Ascents in Sierra Nevada by Paul Frothy Thomson

A toughie, as the climb keeps getting harder and harder, with crux being the last 5m until the jug above the anchors. Varied face, steep flake, and steep thin finale to keep you working. Perhaps a bit close to the two neighbouring lines. The ancient brackets are a bit disconcerting.

Onsighting all the crux (graded) pitches on The Rostrum felt like I passed my final Yosemite test. Sure, we didnt top out (we stopped below the upper offwidth, due to it raining the entire climb, my 2nd struggling to follow, and me getting tired from leading (and onsighting) every pitch) but it was an amazing battle in atrocious conditions. Every pitch on this feels hard at the grade (even by Yosemite sandbag-standards) but they are all immaculate and demanding. Best free route in Valley.

Linked into Genghis Khan for a giant 45m pitch. Awesome opening through the steep, awkward dihedral, and a pumpy finale through a huge bulge and up much steep blankness above. Combined as a giant pitch this earns Classic in my book.

Linked into Tiananmen Square for a long megapitch. Very sustained climbing with a burly dihedral, followed by much insecure intriguing technicality. I totally rate this!

What an amazing last climb in Owens River Gorge... On the precipice of darkness, with snow blowing around and proper arctic conditions, and I decide to get on the rarely climbed thin arete/face directly over the river (you belay off a small plank of wood bolted to the wall, after traversing on other planks above the waterline to get there) where a fall at the 1st 3 bolts will put you in the river... a desperately cold insecure techy battle up a proud unchalked line, out of sight of my belayer.

Took every trick I had to onsight this sustained vertical number. Working granite microflakes with friction-slab style footers, laybacks, iron-cross moves, and hand-foot matching all the way to the anchors. Amazing and improbable climbing for granite.

Amazing climb of two halves. Thin technical face climbing on the lower half, to a no-hands rest. Then steep pumping with just enough technical moves to add spice in the form of flash-pump desperation.

Linked both pitches as a giant 40m single pitch... quite the warmup. The bottom pitch is okay climbing, but with lots of loose rock... But the upper steep stemming corner is tonnes of technical fun. Worth putting up with P1 for that.

A bloody intense start up the steep, slippery seam crack. Super thin and technical... even clipping is desperate. Once you get into the corner proper the difficulty eases considerably... but its still tonnes of fun.

Wandery, but varied and interesting. The trad-corner start is awkward but funky, the traverse and the arete are technical, and the remainder is consistent friction slabbing... but annoying to clean.

Really varied crack climbing with a reachy sporty crux move right at the end. Didnt feel too hard for the grade.

Pretty good. Not too bad (but fun) for the most part, then it turns desperate when you have to turn the rooflet and continue upwards via sidepulls. We finished up the Peking Peril extension for a 35m pitch.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Super technical, with heaps of hold-options (all of them a bit baffling) and a prolonged join-the-dots puzzle to solve for the Onsight. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Burly fingercrack start on glassy footers, followed by easier thin-hands up a vague corner crack. Short and sweet, but not very sustained.

A worthy extension. Fun steep corner climbing, then burly moves to turn the roof and gain the slab.

Pretty cool, but the ridiculous runout (with quite techy climbing) to the 1st bolt seems strange. One hard sequence, surrounded by easier fun climbing.

Linked the lower (crux) section of this into the upper (crux) section of Trough of Justice, avoiding the doddly bits of both routes. I found the climbing and crux of this route perhaps a touch soft compared to other valley routes, but thoroughly enjoyable friction slab climbing on big slopers, and appropriately bolted.

Linked the lower (crux) section of Knuckleheads into the upper (crux) section of this climb, avoiding the doddly bits of both routes. I found the climbing and crux on this to be extremely balancy (almost hands-free), and more in line with other Valley 5.10b's, but the bolting means you do the crux above a runout and an unclean fall, somewhat ruining the experience.

A very hard start (relative to the rest of the climb - though probably easier than many yosemite 5.10b's), followed by easy fun knob-jugging up a hanging block. If you get to the 3rd bolt, its all cruisy to the end, but heaps of juggy fun. A good warmup.

Mostly easy-ish (but great) crack climbing with a gnarly short crux near the top. Definately worth a lap.

Sure, this is only about 10m high, but its also ALLl trad on a 30 degree overhang for 10m. I was on this for a surprising amount of time as I struggled to whipe dirt and moss off the mantle topout before committing. Very juggy, but bloody steep and pumpy.

Awesome sustained steep-ish pulling with an interesting move in the middle. Great warmup.

Okay, but a bit loose and doesnt really add any value to Darshan. Not recommended.

Stayed on the true (contrived) line for the full tick. Thin, insecure, techy friction slabbing. It was raining before I jumped on this... in a 10-second break from the rain I started up it, and it rained again. I spent most of the climb trying to dry crucial footers (and my shoes) with chalk. Linked into the 5.10a righthand neighbour from its last bolt up (with no gear) for a more sustained finish.

Exciting in the sweaty sun. Very runout, but not consistantly dangerous... except at the 2nd bolt where you'll hit the ground from 6m up if you come off the crux friction slab moves. Not so bad if the draw is on the 2nd bolt.

Witb Stephen. P1 only. Linked into P3 of Serenity Crack for a megapitch, because there were 5 bumblies on the rap cluster-f@#king the belay, and I didnt feel like dealing with them. An okay pitch with a few cool moves (and surprisingly little gear).

Ended up on this by mistake (was aiming for The Surprise), and after realising our mistake we decided just to keep going. The first pitch of this climb (P2, total) had 1 bolt and 3 bits of dubious gear in 30m on some of the most fragile, defoliating, rubbish rock friction slab ive seen in Yosemite. After starting up P2 and finding that the only bolt on the pitch was broken (literally, the hanger had rusted and cracked open, no longer forming a complete loop) I backed off and climbed elsewhere.

The opposite of venom. This extension is all about thin slab climbing and body position. Cool moves to gain the super-slabby slab at the top.

Not too sure why this gets an R-rating compared to other stuff i've done here... sure, its 7m to the first bit of gear, but its easy. And the crux has spaced fiddly gear on thin slab, but there gear IS there. An enjoyable, featured gear route.

Onsight pitches 1 and 3, didnt climb P2 (tried a variant 5.10a +R out right). P1 and P3 are classic crack climbing pitches with a wide variety of moves on perfect rock. The moves through the roof are committing and tricky at the grade. A brilliant moderate trad lead for anyone new to the grade.

Cant quite claim the onsight because I did see a crucial high-steep footer-beta before I got on it. A few hard techy crimp moves to start, then sustained 5.10c/d face climbing. Okay for a fast tick.

Basically the same as All Nighter... but with a few metres of powerful steep sloper traversing to make the highball crux on All Nighter even more exciting.

Cool! Considering the huge gallery of climbers working this problem, it was pretty cool just to walk up and flash it... but it totally suited me. Slightly steep face climbing on thin, spaced crimps and shallow pockets. Fun.

Felt 5.11b/c (V1ish?) to me. Bomber ringlocks on a slightly steep face and through a bulge on a highball boulder above a hideous landing (and I had no spotter!)... Like I was ever gonna fall! Did 2 x laps in the rain for a laugh.

Awesome steep thugging, with the powerful crux move at a height where you dont want to fall off. A great highball.

An extremely powerful start on good flakes and edges leads to a worryingly tenuous topout. Great bouldering.

Okay... but I think the original (direct) finish is better. A few balancy moves, but not as memorable as its neighbour to the left.

With the hardest moves at the very top of this highball, I was too scared to fall. Steep and juggy start leads to very thin face climbing topout with blind holds. Fun and scary.

Similar to Classique, but slightly steep, thinner and more technical.

A steep endurance route with a moderately high finish. Fun thuggy jugging.

Short and powerful fingerlocking. Fun.

Awesome. Steep juggy climbing up a proud arete/prow feature with an intimidating topout. Just fun!

Hard for 2 moves off the ground, then easy. Okay, but not on par with other slabs on this boulder

Very high and very thin. Micro-crimping up a high highball with some technical footwork.

Short, powerful and polished. Load up into the underclings and trust the polished smears.

Pretty burly for a few moves, then easier.

A few hard crack moves to get off the ground, then a cruise to the tall finale up the arete.

Okay slabbing, but hard to avoid ending up on the routes to either side.

A "dont fall" type of highball. More fun and committing than Cross Roads, with a few real moves on it.

Funky highball face climbing on good (but weird) pockets.

Bloody oath... hard and committing for a V0+... but really cool.

An exciting, easy highball slab. Not hard enough to get you warm, but fun.

A 37 foot (12m) 5.9 slab boulder is basically just a free solo. A stunning and surprisingly easy (V0-) super-high slab climb up the exposed arete of the grandma peabody boulder (the 2nd largest major boulder in the buttermilks?). Probably 5 7 from 1/2 height, but with some rather scary crucial smear-footers. Brilliant!

An entertaining low-ball roof traverse with a tricky mantle

Probably more like V1... classic face and seam-crack climbing with an excitingly high finale.

A truly HIGH highball. Very thin friction slabbing going well into the Do Not Fall zone, with some very smeary feet in the upper third. Gripping!

Surprisingly steep (though easy) start leads to a rather scary friction slab finale on this proper high highball. Great climbing on immaculate rock on one of Bishop's tallest boulders.

Awesome and improbable. Steep/roofy jugs with a committing topout... So good I climbed it twice.

4 laps in the dark with a headlamp. Unique low-angle slabbing standing on tiny individual crystals (an nothing else)... a bit intimidating until you learn to trust each crystal.