Climbing in the Sierra - Third Pillar of Dana, Tenaya Peak

This weekend I got to join Alex Alexiades and Abby Grimmer for some Sierra rock climbing, alpine style. The original plan was for a very full weekend of climbing the East Buttress of Mt. Whitney and the Mithril Dihedral on Mt. Russell. Unfortunately, we got some very bad information about the likelihood of getting permits to climb at Whitney and we ended up needing to go with a plan B.

The plan B was that Alex and I were going to climb some of the best rock in the Sierra, the 3rd Pillar of Mt. Dana, and that Abby, Alex, and myself were going to do a quick climb of Tenaya Peak. We ended up needing to drive from Lone Pine to Tuolumne so that ate up half of last Friday. With the remainder of the day we jumped onto Tenaya Peak, which is a 5.5 climb with about 10 pitches or so, although much of the climbing is only 4th class. That allowed us to simul-cliimb the peak in just over 2 hours.

On Saturday Alex and I headed off to the 3rd pillar, which is a 5.10b with 5 pitches. With at least 3 of the pitches going at 5.10 Alex did most of the leading. I took the middle pitch with the choice between a chimney and flake (5.8) and a 5.10 finger crack. Throughout the morning the clouds seemed to be building, and by 11 am they looked ominous. However, the rain and lightning held out and we were treated to a great climb without having to bail on the route. We were treated with some truly remarkable climbing on really good rock. For me these were the hardest pitches that I've followed in the alpine, and probably are going to be beyond my leading capabillities for a while. However, this first real climb of the season has me motivated to get onto as much High Sierra rock as I can before summer is over.

Photos: (Top) Final moves on the 3rd Pillar of Dana (AA). (Middle) The three of us on top of Tenaya Peak (AA). (Bottom) The 3rd Pillar from the bottom looking up (TD).