Cardinal Pinnacle- West Face and Red Bush to Where Eagles Soar
Sierra Nevada– Rock Climbing
Total Time: 8:00
Distance: 0.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 1200′
Crux: 5.10a
Pitches: 8
Protection: Double rack of cams
Companions: Peter Croft
Trailhead: Highway 168 in Aspendell, no services
For Christmas this year, my loving and thoughtful wife gifted me with a crack climbing clinic with the legendary Peter Croft. Seven months later, I was still the only one to sign up for the clinic and he reached out, asking if I would be interested in some crack climbing multi-pitch instead. Absolutely. Although conditions were difficult in the Eastern Sierra this year, some of the best crack climbing can be found not far from the road on Cardinal Pinnacle, a blocky granite crag along a ridgeline of what was otherwise choss. After some rescheduling, we met at the pull off along Highway 168 above Aspendell on July 3rd, hoping the Monday would offset the number of people that might be around for the holiday week. But despite meeting at 6 AM, there was already a twosome starting up the talus slopes to the start of the routes, and we feared we would wind up stuck behind another party on the West Face, the super classic 4 pitch 5.10a and by far the most popular route on the rock.
We shouldered our packs and started up the steep talus, boulder hopping on mostly stable rock to the base of the climbs, taking about 20 minutes from the car. The twosome was actually a pair of locals from Bishop that Peter knew and they had their eyes on a much harder link up to the right, leaving the West Face all for ourselves.
With little discussion, I put Peter on belay and he started up the route, doing my best to soak up his movement and style which I would do my best to emulate (and fall quite short of) all day. The start of the pitch was in a great finger crack in a right facing corner, quite a bit easier then it looked from below thanks to a series of hidden feet on either side of the crack. This led up to a small ledge and dual crack system, passing an old piton before cutting right up a series of short steps and a final finger crack to the first bolted belay.
The second pitch followed a sweeping hand crack up to a steep 5.10a crux where I resorted to a bit of liebacking to get around the steepest difficulties. The route then traversed out right beneath The Prow and around a tricky and exposed arete, bringing me to the next belay.
The third pitch and rock on the right side of the arete was cleaner slab, although still broken by a series of crack systems. Peter clipped a bolt off the belay before following a series of discontinuous crack systems angling briefly to the right, then back left and up to a gear belay in a corner above.
Although the final pitch is one of the easiest of the climb, it starts with an wakward chimney before climbing out left, passing a bolt to the summit pinnacle. We had cruised the route in under an hour an a half, happy to do so with a number of parties working their way up the talus below.
Given how (relatively) crowded the crag was becoming, we elected to rappel off the backside rather than the face, doing a short running belay to the rappel anchor leading to the notch. A single rappel got us down, and it was quickly evident that no one had been down the backside all season, with plenty of new loose rock and a finger of lingering snow that we needed to crawl beneath to get past.
The descent took a wide line around a detached pillar before hooking back to the base of the climb, now with two different parties at different points on the West Face and a third quede up at the base. I hadn’t expected to make such good time, and we had a brief discussion on what to try next. Having climbed the West Face cleanly and without too much difficulty, trying Crack Kingdom 5.10c felt like a logical next step. This shares most of the same first pitch of the West Face although keeps left instead of traversing right at the top of the double cracks. After the team ahead of us started up their second pitch we reclimbed the first pitch of the West Face, utilizing a rappel station for an anchor. Peter scoped out the route above, concerned that there was a pair of climbers struggling on the crux third pitch with no room for us at the belay. After a bit of waiting, he grew inpatient and we traversed across the face to the right all the way to the start of Red Bush, a 3 pitch 5.9.
Despite the easier rating, the first pitch has a section of sustained finger crack, definitely one of my weaknesses and I fell working through it. The second pitch of Red Bush is rated 5.7 although not sustained, and Peter eyed the 5.10c slab climb “Where Eagles Fly” as an alternative. A series of four bolt protected the extremely polished slab pitch, and he actually bailed at the crux back on to Red Bush, not wanting to risk falling on the alpine bolt exposed to countless freeze thaw cycles.
With the benefit of being on top rope, I tried my best at the line but fell a number of times in the spot where Peter bailed, ultimately cutting back to Red Bush myself. All the routes bottle neck to the same final pitch of the West Face which was now clogged up by three different parties, so we did a short traverse pitch around the backside of the Pinnacle back to the rappel station and into the notch, ultimately hiking back to our packs at the base.
It was now after noon, the rock was in full sun and I was starting to feel the effects of climbing at altitude for half the day. We had a long discussion of the wisdom of trying any of the harder lines on the rock in hotter conditions having been at it for 6 hours, and ultimately decided to pack things in. Just as we were about to head down the mountain, we noticed a climber above trying to ascend their rappel line a ways off the descent route. She was completely separated from her partner who was around the corner and anchored into the proper rappel station, as the knots on the ends of their ropes had gotten slotted and stuck well off the rappel line. After some discussion along with the twosome from Bishop that we had met that morning, there was a consensus that they needed our help, and Peter started up the first pitch of the West Face for the third time all day. He first climbed to the stranded climber still hanging on the rope, securing her to the final rappel station, then climbed up to the other climber at the high rappel anchor.
They ultimately rappelled back to the base of the climb a bit embarrassed but no worse for the wear and we started our final descent back to the cars about 1.5 hours later than we had initially planned. After picking Peter’s brain on a number of routes in the Sierra, we parted ways, Peter heading home in Bishop while I cut north back to Mammoth for the rest of my trip on the East side.
I am so happy you had this opportunity. I am sure you will never forget that climb and things you learned.