Big Sleep- Afternoon Nap: 5.7
Sierra Nevada– Rock Climbing
Total Time: 6:40
Distance: 2.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 1580′
Crux: 5.7
Pitches: 5
Protection: Up to 5 bolts per pitch, cams but to BD #3, many slings for knobs. All bolted anchors.
Trailhead: Big Sleep climbing area, no services
Companion: Holly
Since moving to Coarsegold, the Shuteye Ridge climbing area has become the closest Craig to my house. The entire area is actually composed of two separate summits with dozens of domes and individual crags making up several hundred climbing routes ranging from single pitch sport and top rope to multi pitch adventures. Some of the best multipitch outings in the Shuteye area is on the Big Sleep crag, home to several five pitch moderate climbs, the easiest being Afternoon Nap. The rope stretching climb has five 60 m pitches with bolted belays, ascending smooth friction slabs over several small steps to a series of runnels and chicken heads higher up on the dome. It was by far the highest rated multi pitch climb within my abilities at the crag and I was excited to give it a try this this summer. Although Shuteye Peak was within view from home, the long miles of dirt road still took one and a half hours to reach. Thanks to early start, we still beat several climbing teams that were camped at the trail head, although they would be behind us in line once we started up. The approach to the base of Big Sleep is painless by Shuteye Peak standards, with a well cairned use trail switching up through the forest, steeply at times, to the base of the route, taking about 20 minutes.
The use trail does not hit the base of the climb directly but rather about 20 to 30 feet to the climbers left, requiring a little bit of scrambling to identify the first bolt about 20 feet off the ground and above a left trending crack/ramp. I had just bought a new 70 m rope and was happy to have it for the rope stretching pitches, as there were stories of people tying in with long tails that were unable to reach some of the anchors without a bit of simul-climbing. It was the first time I used this rope, and should have flaked it out before hand with plenty of coils and kinks to be worked out before we could finally climb. Once the rope was flaked and I racked up, Holly put me on belay and I quickly clipped in to the first bolt. The entire first 200 foot pitch has only two bolts. About 20 feet above the first bolt, I was able to place a #3 cam in a horizontal crack and ledge, at least keeping me out of decking territory. It was some more run out friction climbing to reach the second bolt, probably 100 feet off the deck which I was happy to clip into. There was an arching slab with a small window in the center allowing me to place another cam before making a crux move of the first pitch over this small step. Shortly after the arch I reached a small depression in the rock and the first two bolt anchor where I clipped in. Holly took me off belay and started up after me, unhappy with the long run out that I had led knowing I would have decked had I fallen early on the pitch. I couldn’t blame her.
Some people on Mountainproject commented that the second pitch may be the hardest. Although this one had five bolts to protect the 200 feet as well as several cam placements, the friction moves were probably the hardest and smoothest, and as I moved along, I was grateful for each bolt that I clipped. I feel like slab climbing is something you either love or hate, and although I do fall more into the love camp, at this point the route hardly seems like the classic it was reported to be. At the top of the second pitch, I assured Holly that the pitch we had just climbed was one of the hardest, and we swapped gear for me to start up the third.
The third pitch cut to the right for an early 1st bolt, then followed an interesting dike system with large chicken heads followed by a nice lie back flake to finish. It had the most features to climb of the first three pictures and was certainly my favorite up until that point. I held out hope that this could in fact be the classic we were looking for. The top of the third pitch could be sewed up nicely with cams, and I placed far more than necessary, just happy to use some of the protection that I had brought on this mostly run out climb.
The belay at the top of the third pitch was the least comfortable so far, not not quite hanging, but not enough room to comfortably stand. The fourth pitch was more widely reported to be the crux pitch, rated 5.7 with a difficult mini-roof that needed to be stepped over, as well as a left arching crack leading to a runnel system. I started up for a weakness in the roof, but had difficulty finding hands to pull myself over, with cams at my feet for protection. I try to make a no hands move twice before deciding to move left where the roof was a bit steeper but the hands were huge. I laughed as I pulled myself over, surprised at how much easier it was to make the move with the large hands even though the step was bigger. The crux now behind me, I moved up into the leftward arching crack. Other climbers had reported that this spot needed to be extended with long slings, and I used a double length runner to try and prevent rope drag. But even as I cut left to the bolt above the arching crack, I could tell that rope drag would be a serious issue. So when I clipped into the l bolt above the arch and crack, I asked Holly to lower me so I could back clean the cam causing the drag. I was happy to of done so, as the route above the bolt was difficult to protect with a fun runnel system that you could stem, but the grooves too shallow to protect with cams. I climbed up the increasing sea of knob and chicken heads and reached the fourth and final anchor station, the only true hanging belay of the route.
I tied in with my personal anchor fairly tightly so I could lean back as I belayed up Holly, the rock beginning to heat up quickly despite our fast time. Thanks to our time on the John Muir trail and gym closures from COVID, we were in poor climbing shape, and both of us were tired from the 800′ of climbing we had done over four pitches, most of our climbing muscles out of shape. The final fifth pitches was reported to be one of the most fun, with the knobs and chicken heads increasing in size the further up the dome we went. There was only one bolt protecting the final pitch, but the chicken heads were so large that you were able to girth hitch many of them with ease. About 2/3 of the way up this final pitch, I climbed through a feature known as the belly button, a deep depression in the rock with a crack running up the middle that took a 0.75 cam nicely (forgot to take a photo, but check it out on MP). I pulled the knobs to the left out of the ‘belly button’ and climbed up the chicken head highway to the two bolt anchor built off several large boulders below the summit of the dome. The boulders are overhanging, and I was able to duck into the shade to bring Holly up the final pitch.
The route can be rapelled with two 60 (or larger) meter ropes, however if there were any climbers below, it could turn it into a real cluster fuck. So we decided to try the walk off, which I had read ahead of time could be pretty hairy and easy to lose. We waited a bit at the summit of the route for the team behind us to catch up, one of whom happen to be Ken Yager of Yosemite climbing fame. We chatted for a bit before descending as a group, taking the climber trail towards the climbers right hoping to reach the Shuteye Pass trail for the descent. We never found it. Although there were cairns leading the way initially, we went wide around Voodoo Dome never quite finding the climbers trail to take us down to the base until we were nearly back down to the level of the car.
The climb of five pitches took us under three hours, and the descent took us over three with a ton of bushwhacking and pushing through dense brush. It was unfortunately enough to put a bit of a damper on the otherwise excellent day of climbing. Even still, thanks to our early start, we still were back to the car by about 3 PM, in the shade for the worst of the summer heat. I volunteered to get our packs for the base of the climb given the short approach, and was surprised to see multiple parties on the route, the rock extremely hot this late in the day.
We had cold beers waiting for us at the car and after finishing, headed back down the dirt roads towards Minaret Highway. On the way out, we scared a mother bear and two baby cubs, and watched them for a bit as they ran off in the forest before finishing our drive home.
Chris, if you descend climber’s left staying close to the base of the cliff, the descent back to your starting point takes about 45 minutes. We used to hike the pass down but have learned this other descent is much quicker. Hope this helps for future ascents up the wall.
Tom,
Thanks for the beta and for putting up such a great route! Haven’t been back to that part of Shuteye since the Creek Fire but will certainly try the climber’s left descent next time around.