Ahwiyah Point 6926′, West Quarter Dome 8160′, East Quarter Dome 8318′, Clouds Rest Horn 9427′ and Clouds Rest 9930′
Sierra Nevada
Total Time: 10:35
Distance: 17.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 7050′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Camp Curry- full services
My day off was again aligning with iffy weather, and I decided to stick a little closer to home and have an adventure out of Yosemite Valley. I had been meaning to check out Ahwiyah Point, a subpeak just shy of 7,000′ that juts out below the NW Face of Half Dome that I had failed on a half hearted attempt over 10 years ago. The peak can be approached in a round away way via Mist Trail with a big circle around Half Dome, or a more direct route via the “Death Slabs” approach, a bit of a misnomer with no deaths on the climbers approach route since the 1960s with the establishment of several sections of fixed lines. With such a direct approach via the slabs, Ahwiyah Point alone would make for a short day, and I decided to attempt a big link up along the south rim of Tenaya Canyon, continuing along to West and East Quarter Domes, Clouds Rest Horn, the Pinnacles and ultimately the summit of Clouds Rest, doing a huge loop around Half Dome with a descent via the Mist Trail. Unsure of how easy route finding would be on the Death Slabs approach, I started early, leaving the lot near Happy Isles shortly after 6 AM with just enough light to not need a headlamp. I cut through the nearby campground towards Mirror Lake, keeping south of the bone dry Tenaya Creek and following this up to the signed turn off for the Death Slabs and climbers approach to the NW Face of Half Dome, marked by the carabiner sign post.
I followed this steeply through the forest, climbing onto a fan of granite rockfall and up an easy and unexposed forested ramp up to the first fixed rope. I was already in better shape than when I had scouted this out years before, and I popped on my harness and clipped my Microtrax into the fixed line. The first fixed rope climbed 70-80′ of polished low fifth class slab, chill attached to the rope but sketchy if hand over handing your way up. I needed to pause in a few sections to get past knots in the rope to isolate worn sections but quickly made it to the tree anchor and catwalk ramp that led left into the main drainage below the NW Face of Half Dome.
There was a trickle of water running down the center of the slabs, and I worried about the traction on the wet slab along with the potential for rockfall, with anything coming down from above being funneled into this drainage. This worry was largely unfounded, as the climber’s trail quickly crossed the granite slabs and reentered the forested slopes on the other side of the slabs. The use trail was easy to follow, cutting up steeply on the left side of the slabs before the drainage narrowed a few hundred feet below the looming face of Half Dome. I spied a rope back on the right side and crossed back over the slabs, again clipping my Microtrax into the rope.
This rope was dynamic with a lot of stretch, and the line it seemed to climb was much steeper than I had expected, probably 5.8 near the top and very dirty, not seeming well traveled. I was nearly to the higher tree anchor when I spotted another rope in the drainage below, and I guessed that I was likely on a more direct rappel line rather than the standard ascent fixed line.
Either way it worked out, and I followed a use trail from the top of the rope to a final fixed line to bring me just below the NW Face of Half Dome. It had rained the day and night before, and I was surprised to see at least 3 parties high on the wall with another two milling around camp at the base. I made some small talk with a pair of climbers at the base, who seemed indecisive if they should start up the wall with the number of parties above along with what seemed like the threat of some lingering rain.
I wished them luck and continued towards Ahwiyah Point, with a wall of brush and steep slabs between me and the connecting notch, made even less pleasant by a quick squall of rain that moved through on the final approach. From the base of Half Dome, I did my best to hit the notch directly, but thick manzanita and brush, along with multiple short 10′ cliff bands and wet slabs pushed me a bit higher, requiring a circuitous route up and around some final slabs to reach the notch just below Ahwiyah Point.
Aside from Bob Burd’s trip report, I had little beta on reaching the summit, and even that was fairly sparse, saying it was class 3. I climbed the rocks just off the notch to find a nice ramp that moved east across the slabs. I was able to weave back and forth connecting ramps higher until I reached the crux, a low angled off-width, with steeper slabs to the left. I opted for the steeper slabs on the ascent, definitely happy to have my new Scarpa approach shoes for some added friction, and quickly found myself at the summit. I briefly looked for a register, found none, and took a short break at the summit admiring the incredible views into Yosemite Valley, up Tenaya Canyon and above to the NW Face of Half Dome.
Looking back, I was surprised to see a lone figure watching me from a boulder 150′ above the notch, and I wondered if the climbers I had talked to decided to bail and explore Ahwiyah Point as well. The scramble down was uneventful, partially downclimbing the off-width on the descent before sliding on my butt down the slabs. I made it back to the notch and noticed a good sized cave just below that I had missed on the ascent. The ground looked covered in squirrel shit and it hardly seemed worth exploring, so I started scrambling up from the notch directly, hoping to avoid the circuitous slabs I had descended.
Attempting to climb the ridge ultimately backfired, as the class 3 start began to turn to low fifth class, and I needed to back track and utilize my ascent route anyways. I hit the ridge right at the large boulder and found the person that had been watching me, a solo photographer who had been hoping to photograph the Milky Way from Ahwiyah Point the night before, but wasn’t sure how to get over there with his bulky camera equipment. Considering it had rained overnight and been a bright moon, it didn’t seem like the most well thought out plan, but I wished him luck and continued along the connecting ridgeline, quickly finding the well traveled climbers trail for the longer approach to the NW Face of Half Dome.
I followed this easily to the base of the subdome, where a ranger was checking in Half Dome permits despite the government shutdown. I suddenly found myself surrounded by people, with the usual conga line up the Half Dome cables above. I picked up the pace to try and leave the masses behind, dropping down to the saddle between Half Dome and the Quarter Domes to the east.
A man called out behind me “Is that a shortcut!?”
“Definitely not!” I replied, not breaking stride as I climbed over deadfall in the old growth forest. I worked back towards the rim as the forest thinned, startling a teenaged bear before I could grab a picture as he scampered off into the forest. It was easy cross country to the lower West Quarter Dome, the high point a boulder right on the edge of the sheer cliff into Tenaya Canyon.
I took another short break before heading over to the slightly higher East Quarter Dome, this one with interesting glacial erratics scattered across its flank. I took a longer break here, with 1,600′ of steep climbing between myself and Clouds Rest, and hopes to tag Clouds Rest Horn and the Pinnacles in between.
Clouds Rest Horn came first, the furthest west of the subsummits leading up to Clouds Rest. As I climbed the steep slabs beneath, it was unclear if I needed to traverse around the southern cliff bands and access the summit from the northeast. But as I grew closer, I could see talus ramp on the west side that would get me most of the way to the top. I headed up the ramp, leading to quality class 3 slabs that I was able to follow up to just below the summit rocks, traversing beneath them to the south before cutting back up to the high point.
I again found no register and after a few photos, scrambled off easy class 3 to the northeast back to the rim. The next summit was The Pinnacles, which Bob Burd reported had a ‘class 3 ramp’ off the north side, which you could traverse across the face before cutting back up to the high point. I was already a bit suspect of this class 3 rating given how few ascents the summit had logged on peakbagger, half of them coming from technical routes established by Mark Spencer in the 80s. I skirted the Pinnacles to the south, spying a number of lines that would go at low fifth class but nothing I would be soloing without a rope and light rack.
Working around to the north side, I scrambled up class 3 boulders to a notch in the skyline and Bob Burd’s “third class” route. From the notch, it would be hard to classify the route as anything less than fifth class- hundreds of feet of sheer exposure to the north with nothing resembling a ramp, just knobs studded across the face for hands and feet. With plenty of Sierra fourth class experience under my belt, it would be hard to even classify it as that. There was no question I wouldn’t be going for it- to do so unroped with a family at home was reckless and went against everything I promised I wouldn’t do whenever I set off alone in the mountains. Not to mention several of the dishes for feet had small pools of water from the recent rain.
I scrambled back down the boulders and quickly reached the trail that took me the final distance to the summit of Clouds Rest, my first visit since proposing to Holly in 2014. There were a pair of JMT through hikers on the summit and we chatted briefly as thick clouds came and went over the Valley and High Sierra.
I had a quick snack and break, then dropped off after cold clouds rolled in over the summit. I quickly caught up with the through hikers, one a solo male who had been alone on the trail for quite a while and admittedly missed companionship. I pulled ahead of him initially but he quickly caught up, and the two of us hiked together down to Little Yosemite Valley, sharing our favorite spots along the JMT and Sierra.
He was planning on staying in LYV for his final night, so we parted ways as I hiked towards the Mist Trail, the number of other hikers increasing exponentially the closer I got to the trailhead. While I was low on water, I decided to see how many hikers I could pass on my descent and started jogging down.
I eventually lost count after several dozen, and topped up water at the Vernal Falls footbridge before jogging down the paved trail back to the trailhead, taking less than 3 hours to descend the nearly 6,000′ from the summit of Clouds Rest to the Valley floor. It was a better time than I expected and after wading through the masses near the trailhead, hopped in my car and headed home, stopping at Smokehouse for dinner and getting back in time to wish Avery a goodnight.