A rock climbing trip in Yosemite has been looong overdue for us. Ever since we started rock climbing, we have heard of the famous Yosemite granite, the tall towers and stunning multi pitch routes and views for miles! We haven’t had the chance to make it a reality till I came across Sierra Mountain Guides website. To be honest, the idea of climbing in Yosemite was both exciting and intimidating. With a guide, I figured it would be an excellent chance to experience a harder climb and not worry about trad leading. One of the trips offered by Sierra Mountain Guides was the 3rd pillar of Mt Dana, a daunting 800+ feet climb between 5.8-5.10c. It was also a unique climb in the sense that you first travel to the top of the route, stash you gear and then hike to the bottom to climb up. Mt Dana technically falls outside Yosemite but very close to the Eastern entrance. To be honest, we thoroughly enjoyed the Tuolumne meadows area and were glad to skip the touristy valley floor. We decided to secure our guide for a private climb. It was only $30 more per person and well worth the exclusive experience. SMG sent us a detailed list of gear that we mostly had. Our guide was super prepared and brought extras with him in case we needed anything. We met at the Mobil gas station in Lee Vining at 5 AM and proceeded to the start of the hike. The hike takes about 2-3 hours to the top of the Mt Dana plateau. Along the way, we hiked along a beautiful creek and arrived to stunning meadows near the plateau top. Once at the top of the Dana Plateau, proceed to the very cliff edge of the plateau overlooking Lee Vining and Mono Lake. The views are breathtaking from here and tons of pic opportunities. We stashed our day packs here and proceeded to the start of the hike down to the base of the 3rd pillar. The path down is unmarked and quite challenging so use extra extra caution. I slipped once and hurt my right hand (not too badly). In any case. Safety should always be a priority. There are several cairns along the way to signal the route down to the base as the trail isn't marked. I strongly recommend that you stop various times on the down hike to assess your location and the next few steps down the path. The path continues to veer right to the base of the arete and finally to the base of the 3rd pillar. Here, you proceed to the base of the climb to get ready to start heading up! Once at the base, gear up to start leading your first of many cracks up the first pitch. Starts with an obvious beautiful flake with a fist size crack ~15 feet. The pitch is a perfect 5.9 with the crux at the very beginning. Once you're past the crack, you have an easy 5.6-5.7 section to the base of the second pitch. The second pitch is a great combination of hand crack, finger crack and off width climbing in one route. Its got some fun off width moves towards the top, almost near the next belay station where you can find decent holds in the off width AND use the face of the off width section. From here, we relaxed quickly and got going on the next pitch of the route. Both the belay stations after the first and the second pitch have ledges - so take the time of kick off those shoes and rest your feet. On the 3rd pitch, we decided to do the 10c variation. I am SO glad we did this because this was my favorite section on the climb. It started off with a thin crack that becomes even thinner as the crack goes up. There are some crimps to hold/ put feet on to keep moving. After the thin section, there are some fun bouldering type moves that get you to the next belay section. We decided to skip the belay and proceed up just below the flake. This was good because we got to conserve our energy for the last, hardest section of the climb. So here, we did two pitches in one. The last pitch is absolutely frigging gnarly but one of the most rewarding climbs. This section, a solid 5.9, is considered to be one of the best 5.9s in the world. I tend to agree with this since the moves were hard but SUPER fun. Frankly I felt it was hard because we had spent the entire first half of the day climbing and were pretty tired by the time we got to this. Still, we tried our best to enjoy every move. Most of the climb was sustained with the crux right through the flake. There is a small foot hold below the flake and really thin cracks through it, so its certainly a mental game. I didn't lead the routes so I can't comment on the gear needed here. However, this is the section you want to keep your smallest nuts for (haha!!). I was flagging hard at the end of this route but we managed to top out and enjoy the feeling of submitting one of our longest multi-pitch climbs. This was a fantastic experience! Special thanks to Sierra Mountain Guide Michael O'Conner for leading us through this route and being the best guide we could have asked for. On the hike down, we were back to high energy and enjoyed the stunning meadows. The craziest part though, we came face to face with a big brown bear!! So, please take your bear spray on this hike! The bear took off as soon as it saw us, but it wasn't more than 20 feet away. What an incredible experience this was. I highly recommend this hike to any and all keen on trying out Yosemite style crack climbing on 800 feet of granite. I also highly recommend Sierra mountain guides as an excellent (and very reasonable) guiding company for this mission. Climb on!
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MahimaNuclear Engineer, Product and Strategy expert, Vegetarian, Adventurer. Categories
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December 2019
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