This short OW is mostly moderate, punctuated with a short difficult crux coming out of the pod.

Doggie Do

Doggie Diversions

Rock Bottom

Tweedle Dee

Doggie Deviations

Cid's Embrace

Henley Quits

Good Ol' Boy

Secret Storm

Edge of Night

Cheek

Young and the Restless

The Buttocks

Lancelot

Chopper

This is the obvious chimney/gully system that is just to the left of the "Doggie" climbs. It has a few sections of clean and fun chimney climbing mixed in with some rotten rock and plenty of munge.

The first pitch starts up a nice flared chimney and you get a tight fist crack in the back a short ways up. The rock deteriorates on the upper portion of the pitch. Climb up to a bay tree, by way of a committing OW lieback to the left or a protectable corner to the right. Belay above the tree on your choice of ledge. I went to the highest ledge below the start of a steep chimney where I found rock suitable for a decent gear anchor.

Pitch 2 was the crux I thought, but I could have been off route. A steep, flared chimney is below another tree. The start is somewhat rotten and tricky but you can stem a right foot out into a crack on the face. Once you're in it you can tunnel up a wider section in the back and place some pro (.75" cams or nuts). From here I was trapped by a constriction so I had to wiggle down a few feet and then move to the flared outside of the chimney. This section proved to be one of the hardest 5.8 wide cracks I've done. Once you gain the tree, easier climbing leads to another ledge. There is another chimney system to the right which looks like it might provide an easier alternative and perhaps even be the correct way, I'm not sure.

The 3rd pitch move right from the ledge into another flared chimney, this one a much more mild 5.8 which takes bomber #5 and #4 Camalots for much of the way. A final short handcrack to the right leads to the top.

To descend, scramble to the right along the brushy ledge system and then down to a rap tree. Make one rap down a steep gully. Then make an easy 20ft downclimb in a corner to link up with the descent for The Buttocks. Class 2 leads down to the talus from here.

This is my favorite of the "Doggie" climbs. Chimney up 40 ft to a small ledge and then cast off on the long right-leaning offwidth crack. The climbing is physical and awkward but still manages to be enjoyable thanks to the excellent rock quality and great exposure. There is an occasional knob below the crack for you to stand on and catch your breath. It shares the same tree anchor as Doggie Deviations, which can easily be toproped after leading this one.

The offwidth requires several larger cams if you want to protect it. These are a pain to haul up the short squeeze chimney at the start. The easiest way to do this is scramble to the top of the chimney from the left side (3rd class) and leave the gear on the ledge. Then you're free to solo up the 5.6 chimney unencumbered, pick up your rack at the top, and continue on with the rest of the climb.

Located about 100ft uphill to the right of Doggie Deviations. Start at the thin flake and crack. Looks sort of like Crack-a-GoGo, but much harder.

The crux is about 10ft up and involves a big move to a small finger jam. This would be a much more reasonable lead if there were a couple fixed KB's at the start. As it stands, it's pretty sketchy making such an improbable move with marginal wires protecting against a ground-fall.

After the crux move is a bit more 5.11 fingerlocking in pin scars and bad feet. Then climb up and left to a beautiful hand crack splitter (Bottom Line 10d, takes the groove further left). A 5.10d finger crack bulge with a piton is the last difficult section, then more handjams in a corner lead to a ledge. Be careful as you climb past some perched blocks moving over right to the anchor.

Rappel with two ropes. One 80m might make it.

Above the anchor, a short second pitch leads up the dirty 5.8 corner to a walk-off. We didn't climb it.

A good pitch which is in your face right off the ground.  Fingers, tight hands, hands, liebacks, body language all required at some point.  Crux is low, but the entire first half of the route is sustained at the grade.  A proud send, put up by two collosal figures in Yosemite's golden age, when 5.9 was a whole different concept.

A variation, also 5.9, takes the thin flake right of the crack.  Not sure about quality of pro in this flake.

Getting started may be the hardest part of this climb.  With an awkward move you can wedge your body up into a somewhat chimney move.  The first 60' is a combination of jamming in one of two cracks (effectively hugging the rock) until a small ledge with a tree.  Rap here or continue up another double crack system with a few laybacks and near chimney moves until you come to the true chimney.  A few easier moves and you are at a ledge with two old 1/4" bolts and a large flake to rap from.  Lancelot can also be TR'ed from here.  I may not make it sound too fun, but its certainly a fun deviation.

So very classic.  Work up the first 25' of easy wide climbing to the small ledge beneath the striking, flared squeeze chimney.  After another ~35' the chimney (5.8) will begin to pinch down to take fists, then cupped hands, and finally hands, all the while arching and steepening.  This is a wild and pumpy crux section that does not let up until you turn the flake at the top of the crack.  Pull over the small roof/step on good holds, hold down the pump and gun up a thin crack in a shallow dihedral for the chains.

Either rap with two ropes, or rap on a single rope to the anchors above Cristina (down and climber's left), and rap again from here to the ground.  Run a couple of laps on the beginning lieback section of Cristina for a bonus.

This is located on the bigwall at the back of the Camp 4 amphitheater, not the smaller cragging destination down and left. The approach is straightforward. Hike all the way up to the top of the Camp 4 talus field, mostly following the gully system on the left. There is a very tall tree at the back of the amphitheater, the climb starts about 200ft left of this tree. There is an accurate topo in Erik's bigwall book.

Pitch 1 (5.7) Start in a chimney behind a bay tree and climb easy cracks up the left side of a buttress to reach the "Camp 4 Balcony".

Pitch 2 (5.9 A0) A couple tricky moves are required to get off the deck. Then climb up and left across the slab with a few bolts to reach a grassy corner. One more bolt gets you to a grassy ledge.

Pitch 3 (A2+) Scramble up and left, then start aiding the crack. At a rivet move left into the seam and do a few tricky aid moves. Continue up to a wide flake which can be liebacked. Avoid a very loose block at the top as you step left to the anchor.

Pitch 4 (C1) Rap or lower to the left over a tree and through some bushes. Scramble up to a bolted anchor, climb the corner, then move left to a steep hand/fist crack. Climb the crack, tunnel through an oak tree, and belay at the anchor on the big ramp. A bivy site can be found about 30ft to the left. It's sort of sloping but it's ok for 1 person, uncomfortable for two or three.

Pitch 5 (5.9 C1) Scramble up the ramp, then aid/free the corner until you can transfer into the clean handcrack out right. Aid out the left side of a small roof to reach the anchor.

Pitch 6 (5.7 C1) Aid the crack up and then arch to the left into the main corner. Climb though a couple bulges and then scramble to the top of the "Tower to the 99%".

Pitch 7 (5.8 A2+) Climb the short handcrack, then traverse left to another shelf. Straight off the shelf is some tricky aid, and then continuous arrows, large beaks, and micro cams lead up to a mantle onto a shelf with another anchor.

Pitch 8 (5.8 A2) Continue aid the thin crack to a little roof with weird rock. Make a free move to clip the bolt, then at the second bolt penji left and do a series of mantels to get into a low angle groove. Aid this (having lots of micro cams comes in handy) to an anchor below the overhang.

Pitch 9 (A1/C2+) Aid out the right side of the overhang. One of the steepest, cleanest, and most fun pitches on the route. Some thin flakes in the middle of the pitch is the crux. Belay on a slab up top.

Pitch 10 (5.8 C2) Free climb up past a couple bolts to gain a left trending ramp. Mix of free and aid lead up through a tree, then aid a short overhanging crack to an anchor on a slab.

Pitch 11 (5.7, C2+) A weird pitch with a couple different options. Traverse 25ft left from the belay then climb up easy terrain past an overlap and a couple bolts. The original route goes WAY out left to scramble up some gullies and then cuts back right on a ledge system above the huge overhang. A more direct (but still pretty shitty) option is to clip the 3rd bolt up and right, tension right to some easy terrain leading to a little alcove by a tree. Then aid out the very steep hand/fist crack, followed by tricky aid/free at the top. Scramble up and grapple with a tree to get through one last bulge and a bolted anchor. Super long pitch.

Pitch 12 (5.7R A0) Move the belay to the end of the ledge out right. Traverse right on some exposed terrain until you reach some flakes and features heading up to a massive pine tree. Don't place any pro for this part so you can do it in one pitch. Just before the pine tree traverse back left on some shelves and hummocks. There's some good pro to be found if you look, then climb up past a few bolts and exit out to the left. Belay off a big oak tree at the top.

There are two things that really detract from the quality of this climb:

First is that all the crack systems from bottom to top, with only a few exceptions, are totally filled with grass and bushes. Digging out placements makes the climbing take at least twice as long and there are several parts where you have to resort to aid on what should be easy free climbing terrain, just because it's so dirty. If you've ever wanted to climb an "easy" route up Camp 4 Wall, go do this right now so all the spots I dug out will still be clean. After next spring, it'll all be full of grass again.

Second is the descent. I took the traditional "hike off" to Eagle Peak and then down the Upper Falls Trail, and it was one of the burliest things I've ever done. The bushwhacking is especially horrendous because you're going 'against the grain'. If you go this route, allow yourself at least half a day with the appropriate food and water rations to match. In general, you want to trend to the right (east by northeast). Don't start heading up too soon or you will encounter lots of little cliffs and vertical bushwhacking. Eventually the terrain will easy up and you'll enter into some pine forest with less bushes. Then comes a grueling uphill slog to pick up the trail near the vicinity of Eagle Peak. Then once you're on the trail it's just a casual 6 miles with 3700ft of elevation loss to get back to Camp 4. It's probably much easier to just rap the route.

The "3rd class" scramble is best protected with a rope as the ledge and corner are dirty and loose.

From a tree in the corner above the 3rd class a stunning hand crack  behind a rock flake is gained and climbed over the bulge to a pod. Getting into the pod is the first crux. Offwidth up this, can be strenuous, reaching the upper chimney. This chimney is more difficult than 5.7 and there is a delicate set of moves to get up and over left to the belay bolts.

Camp 4 Wall is known for it's wide and burly cracks, and Edge of Night epitomizes this style of climbing.

Scramble up the 3rd class gully as you would for Secret Storm, but instead of continuing up, traverse left on ledges past the old bolted anchor at the top of Sample the Dog (a short 12a face climb). At the end of this ledge you will find a clean 4" crack in a corner. This is the start of Edge of Night.

Climb the crack past a couple old bolts to a crux section which starts as an offwidth corner until the corner pinches closed to form a tight flared chimney. I found this section to be pretty secure and you can walk a bomber #5 Camalot above your head the whole way, but making upward progress can be sort of thrutchy and tiring. There was a fixed #6 Camalot in the middle of the crux. Above this is an easy chimney to a tight tunnel-through behind a chockstone. Don't place gear way deep in the back of the chimney or it could potentially drag your cams below into the crack (like that #6) Belay ontop of the chockstone.

Pitch 2 is only rated 5.9 but it's tough and the pro isn't quite as solid and easy to place as on the first pitch. Start up the awkward corner until you come to another wedged chockstone. You can maybe tunnel behind the chockstone but I passed it to the right. Lieback the edge of the flake on the outside of the chimney (it's possible to chimney up first to place some pro, then chimney back down to the chockstone). A final jam crack to a weird and difficult mantel, then some easy face climbing, leads up to the rap tree.

From the rap tree, make one double-rope rappel back to the ledge and then scramble off the way you came up.

I linked the two pitches into one long "full value" pitch, but the rope drag was pretty terrible by the top so I don't know if I'd recommend that.

The face next to The Buttocks, ascend shallow features. Two cruxes, one low, one high. Interesting and technical.

This is a well graded seldom climbed crack within walking distance from Camp 4. There is a lot of munge at the beginning and an ice axe is recommended to clean it all out (no joke).  The reward is this excellent crack:

Belay on a terraced, exposed ledge from small cracks (cleaning required).  Climb up through munge on fifth class cracks and over terraces until a large left facing corner system starts (.7)  Tight hand jams take you out an overhanging section of the corner (10c)  Turn the lip of the corner with a #6 friend and follow the ramp to the belay bolts at the top.

Rappel down with two ropes.

A crystally right facing corner is climbed to the chimney. The move into the chimney is the crux. No protection once in the chimney until you get up to the chokestones at the top.

Easy moves up an initial blocky section lead to the long hands to fist/rattly fist crack that makes up the bulk of this route.  Two distinct cruxes in this crack.  From the stance at the top of the crack, a final, unexpected challenge makes you commit to earn the nicely situated anchors 15 ft higher.

Chopper has all the trappings of a classic pitch of Yosemite crack climbing. It's clean, steep, burly, and sustained all the way to the anchors. It will test your hand and fist jamming techniques as well as your lieback and offwidth skills.

Walk a short ways past the "Doggie" climbs and you will see this intimidating flake. The crux comes at the obvious section where the flake overhangs and you must exit a pod and climb through a strenuous undercling to a lieback. Above, a section of stout 5.9 offwidth guards the anchor.

The anchor is a couple of 40-year-old 1/4" bolts backed up by a sling around a constriction in the crack. You can also leave a nut if you don't like the looks of it. This excellent climb (and several others at Camp 4 wall) deserve some new hardware.

We were able to rap with a 60m rope which barely makes it if you swing over to the right. A 70m rope would make top-roping easier.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in 5. Camp 4 Wall