South Side of the Sky

This wild and steep route goes up the center of the highly featured south face, crossing the

Mere Wall

route near its middle. The route name was inspired by an old Yes song. It can be done as two pitches (described below) or one nice, long 145-foot pitch.

Start at the vertical, pebbly face behind a tree. Head up easy terrain to the high first bolt about 25 feet up. Blast up the steep face through the pitch 1 crux moves past bolts 2 and 3. Some interesting pockets, pebbles, and features lead up and left to the first pitch rap anchor. However, if doing this in two pitches, a better belay spot is 10 feet above this rap anchor at a natural stance that requires gear. In this event, bring 1/2-inch to 1.5-inch gear (we used a red and green Alien and a red (#1) Camalot) for the belay.

The second pitch crosses the

Mere Wall

route about 10 feet above the first pitch rap anchor, then like the first pitch, it heads straight up before eventually trending left to a notable pillar feature. This steep pillar feature on dark rock is the crux, with thuggy 5.11+ moves past the last two bolts.  Lots of juggy holds throughout the route, have fun.

The best approach is to take the standard climbing access trail that forks off near the Mallory Cave. Follow this trail up past the Red Devil and the Box, then go left (south) at the top. Stay right of the cave/boulder, heading down a gully just west of the Finger maybe 50 yards. At the

Monodoigt

and

Thinner

routes, head east up the short gully, then scramble down a steep 4th Class gully to the base of the south face. Start at the very bottom of the south face, about 15 feet left (west) of the massive boulder.

Rappel or lower back down to the base, then reverse the approach out.

7 quickdraws for bolts on the first pitch, and 6 draws for the second pitch. A single hand-sized piece (#1 or #2 Camalot) is recommended to protect a 5.10- section between bolts 3 and 4 of the second pitch. the There are two-bolt rap anchors at the tops of both pitch 1 and 2, and a 70-meter rope enables a rappel to the ground from the top anchor. If using a 60-meter rope, two raps will get you down.  If leading in one long pitch, don't forget to bring an extra draw to clip the midway anchor, and plan on some longer draws or a sling or two to minimize rope drag.  An 80-meter rope would enable a lower off to the ground from the top anchor.