PSOM Slab- John Fischer Memorial Route
Sierra Nevada– Rock Climbing
Total Time: 5:00
Distance: 1.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 1000′
Crux: 5.10c
Pitches: 7
Protection: Double rack of cams #0.3-2, set of nuts, quickdraws
Companions: Mija Pedreros
Trailhead: Pine Creek Canyon, no services
My birthday present for the year was a rope gun for a day from Sierra Mountain Guides and a day of climbing in Pine Creek Canyon, a spot in the Sierra I had yet to visit. After browsing the options and trying to find a climb that would probably be a little too hard for me to lead but not hard enough that I would embarrass myself, I settled on the John Fischer Memorial Route, a 7 pitch 5.10c that climbs directly up PSOM slab. Named after a former guide for the Palisade School of Mountaineering (PSOM), the climb had a little bit of everything- slab, a finger crack crux, traverses and a roof near the top. My rope gun for the day was Mija Pedreros, and he seemed more than happy to lead a harder multipitch climb instead of the easy and moderate alpine terrain he had been climbing all summer. We met at the turn off for Pine Creek Canyon immediately off the 395 and caravaned in together, parking at a large dirt pull out beneath some trees.
A well defined trail headed directly towards PSOM Slab, the obvious granite face rising directly from the canyon floor. A short 5-10 minute walk brought us to the base of the crag, our route located partway up with three closely spaced bolts leading to a handcrack marking the first pitch.
Mija racked up and started up the slab with easy climbing to the first bolt, and a delicate 5.10a slab move between the 2nd and 3rd bolts. The handcrack above the bolts was quite easy, maybe 5.6-5.7, and he quickly brought me up to join him at the two bolt belay. The second pitch climbed directly up from the anchor, following a thin on the right.
This started out easy enough until the seam fizzled out, requiring a large reach to an undercling out left with poor feet, a 5.10b move. A short step led to a fun series of blocky parallel cracks, with opportunities for face climbing, jamming and stemming, a very fun pitch. The third pitch was the crux, a 5.10c finger crack, definitely not one of my strengths.
The pitch started easy enough, basically walking across a dirty ledge and up some fourth class slab to a bolt and start of the real climbing. A few bolts protected the start of the crack where it was too shallow for gear before it angled up and right. Mija had sewed up the crux with four small cams, all of which were easily cleaned with good stances on slabby dishes in the rock or an occasional knob from the crack.
After cleaning the gear I gunned it through the crux and surprised myself by sending it clean, reaching the bomber horizontal crack above without falling. This lead to a vertical crack past a tree to the next belay. The fourth pitch was the last 5.10b pitch of the climb, the last three all rated 5.10a, with the crux coming at a tricky left to right traverse across slab.
Mija actually had some trouble trying the traverse too high initially, but I benefited from his beta and my height, linking together small knobs and depressions in the slab to the next belay. The fifth pitch was similar to the fourth, trending from left to right on bolted slab in order to gain a finger crack system out right, which was a bit trickier than it looked from below.
This led to the base of the sixth pitch, an intimidating roof I had been staring at for the past hour, slowly climbing closer. A lower more difficult roof was easily bypassed on the right, leading up to slabs just below the second roof with an obvious weakness to the left. The moves to reach the roof were bolt protected, and one could easily clip a bolt above the roof before pulling the moves, which were far easier than they looked from below with great jams in the crack and massive knobs and hand holds above.
The final 7th pitch of the climb started up broken cracks to the right before climbing a slabby prow up to the anchors at the top of the formation. Still rated 5.10a, it felt like one of the easier pitches of the climb, although I was probably well warmed up by then.
It was before noon when we topped out, climbing the 7 pitch route in under 3 hours without linking pitches. I was quite pleased with how I had climbed and was already scheming of what we could do with the rest of the day as we completed 7 rappels to get back to our packs at the base.
I was interested in seeing the Pratt’s Crack area, home to the Eastside Classics of Pratt’s Crack 5.9 and Sheila 5.10b along with some of the highest concentration of single pitch climbs in the area. It was a short walk back to our cars and drive up canyon to the larger parking area for Pratt’s Crack Gully, a number of cars in the lot for the more popular sport climbing area.
With a small stream running through and in full shade, the gully was dramatically colder, and Mija flaked our rope beneath Subatomic, a pumpy 5.10c that was honestly one of the easier climbs in the area. He cruised to the anchors making it looks easy, and as a started up, I was very quickly caught off guard by how physical the route was. Although it looked like there were be plenty of rests from below, the route was for the most part slightly over hanging, tiring me out about 2/3rds of the way up with a couple falls in the upper part of the route.
I was a little disappointed to have fallen on the route and was now feeling a bit too tired to do too much more climbing. But with some time left, we climbed one last route- Bust a Gut 5.10a/b, which was much more slab technique intensive (a strength of mine over power/ endurance routes) and felt dramatically easier than the 5.10c. Low on time, we packed our things and hiked out, having climbed 9 pitches over 5.10a for the day and having a great introductory day to Pine Creek Canyon.