Climb through the wide black streak right of Little Sheeba on small knobs and edges. After the wandering sporty knobs a clean slab leads you to a pair of open cold shuts (as of Sept '14) 20' below a broad gravelly ledge.

Ground Effects

Nerve Wrack Point

Lampoon

On the Lamb

Silent Shout

Little Sheba

Chute Me

Tooled

Sleeper

Five Ten, You Wuss

Little Sheba Continuation

Jailbreak Finish

Tectonomagmatic

If you like insecure and very thin face - this route is for you. Bring your best footwork! Start 10 feet right of Little Sheeba where there is a ledge at chest height at the base of the wall. Clip 4 bolts on your way up and left following a left-facing feature that arches towards the crack. At the 4th bolt pull a tenuous boulder problem (crux of the route) to gain access to L.S. Go up L.S. for a few feet (0.75 cam with a long runner) and bust back right to a similar left-facing feature as below. Two more insecure mini-cruxes will get you past another 3 bolts to a broad ledge and an anchor with mussy hooks.

This route could be easily top roped. Scramble around to the right (4th class) to get to the walk-on ledge or lead L.S. and set up a TR on the right-hand anchor. The second clip is a bit reachy and a long draw or a runner will help with the ropedrag. I'd be curious to know what people think about the grade - 5.11+ was just a wild guess based on doing it in direct sun, so it could be much easier.

This is the route whose FA was chronicled in Pat Ament's book Swaramandal. It ascends the right side of the most prominent face on the west-facing side of Lamb Dome.

Pitch 1 - climb over a small overlap (used to be a fixed pin here) then head up and right past several bolts to a ledge and a gear belay. This pitch used to be rated 5.8, but is now, more appropriately, rated 5.9.

Pitch 2 - climb up a small right facing corner then up a face past two bolts to a two bolt belay. There is another set of belay bolts off to the right about halfway up this pitch. I am not sure what they are doing out there.

Pitch 3 - up a short face (5.8) to a crack leading sharply right which is followed to the end of the climb.

Knobs, thin edges, and friction. Steepest just left of the first and only bolt. The route wiggles around the black bulges just left of Little Sheba. Anchor or top rope off the trees above and left of the Little Sheeba chains. You can reach the trees from the third class ledges to the climber's right. Heads up, you'll need to belay from the top or use two ropes to top rope.

On the Lamb is a very unique and classic traverse across the upper face of Lamb Dome.  Perhaps the only climb in Tuolumne where 95% of the holds are jugs.  What makes it difficult is that occasionally the feet disappear.

The feature appears to be an enormous horizontal dike that has split apart to form an incut crack.

P1: Ascend a 5.0 low angle crack system to a nice ledge at the start of the traverse.

P2: Climb off to the right at 5.4 with minimal gear to the beginning of the crack itself.  Stretch the rope out and belay at the best stance you can find.

P3:  Traverse right.  Save small cams for the crux.  Belay after turning the corner into a right-facing dihedral, or stretch the rope further to a better stance.

P4:  Continue traversing right and eventually end up on easy terrain leading to the descent.  Alternatively, climb the excellent Jailbreak Finish, or reverse the entire traverse for more fun.

Finding the route is somewhat difficult (moreso than most other climbs in the Meadows).  It's good to do this climb with someone who's been there before, or allow extra time to locate the start.

This climb is considered to be Tuolumne Meadow's finest finger crack for the grade.  And it is.  The climb is steep and protects well.  The route is sometimes crowded.

Steep crack to face start, leading to cool features, and finishing up with a slick low-angle water chute. Bolted anchor.

Optional second pitch starts with a traverse to a knobby 5.5 face (no pro, 40') and finishes with a few 5.7 moves into a corner (bomber gear) which ends at the far right side of the giant ledge where Sleeper and other routes start.

Well bolted route following a dyke and knobs on the left side of Lamb Dome. Crux is moving to the flake in the first few moves, but well protected.

Five pitches, with the last two being runout slab climbing. It is also possible to climb the first two and then exit via the last pitch of On The Lamb. A fantastic climb if you enjoy squeeze chimneys and slightly runout slab.

P1 - Right facing squeeze chimney with the crux probably being exiting the squeeze. This leads to some easy terrain and then either cut left (5.6) or stay in the corner (great 5.8 stemming). Belay at the top of the pillar takes 1"-3".

P2 Continue up the curve of the arch and then head straight up on runout 5.6 knobs. Some pro can be found in the left-facing crack on the left then head more or less straight up (5.8). This pitch can be a bit spicy - you wouldn't want to fall from the 5.8 bit (or on the runout 5.6). Pitch ends where the climb intersects On The Lamb

P3 - 5.8 slab past a few bolts to a two bolt anchor

P4/5 - Significant runout (only a single bolt) to the top. The crux.

A new slab/face route on the far left side of Lamb Dome. This climb can be used as a more interesting approach to On the Lamb. Go to the left side of Lamb Dome and identify a right-facing corner; this is Dukey Corner (10a R), and our climb is left of it. Identify two black water streaks. Five Ten, You Wuss goes up the right one. P1 is 10c, p2 is 5.8, and p3 is 10a.

From the top of little sheba you can walk up the ledge to the next wall.  There is a small right diagonaling shelf with a bolt or two that marks the start.

After the second bolt (maybe 25 ft up) it is about another 20-25 ft of sustained 9+ dirtyish slab to get to the next bolt.  If the belayer isn't anchored, they could potentially run down the ledge if the leader fell near the 3rd bolt.  Definitely very spicy to say the least.

After the 3rd bolt you can go right or left of a roof.  The topo shows left.  Right also works.

Needless to say, not a recommended finish to little sheba, but it made for some good memories.

The exact location of this great finish to On the Lamb is hard to describe, but basically, it heads up from that route just as the climbing eases off.  It is right of the route Carpet Crawler at some large hollow blocks below a short, left-facing corner.  Climb up this to a bolt, then continue to a bolted anchor (with the words "jail" and "break" on the bolts).  This anchor is only 30' above On the Lamb.  From here, follow a left-leaning dike past bolts and up to a bolted belay in a hole.  One final, easier pitch leads up past a few more bolts to a gear anchor near the top of Lamb Dome.  This is a fine way to finish On the Lamb -- the climbing is steep & clean and allows for a nice way to summit the formation.

Tectonomagmatic is a good approach pitch to Five Ten, You Wuss. It is a long face climb with some classic Tuolumne knob and slab climbing that is mostly well protected but also features some good runouts to keep you excited. Rated 10b in the guidebook, we thought it was pretty hard for the grade.

Start by climbing into the scoop, placing some gear and then clipping several bolts with some tricky and hard climbing about 1/3 up the pitch. Above, the difficulty eases as you continue clipping bolts. You finish at a ledge with a two bolt anchor down and right or a two bolt anchor up and left.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in West Face of the Lamb