This route is located on the southwest face of the grouse slab , which is a five minute hike around to the left of the main face of Grouse Slab.

From the parking area heading towards the main climbing area of Grouse Slab, this wall is uphill and to the left, and you can see the routes of the Southwest Face on the approach before going around the Slab downhill and to the right.

Once you can see the 9 routes of the Southwest Face from the PCT (this applies for approaches from both sides), head uphill for about 3 minutes on a thin trail through the manzanita bushes.

One Toke arete is the leftmost bolt route on the Southwest face (the are 3, tough carville's book shows four), and is an excellent arete climb using decent hands through balancy moves.  This climb would get 3 stars if it were twice as long, and it is the most fun route on the wall.

Corner On Gold

Greener Pastures

Shake

Little Huffer

Huffer

Half Hit

Desire

Light Headed

Nugs & Jugs

One Toke Over the Line

This route is located on the southwest face of the grouse slab , which is a five minute hike around to the left of the main face of Grouse Slab.

From the parking area heading towards the main climbing area of Grouse Slab, this wall is uphill and to the left, and you can see the routes of the Southwest Face on the approach before going around the Slab downhill and to the right.

Once you can see the 9 routes of the Southwest Face from the PCT (this applies for approaches from both sides), head uphill for about 3 minutes on a thin trail through the manzanita bushes.

Half Hit is on the left side of the Southwest Face, and is the crack immediately left of the leftmost bolted arete called One Toke Arete (5.10+).

Half Hit is a crack of varying width, with a not so comfortable move about 8 feet off the ground.

This route is located on the southwest face of the grouse slab , which is a five minute hike around to the left of the main face of Grouse Slab.

From the parking area heading towards the main climbing area of Grouse Slab, this wall is uphill and to the left, and you can see the routes of the Southwest Face on the approach before going around the Slab downhill and to the right.

Once you can see the 9 routes of the Southwest Face from the PCT (this applies for approaches from both sides), head uphill for about 3 minutes on a thin trail through the manzanita bushes.

Greener Pastures starts from the same area as the rightmost bolted climb known as Desire (5.9), and is the crack just left of the chimney known as Huffer (5.6), which is just left of desire.

Climbing starts with a nice attack into a crack system that curves left just under a small bulge and then heads straight over the bulge where the crack heads vertically upwards.  Continue up via fun jambs to the top anchor.

The pro is small on this short route, so only solid 5.9 climbers should attempt the route.

Shake starts about 10' left of

Greener Pastures

, the obvious crack climb on the steep face just left of

Desire

. Climb the crack off the ground to a stance with a small ceiling and horizontal crack on your right. The crux is moving up and right onto the face to reach the first bolt. Move a bit right of the bolt and then basically straight up on fun, thin, face and up and over the final bulge to the top.

I thought I was on a route shown in Mike Carville's guide Rock Climbing Lake Tahoe called "Light Headed" which is 5.8. In the middle of trying the crux, I was told it was 5.10a, which is much more reasonable.

A fun variation is to climb from the ground straight up on the face directly below the little ceiling and step up onto the face from there. It's about the same difficulty but height would be a factor as it's a long reach to holds above the ceiling. A fun toprope is starting just right of Shake in the vertical crack and climb straight up to the top. You do use some face holds from Shake in the middle section but try and stay right where you can. Maybe 10b or so.

A little face climbing brings you into the little squeeze chimney. Chimney and offwidth to the top.

Climb the chimney. The first half is the crux, with the upper half becoming less of a grunt.

This route is located on the southwest face of the grouse slab , which is a five minute hike around to the left of the main face of Grouse Slab.

From the parking area heading towards the main climbing area of Grouse Slab, this wall is uphill and to the left, and you can see the routes of the Southwest Face on the approach before going around the Slab downhill and to the right.

Once you can see the 9 routes of the Southwest Face from the PCT (this applies for approaches from both sides), head uphill for about 3 minutes on a thin trail through the manzanita bushes.

Desire is the rightmost bolted climb on the SouthWest Face.  Desire makes you either desire for more climbing like the earlier routes of the wall to the left, or simply for another bolt lower to the ground, since the crux is moving up to the first bolt!

Climbing is on tiny edges on a slab through the crux, and is finished after the second bolt where it eases to the top anchor.

This is a somewhat awkward looking corner that is located just to the left of the route Shake.

First ascent at Southwest grouse slab.  It is an overhanging crack with good face features. "Nugs & Jugs" goes at 5.8 trad. good climb that needs more travel.

Climb past the two bolts to a sloping ledge. From here climb cracks and face just right of the arête.

A good variation that combines One Toke Arete is from the sloping ledge, plug in some small pieces (I used a #3 metolius) then finish on One Toke Arete.

Description

Protection

Routes in Southwest Face