One of the best climbs in the Sierra that sees relatively few ascents each year is right there in plain sight, visible from the Glacier Point road. Some consider it a Sierra classic. Others have just heard rumors about it.

Did you ever want to take that day off from climbing with the crowds in Yosemite or the Meadows? Or maybe you've done the classics many times and just want an enjoyable outing on some decent rock in a remote place. Or you've been looking for a new moderate multi-pitch trad climb. How about a dome climb with awesome views of the South Face of Half Dome and an overnight bivouac on a ridge with a view of the top of Yosemite Falls?

To properly introduce at least my climbing trips to Starr King, I have to start with Snake Dike.

From 1975 to 1981 Snake Dike became the annual Memorial Day trip. We'd hike up the Mist Trail; stop at the top of Vernal falls, hop over the railing, and crawl down through the narrow tunnel that leads out to the edge of the falls; hike past the lake at the base of Half Dome, filling up with water on the way; and hump it up to our dry camp on the north side of Mt. Broderick. There's a huge terrace with stunning views of Little Yosemite and the South Face of Half Dome. Hauling a day and a half's worth of water up the last few hundred yards to the terrace was brutal. The next day we'd climb Snake Dike and a few times we spent the night camping on top of Half Dome when it was still legal. In 1975 the cables still weren't up on Memorial Day. It was fun going down that time; certainly no drama. In the early 80's the climb started to get a little too crowded, and some numbskull painted, yes painted, some graffiti on the granite slab near the bivouac area. This really put a damper on our enthusiasm for a formerly pristine favorite camping spot. We'd been looking over at Starr King from Snake Dike for all those years, so we thought, hey, let's check it out next year. Also, we wanted to try something new.

There was always too much snow on Starr King on Memorial Day, so it became the annual 4th of July Trip. Roper's Climber's Guide to Yosemite Valley listed a few climbs on Starr King that sounded interesting. So Jan, Wayne, and I took off from the Valley with camping and climbing gear over the Fourth of July weekend in 1982. A grueling approach up the Mist Trail (with the obligatory stop in the tunnel) and out towards Mt. Clark brought us to a point on the trail below a dome which is at the bottom end of a narrow ridge below Starr King.


From the trail you walk through an open meadow shaded by some large pine trees. Then it's into intermittent brush and sandy soil. We were able to wind our way through open terrain for a while, past a free-standing landmark granite rock that we dubbed "Little Matterhorn". From the LM you bear slightly left to the slabs at the left side of the drainage, follow along on the slab edge for a while, then put together kind of a trail (bushwacking required) across the drainage and up the other side to the top of the ridge.


With a full pack, it can take about an hour from the trail. You end up on an incredible ridge with an awesome view of Starr King. This is the good news. There are two good tent sites. The one closer to the dome by the tree is better since it has at least some sand underneath it. Other than that, it's pretty hard to find anywhere flat on sand. There are plenty of places to roll out a bag on exposed granite.


But there is no water, and there can be some or many bugs, depending upon the time of year and that year's snow conditions. Most of the times we noticed some bugs. A couple of times it was more pleasant to get away from the bugs after dinner by going to the top of the dome by the campsite. The views from there are sublime.

The top of the dome can be seen in the following picture taken of the campsite from near the top of Starr King. If you imagine that the ridge and dome are the head of an animal (note the depression for a left eye and the main face being a forehead and nose), the campsite is at the big tree (on the back of the neck) closest to the top of the dome.


Although the camp is dry, not to worry. You can go up the ridge a little bit and then traverse into the drainage to get water from an intermittent stream that has been running all eight 4th of July's that I've been there. Depending on snow, the stream could be running well into August. There's usually enough water to take some kind of a dip.

We came back one year to find someone had thoughtlessly had a fire on the ridge and didn't get rid of the fire ring and blackened some of the rocks. Not cool. Please, if you camp here, don't leave a trace.

The first year (1982) we ended up doing a reconnaissance and climbed one of the east side routes. Can't remember whether it was the official 5.9 listed in Roper's guide. But the views were outstanding and the climbing was clean and fun.


The views from the top are a stunning panorama from Yosemite Falls to Tuolumne to Mt Clark, the Clark Range, and Red Peak in southern Yosemite.


Getting off of Starr King is no drama. You walk down a ways towards the saddle between Starr King and the dome next to it, and then belay a fourth-class down-climb for one pitch to a huge block on a huge ledge. There was usually some very manky old rope around the rock that you could attach rappel ropes to. If you want to replace the old rope, bring bolts or at least a good 20 foot section of rope to replace the old one. You may need more than this. Can't really remember. The first pitch on the regular route of Starr King from the saddle is mainly 5.4 friction. With two 50m ropes you can rap almost the whole thing. You can also down-climb this pitch pretty easily. Even if you only have one rope, the last one down can have a top-rope for half the pitch until he/she gets to easy enough, not very exposed down-climbing where you really don't need a rope.

We came back in 1983 with more friends and repeated the east side route. Then we focused on the West Face route. After an early start and bushwacking, we made it to the base of Starr King. The route starts to the left of the largest trees on the face. The first pitch goes up past a bolt with a bit of (not-too) runout 5.7 - 5.8 face climbing to a shallow corner. Several guides say that the bolt is a "belay bolt". It wouldn't be safe belaying off of one bolt. Also, at that point, you have plenty of rope left to make it across the face climbing.


The next pitch and a half wanders up some small dihedrals. The last half of the third pitch wanders up left across some face climbing to a good ledge with a bomber anchor. The ledge is around 20 feet below the right edge of the undercling pitch. We noticed a bolt out to the left of the belay and decided to do a face climbing variation to this pitch which leads to the other side of the undercling pitch. The anchor for the fourth pitch is just above the roof. Bob took manned flight for about 15 feet after greasing off the crux move of the 5.9 variation in his EB's. He surged back up the regular route and made it. This pitch is like a reverse-direction 5.8 version of the second (5.10a traverse) pitch on the Sting in Tuolumne. There's a really nice belay ledge just over the roof (at the far side of the undercling) at the base of the dihedrals.


The fifth pitch is some very enjoyable 5.5 - 5.8? dihedral climbing. Here's a couple of shots of climbing the Upper Dihedrals.


The last climbing pitch (could be your sixth) involves traversing up and right until you can walk the rest of the way. At least, that's the way we've always done it. This section is a bit runout on C2 or C3? pro at 5.7R - 5.8R. If the view from here doesn't pique your interest to climb this route, probably nothing will.


A couple of notes: Someone needs to replace the two bolts on this route because they looked old in the 80's. Your number of pitches may vary. We tended to do the route in 6 pitches. It's not clear that this route as described here is the same as the West Face route that is described in the guide books. Certainly the first few pitches are the same, but it's a little hard to tell whether the upper half which includes the undercling pitch is the same. Doing the face climbing past the upper bolt to bypass the undercling is definitely a variation.

In 1984 we couldn't get a permit to hike in from the Valley and had to start at Mono Meadows. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a much easier way to get there, and we used it on every subsequent trip. You go down to the creek, cross it, hike to the trail junction, hike on the trail to Panorama Point for a ways , then cross-country to the other trail that leads from Panorama Point to the Clark Range. If you take off from the trail in the right place, you should end up pretty close to the base of the dome and on the trail that leads to the Clark Range. How to get from here to the campsite was described earlier. In 1996, the year after the fire, we decided to traverse around the other side (the Clark side) of the dome. It wasn't any easier than the regular way (up the drainage to the north and west of the dome). And this was just after a fire had taken out most of the big brush. It's probably all grown back by now.

This time we were intent on making it up the West Face the hard way, and we had a new weapon: sticky shoes (Fires'). So instead of going over the arm bar undercling, we went right up the face climbing. It's a really fun way to do the pitch if you like Tuolumne-style face climbing. Looking down, we could see that this bolt was part of another direct route. See other comments in this thread describing this West Face route.


In 1986 we came back again on 4th of July weekend, and put up what we thought was a new route on the south flank of Starr King. It starts just left of a major roof. One bolt was placed. It was kind runout, but pretty easy lower fifth class climbing. We also did the West Face.

The last two trips up the West Face were memorable for different reasons. In 1996 Vic and I did a car-to-car trip, with me at the tender age of 47. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal for that age, but I'm not in the best cardio shape in the world since my knees and hips are trashed and I can't run. We left around 6AM and made it back by moonlight at 9PM. It's a long way. Also, the views are so great that you just want to hang out, even though it's a long way back to the car. Note that when you are tired later in the day, it's easy to get a little disoriented going cross country between the trails on the way back.

In 1998 I convinced Dave to do the West Face. I kidded him a lot about the huge creek we had to cross on the way in. Out of the five previous trips at the same time of year, there was only once when it would have been life-threatening to wade the creek. Fortunately, that year there was a bridge of logs across the creek. The other times, we waded the creek up to mid-thigh, at the highest. So as we are approaching the creek this time, we can hear it from a ways away. Not good. We get there and the damn thing looks like it's 100 yards wide. Dave makes a comment like, "you didn't tell me that the creek was Illouette Creek!" Based on past experience, I didn't think it was going to be any drama. Not!

There were several sections of a very wide creek that were over our heads. We were looking at a long detour to go over the bridge at Illouette Falls. We searched up river and found a monster tree that had fallen over almost the entire width of the creek. So up we go. As we get closer to the top of the tree, things become more precarious. The tree is swaying, and the branches that we're balancing with are moving side to side. And the tree doesn't make it all the way across. Only one thing to do: jump. Wet feet, but not too bad. It was especially entertaining climbing back onto the tree on the way back with packs on while standing in thigh-deep water, trying to balance on the swaying top of the tree. Anyway, it was well worth it for the usual incredible views and climb. There are undoubtedly some other beautiful route possibilities on the West Face, including the bolted route that we never climbed. See the Comments section below for info on more routes.


And finally, a topo (the line shown is approximate)