Haven't been climbing in a while with all of this snow, but the season has started so here's something to hopefully get you stoked!

I can't think of words at the moment so here's a rundown in picture form, feel free to ask questions that the pics don't answer.

The Ascent

Meet Castle Rocks, as most people see them from Moro Rock or the General's Highway. The legendary spire, beautiful fin, and mysterious back towers.

Now meet the lesser-seen east face of the Fin, from the High Sierra Trail. 1,000 feet of (allegedly) unclimbed stone. Our objective.

Out we go to the most sweetestest campsite of all campsites on top of the Fin via the upper approach.

Rippidy rapping the old bolts of Silver Lining on the west face.

Stroll around the north end, past the North Buttress route by Dave Nettle, Richard (Dick) Leversee and Kevin Daniels. Note: to find a first ascent you generally have to walk PAST a route by these guys.

Easy decision.

Easy, breezy, beautiful!

Cutting Edge: 5.9 fun and we didn't even need the dumb, heavy bolt kit on The Fin!

Funny that the only signature in the summit register that I placed in 2013 was from Vitaliy and rfshore's ascent of Siver lining a few weeks ago.

The Nonsense
Meet the back towers (N->S The Keep, The little Spire, South Guard, The Ax and Amphitheater Dome)
Looks like a fun idea to traverse all of them on our way home with our full packs of climbing and backpacking gear, right? *fart noise*

Vitaliy says bye bye, camp.

"downclimb over here, don't worry, the holds are big." -Vitaliy

One high point down, yay!

Now what?

Probably time to rope up.

Chimney with packs :(

Little Spire doesn't seem too busy.

Rappin' some Nettle/Thau bolts.

"This way goes, we don't need the rope." -Vitaliy

Ok, now it's time to rap.

Well that doesn't look fun with big packs, let's go around.

We made it!

And another.

And another!?

Finally, the last one!

Well that took way the crap longer than expected. Not sure how 5 high points turned into roughly 150!?

*Note to future traversers, bring more than 0.5 liters of water per person and don't bring two giant packs. Also, it's freakin' sweet to tag all of those summits!

The Descent (OT)
Figured I'd throw this in since it rounded out my title.

Meet Jeff, splitboarding is his life in the mountains and he has snowboarded 45 consecutive months. He has been eyeing a line for 8 years that he has never seen filled in and in good conditions. Supposedly a skier hiked the bottom half but it has not had a full descent. Each time I go out with Jeff it is scary.

To get to the line we had to ride Emerald Express near Pear Lake.

I am a park rat, but I survived and we headed towards the main objective.

#kickingbootsfortheboys

Scraping knees at 50 degrees.

Happy to survive my first ever first descent! Well, he thought it was and he's the expert. I was just along for the ride, get it!? Aster Express Couloir.

Hope you enjoyed, your turn!