Routes in Mariuolumne Area

On the Lamb, 700’, 5.9

1st Pitch- 80m- 5th/ We soloed this pitch and most climbing this route will be comfortable with that. I solo this grade a lot but still appreciated having my climbing shoes on versus trail runners. This corner is plenty steep on a bit of flaky granite. Some summit logs go on about a “cave”, “trees vs bushes”, etc. It is actually really simple. Climb the corner to its top, traverse right onto a nice ledge and set up a belay for the first pitch. You can’t see the horizontal crack that makes up the majority of the route until you turn the west face. There is not much of a north face, you pretty much turn from east to west crossing the first arête to the west on the third pitch.

2nd Pitch- 30m- 5.5/ Traverse straight out right over run-out slab and up a short distance to reach a right facing corner. Don’t climb this first corner. Down climb a bit and keep traversing to a much cleaner and smaller right facing corner with a variety of comfortable belays to choose from.

3rd Pitch- 30m- 5.8/ Climb the corner above to meet the horizontal feature that makes up the majority of this climb. Climb right over one arête (can be windy) and continue along to a small gear belay with a comfortable stance or a few more meters and down climb to a fixed belay.

4th Pitch- 60m- 5.9/ Continue on the traverse. When you get to another blunt arête and check out the other side, you will see the crux 40’ hand rail section with blank slab below it. Place a solid .75" at the arête and keep your arms straight to avoid pumping yourself out for no reason as some do on this section as you hand-over-hand the rail to the next foot rest. If your 2nd has limited experience, you might want to plug a piece or two along the way, but you will be hanging by one hand as you do it unless you aid it. A competent second can plug gear back in that they cleaned if they need a rest. Once you get through this crux, the climbing is still enjoyable for a bit. When it starts to really ease up, look for a short left facing corner and bolt above. This is the first pitch of Jailbreak. Set up a medium gear belay in the base of the corner with a comfortable stance.

5th Pitch- 20m- 5th/ If you are not finishing on Jailbreak to the summit, which is what I recommend you do, then finish off the horizontal to the western shoulder of Lamb Dome and walk off.

Great face climbing on wonderful knobs and flakes that turns into low grade slab at the top.

Bolted at the bottom. A small rack is needed to reduce the runouts and increase safety.

You'll also need #1-#3 pro for a belay anchor on the ledge.

Great face climb just to the right of Black Nepalese. Wonderful knobs, flakes, and crimps await you on this one.

Bring a rack of .5-#1 cams and a set of stoppers to protect the top section or you'll be in ground fall territory.

#1-#3 cams are needed for a belay anchor as well.

A bolted face leading into a roof crack and headwall climbed on gear.

4 pitches up the major left facing corner towards the right hand end of the wall. The crux 3rd pitch is exciting, but exceptionally runout face climbing on patina chicken heads just left of the corner. While not difficult, the runout is serious (25m) with no real pro to speak off after a bolt just out from the belay (some of the chicken heads can be slung, but it is exceptionally unlikely that they'd hold a fall).