Hoffmans Thumb

Hoffmans Thumb 10,720′
Sierra Nevada – Rock Climbing
Total Time: 7:00
Distance: 6.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 2630′
Crux: 5.6
Pitches: 1
Rack: Singles of BD 0.4-3, alpine draws, webbing for anchors
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: May Lake, full services

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Hoffmans Thumb is a short but still impressive spire on a southern rib of rock running off the summit of Mount Hoffman. I had been to the summit of Mount Hoffman once before but never the thumb, which was 5.6 by it’s easiest route. I was itching to climb in Yosemite but also looking for some acclimatization hikes for Holly and I before the JMT. This seemed to be a good compromise. The day use COVID quota system for the park meant an hour wait at the entrance station on a Saturday, so we didn’t arrive to the May Lake trailhead until after 10 AM, the lot half full. We loaded our packs with climbing gear and headed out on the trail, Holly’s first time hiking to May Lake. She was immediately impressed by the views of the Tuolumne Meadows area to the east and May Lake itself when we arrived in under an hour.

There were very few campers at the lake, and we continued along the south shore to the well traveled use trail that leads up Mount Hoffman. The trail slowly climbed through the forest, then aggressively switchbacked up the sandy slopes as we broke through tree line. I had remembered this section to be the least pleasant part on my first trip, holding true the second time. As we near the saddle between the summit of Mount Hoffman and the subpeak to the east, we had our first view of Hoffmans Thumb of the day, the east face looking impressive and rather difficult. To the south, Half Dome popped out of the head of Yosemite Valley with the Clark Range serving as a distance backdrop.

We continued along the use trail up slabs and through a short bit of class three to the summit of Mount Hoffman, taking a break at the high point and trying to keep the fat marmots away from our snacks. Hoffmans Thumb was about 200′ below us, and after having our fill of the summit views, we hiked down the rib of rock along the western side to the base.

The route begins on the south face and requires a sketchy traverse to reach. I matched the sloping ledge with a beta photo on my phone, and we racked up in the safety of the west side of the thumb. I built an anchor on the rib of rock for Holly to belay from, no good anchor options lower down on the sloped ledge.

On belay, I started down the sloped ledge, gingerly crawling over loose blocks around the corner to some excellent chicken heads and a single piton about 15′ above. Some one had left a leaver biner at the piton, the last group turning back at the crux move. I backed up the ancient piton with an additional cam and pulled through a lie back sequence up a flake on the right. The route continued up a ledge system to the left, and I needed to perform a slightly exposed traverse that I knew Holly would hate to get back on the route. Due to the belay anchor location, I was already experiencing a ton of rope drag, and decided to build an anchor and bring Holly up from there. Using 3 cams, I set an anchor and Holly started up, struggling a bit at the crux and hating the short exposed traverse as much as I expected.

After swapping gear and flaking the rope, I started up the second half of the climb, finding it mostly low fifth class with large ledges every 5-10′, although I did question the stability of some of the larger boulders. The final 15′ was a fairly fun chimney, wide enough for good stemming up to a mantle finish. The summit was larger than it appeared from below, and I set an anchor off some large boulders and brought up Holly. Bolted to the summit was the original Sierra Club register from Mount Hoffman, moved to Hoffmans Thumb for safe keeping. The old Hoffman register went to the 1980s, with the register specific to the Thumb showing 1-2 ascents per year, the last in October of 2019, where the team indicated they were kind enough to replace the original rappel bolts. The view was similar to that of the summit of Mount Hoffman, with Half Dome, Clouds Rest and the Clark Range (including recently visited Red Peak) straight off in the distance, and the higher summits of Tuolumne including Mounts Dana and Conness to the east.

There was little shelter from the wind at the summit so we headed for the rap anchors, finding a newer bolt extended with a girth hitched daisy chain (why?), somewhat equalized with an older bolt and some very old cord wrapped around a boulder. I added a fresh double length sling to the weathered daisy chain and after a bit of hesitation, Holly rappelled back down to the base. I quickly joined her, pulled the rope and stuffed it into a rope bag for the descent out.

Although there was supposed to be a scramble option to the east to avoid having to reascend Mount Hoffman, the route wasn’t obvious and we decided it was easy enough to head back to the summit. Dropping down the slabs, we hoofed it back to May Lake, stopping for a short break before mosquitos forced us onwards.

Our goal now was to make it back to the Valley in time before the limited dining options closed. We squeaked out enough LTE to see that Camp Curry had food trucks for the summer, and drove the hour to the valley for a late dinner and Holly’s first technical Sierra summit.