingus' report is rather dramatic, and Wright's seems hard to understand... at least based on Gary's and my trip yesterday.

OK, the first pitch looks like it could be trouble, 5.8 squeeze chimney, but in fact it was rather tame and quite manageable. The first three moves are using a hand crack to get up into a good stance in the beginning of the chimney. You have to be careful because of the slick feet, but it protects well. The major problem we had had to do with the angry ants hanging out in the duff right underneath the start...

Gary had the first pitch as he is the "pro from dover" these days and his hand is recovering from an injury, he wasn't sure what he could lead higher up. It was an nice pitch, Gary radios down from the belay ledge "don't blame me if I got the best lead." Up I went, the crux comes first, the squeeze part, but is short and protects with some big gear. It is easier if you stay close to the edge, right side in, your left hand on grabbing features including a killer crack just beyond the edge of the chimney. A little Pratt heel-toe, and you are above the squeeze and into classic chimney, mostly using your knees and back, but also your feet, and lots of features and even places to get in good psychological pro (some of the flakes are pretty rotten, don't know if the rock would stick together to hold a big whipper). You are heading for a chock stone, which you turn on the inside, now definitely foot-back chimney, but lots of help for the hands. Suddenly you're out on a big ledge with an oak tree. Nice lead by Gary, and a really nice chimney pitch.

My lead is the second pitch, which starts off on some decomposing crystal rock, to another ledge. Steep but protectable with nuts and tying off the vegetation. To a tree, then around right to a weird looking left trending seam that is definitely beat out, people used to put pitons in here, and lots had. This leads to a great looking 2" crack, and has a few awkward moments, but you get about 4 moves in the 2" crack before exiting left, and then another 10' of steep rock with very loose blocks and you are at yet another great ledge. I sat in the middle of an oak tree and belayed Gary up. No ants here... and fantastic views of the Valley across to Pohono Pinnacle and Sentinel Rock.

Gary leads a short traversing pitch to yet another tree, this one with a lot of slings around it. I have the fourth pitch, which is obvious at its start, where does it end? You ascend a set of cracks up an expansive slab, heading for the notch between the "split" in the pinnacle. Getting up the first 10' was delicate, after that it is 5.8 climbing, but the pro possibilities are pretty thin. Once again, people with pitons have been here, so that offers at least some pro placements. And the climbing becomes gradually easier, albeit on rock which is getting dicey. Finally up nearing the notch the rock is rotten granite, big blocks tumbled about one locking the other in place. I couldn't quite decide where to go and suffered rope drag because of it. I added a sling at another rap station and headed up into the notch. Here I sat on a perfect block, the sun was warm, a breeze blowing a cooling wind, a most comfortable stance. Up came Gary.

Well, after consulting the topo it seems I short pitched this and should have been about 15' higher, just under the aid section. Whatever. Gary climbed the last few moves up onto the next ledge, then lead the A1 pitch. Wright's description complained about a long reach to the first piton, but we didn't find anything that fit that description. It is a long reach, but not anything heroic, and certainly not anything requiring additional gear. Gary was on top and I followed quickly.

Nice summit! beautiful views of El Cap east ledges, the Three Brothers the views up and down Eagle Creek canyon were also quite nice. Looking up the creek you could see a lot of boulders high on the slope ready to come down with additional erosion of the lower slopes. It looked like a big accident waiting to happen, but then we couldn't see the true inclination of the slope, so maybe it's all stable. Sure didn't look like it.

Off we go, add a sling to the ones around the tree, through the two aluminum rap rings down to the rap station below, probably 80' as the topo indicates.

Then another rap, maybe 90' to the belay at the base of the fourth pitch. From there, we used two ropes to reach the ground, probably like 150'. Delicate walking on steep duff covered loose unstable dirt got us back to the packs. At this point there were hundreds of mosquitos dreaming of a fine dinner, us. Pack up, and then carefully down the dirt slopes to Eagle Creek, then boulder hopping down to the car, each of us with about 6 pounds of insects buzzing about us. To the car, and then off as quickly as we could be with the windows rolled down and Bernoulli doing the work to rid us our tormenters.

A beer at the "Valley Portal" turnout, and we were off.

This is a really great climb. Roper states: "This route contains much excellent climbing and probably will become popular." He was right on the quality of the climbing, but wrong on predicting the direction of climbing style... for which this climb is decidedly "unpopular." I do not believe that there is a climb in Reid's guide that has both "wide" sections and quality stars, for some reason the current fashion is to avoid anything requiring off-width or chimney technique. Both kinds of climbing are approached with horror by a majority of climbers.

So much the better for us. An obscure climb 30 minutes from the car in a beautiful setting with great pitches at a moderate rating is a wonderful thing. And oddly "Yosemite" in nature, where there is so much other great climbing that much of it can be ignored.

I know most of you won't believe me... I don't care... Split Pinnacle is a great outing.

We carried a set of nuts, and doubles through a #4.5 old Camelots (though the 4 and 4.5 were only used on the first pitch)... and contributed 3 slings to the rap stations along with a couple of rings. Take some light aiders for the A1 (if you do that) a fifi hook is also nice to have as the aid section overhangs. We took a second light rope to rap with, but it looks like you could do the raps with a single long (60m) rope with one more rap then we did added below.