Chiquito Dome 5600′
Not Advertised, Too Old to Be Bold, Constellation, El Grande
Rock Climbing– California
Total Time: 7:30
Distance: 1.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1500′
Crux: 5.10c
Pitches: 12
Protection: 70 m rope, many quick draws, light rack of singles
Companions: Cory B
Trailhead: Minaret Highway, no services
With a series of spring storms, it had been hard to get and climb too much, and most outings of the year had been a smattering of single pitch routes in the Valley. I had a rare weekend day free and reached out to Fresno local Cory Brooks for a day of climbing, having spent a day sport climbing at the Balls on a balmy December day. Unable to land a Yosemite reservation, he recommended we head to Chiquito Dome, one of the lower elevation features on Shuteye Ridge. The 500′ dome had dozens of routes ranging from single pitch test pieces to 5 pitch romps, giving some nice variety and a way to avoid the Valley crowds. We met at the O’Neals Park and Ride, heading through North Fork to the Minarets Highway, taking a solid hour and a half to reach the indistinct pull off on the side of the highway. At one time, this was a well defined logging road with an easy to follow trail all the way to the base of the rock. But a combination of disuse, the Creek fire and general deadfall meant the remnants of the good trail were quickly lost, and we found ourselves bushwacking up the mountainside to the base of the dome. We eventually found the path about halfway up, following it the remaining distance to the base of the dome.
He suggested we swing lead on one of the easier multipitch routes to start on- Not Advertised 5.9, 5 pitches. I took the first pitch, a very well bolted 5.9 slab, heading straight up the far right side of the dome before a short right hand traverse to a two bolt belay.
The second pitch was a bit more aesthetic, following a shallow 5.8 arete on the right to another two bolt belay. The third pitch was the only real traditional pitch of the climb, rated 5.6-5.7 with an easy lieback finger crack up broken rock to a nice but far too short handcrack to another two bolt belay.
The fourth pitch left the brief crack system again up the slab, the angle ever lessening to low fifth class terrain at the final two bolt belay. Although possible to rappel the route with a single rope, you needed to utilize anchors from neighboring climbs, and we instead opted for the walkoff, leading up a final very short fifth class slab around a corner, quickly leveling off to second and third class slabs. We threw on our approach shoes, and after tagging the summit, dropped down hill to climbers right, taking a fairly wide path down sand and scree back to our packs.
The five pitch route with the walk off had taken less than two hours, leaving plenty of time to tackle another multipitch. Although I didn’t know the area well, I had been eyeing Too Old to Be Bold: 5.10c, 5 pitches and considered to be a local classic. Having led odds on the first climb, the evens would fall to me, meaning I would be on the sharp end for the two crux pitches. But as the name implies, the cruxes were tightly bolted, and after finding the start of the climb atop a small pillar of rock, Cory started off.
The first pitch is 5.10a, well bolted but with a few tricky spots down low leading to easier climbing above and a two bolt belay. For the second pitch 5.10c crux was almost immediately off the belay, a series of 3 very tight bolts up a small flake where the climbing eases.
The first bolt can be clipped from an excellent stance with the second coming quickly after a few slab moves. I unfortunately misread the route, trying to climb left of the second bolt and taking a few falls before finding an easier line to the right and up to the third bolt. There was one final tricky move before I could reach the flake, skipping the optional cam and mantling up to a stance for the fourth bolt. From there, the climbing eased off considerably, probably mostly 5.8-9 slab, although I took one more unexpected fall at the last bolt when my foot blew off a shallow dish, having just enough skrittle on it from the winter to blow my foot smear. Although it hadn’t been clean, I was happy with the lead, more annoyed with the unexpected fall towards the top than at the crux. Cory followed the pitch cleaning and quickly swung on lead up the third pitch, rated 5.9 although definitely with some tricky moves through a shallow headwall, providing some of the few good hand holds and small knobs of the route so far.
This led to a belay on a small stance and start of the fourth pitch and second crux of the climb. The route traversed around a bulge up and to the left, and after clipping the first bolt I faced tenuous traversing slab moves with bad hands and feet with some swing potential. I breathed a small sigh of relief once I clipped the second bolt, not realizing the hardest move was actually get over the bulge above the bolt. I somehow sent it cleanly, the climbing very quickly easing off to low angled slab up to another knobby headwall.
I could see the first bolt to protect those moves above, although it took me some time to find the bolt high in the sea of knobs above, trending far to the right to join a thin fingertip crack up to a two bolt belay. The distance from the final bolt to the belay was just long enough to want one more piece, so I found a pocket that was ‘just’ big enough for a Black Totem, my first time using that type of cam.
I was very excited to have climbed the second crux pitch without falls, and thought it had been one of the most enjoyable pitches of the day. There was a final fifth pitch that followed a dirty 5.6 corner up to the summit, out of character with the rest of the route. So we decided to skip it and save ourselves the walk off, doing 5 single rope rappels (using one anchor from another climb) back down to our packs.
Now with 9 pitches in under 4 hours and two runs up the dome, Cory suggested we move to the left and steeper side of the dome, featuring some harder multipitch routes and longer single pitches. Cory led up the first pitch of Constellation 5.11a, taking a small fall at the crux on overhanging knobs. I fell several times at the crux on top rope before figuring out the moves. From the anchor, I swung over and placed some redirects on the neighboring 5.11 Big Banana, allowing us to do the first 30 meters of the monster 60 meter pitch. The difficulty was similar to Constellation, perhaps a touch easier considering I only fell once, and I’m no 5.11 climber.
Running low on water with the day warmer than I expected, Cory talked me into trying one final lead up El Grande, rated 5.10b but known to be a bit sandbagged. The start was trickier than it looked from below, the bolt out left of a more obvious crack system you ultimately move in to. I placed two pieces in the 5.9 crack before moving back out onto the face, traversing on huge knobs up a ramp to a small ledge system. The wall steepened considerably here but with huge pockets and knobs, and it felt a bit more like gym climbing than outdoor. I clipped a few more bolts up to the intermediate anchor, than took a decent whip trying to reach the next bolt, the line becoming slightly overhanging and feeling quite tired on my 12th pitch of the day (particularly after two 5.11s). I tried 5-6 times, falling just before the next bolt on each one before Cory lowered me from the intermediate anchors back down. A for effort. Now feeling quite pumped, we packed our things and began the hike out, again losing the trail in the burn area but finding the car easily enough with the short approach.
