Cathedral Peak, Southeast Buttress 5.6 II

June 18, 2006

"I didn't sign up for hiking ." Alex Millar

 

Cathedral Peak in Toulomne, Yosemite NP California. The Southeast Buttress route ascends the left skyline.

June 2006 found me out in northern California with Al Millar. We didn't have specific plans, but were looking to do something fun in Yosemite. Headed to the Valley with vague thoughts of doing the East Buttress route on El Cap, but the heat and crowds in the Valley changed our minds. Tioga Pass had just opened up, so we headed to Toulomne to look for something fun up there. The Southeast Buttress on Cathedral was too good to pass up.

Woke up in Lee Vining around 8am, and, after catching some World Cup highlights, jumped in the car and headed to the trailhead. The pic above is taken on the drive in.Here's Al on the hike in. It's still pretty snowy up there in June, and we soon found ourselves picking our way through rotten snow on the 6 mile approach. Running shoes didn't seem ideal, but we hadn't planned on doing any real hiking this trip, and postholing sucks regardless of footwear.
   
We chose the right-most variant of the route, avoiding the other parties we saw on the face. I think were roping up by about noon. Al led the first pitch, and we stretched them out, hitting the main ledge on the route at the top of pitch two, and topping out in five, including the short pitch to reach the summit proper from the top of the route.
   
               

Al leading Pitch 3, just below the awkward (with pack) chimney move. The climbing was fun and interesting.. The pic on the left is Al leading pitch 3, which presented an awkward squeeze move with a pack. The pic to the right shows Al topping out on pitch 4.

We carried over and descended past the Eichorn Pinnacle, down some steep slabs, aiming to hit the Muir trail on the west side of the peak. Not the best decision - we figured the trail would be 1) obvious and 2) packed down, eliminating the postholing we'd done on the way up. However, it was neither, and we postholed like drunken sailors most of the way back to the trailhead. Bummer.

Superb climb. Highly recommended!