The beginning is a flare, but is almost all beautiful handjams. I would recommend this climb to anyone. A great moderate crack climb for beginners.

Climb a 5.7 flared chimney to a belay.

Continue up for a 5.8 pitch, passing double cracks and two roofs.

Rappel beta: 70 meter rope required. At the top of the ramp after the second roof on pitch 2 one will find a sketchy dead tree, don't rap here. Continue climbing up a short knob section to a mostly dead tree with slings where you will find a bolted anchor out right. Rappel from here to the top of pitch one, then to the ground.

Golden Needles

Free Press

Filthy Rich

Mud Shark

Jug Monkey

Fish Crack

Crimson Cringe

There is a tall pillar of rock at the left end of Cascade Falls.

Golden Needles

climbs the right side of this pillar, while Filthy Rich climbs the left side.

Pitch 1 (5.9, 90ft): Scramble up to the start of the double cracks in a corner. Jam your way up them to reach an offwidth. There are knobs out on the main face which allow you to stem and lieback and avoid getting in the offwidth. Above is a small ledge. Climb up the corner a bit further to reach a bomber nut placement. Move left (crux) to a flake which you lieback up a ways. Pass some slings around a chockstone and belay on the blocky ledge.

Pitch 2 (5.8, 110 ft): Stand up on a block to reach below a roof. There's good gear here (2-3"). Undercling and lieback around the roof to the left to reach a dirty groove. Climb past a small tree and some bushes and head for another roof above. Climb over the roof using some juggy knobs. Then move left and up. The climbing here deteriorates into loose 4th class dirt. Belay at the tree with rap slings on it at the top of the pillar.

To descend, rappel Golden Needles with a 60 or 70m rope.

Probably the first crack climbed at Cascade Falls area?  It feels every bit as tough as a down canyon 5.10 should.  The late Galen Rowell was a great photographer and and even stronger climber.  So go down to Cascade Falls and try this classic test piece!

To the right of the toe of the cliff, follow a corner to parallel grooves, to a belay at a tree.

A second pitch was done on the first ascent, but was filthy.

Mike Laden teamed up with Tucker Tech during Tucker's productive first ascent year of 1989 to produce this nice little line at Cascade Falls Left.  While not as impressive as Crimson Cringe, Fish Crack, Free Press, or Golden Needles, Jug Monkey is a seldom climbed fun line worthy of addition to your Cascade repertoire.

Begin by climbing easy knobs.  Before you know it, you will be looking down at the ground below thinking it would be nice to have some pro.  Not to worry, an inverted flake just above offers solid cam placements.  Sink in a cam or two and continue climbing up and left over face holds and knobs, slinging all of them you can until you reach a bolt.  Don Reid's topo shows the crux just below the bolt, but the difficulty of this climb peaks while mantling a knob above and way right of the bolt (.9).  This is an exciting move that can take a little time to build up the nerve to make.  I felt that the bolt placement was odd being way out left, but having it a ways away just adds to the excitement of the pitch.  After the mantle, breathe a sigh of relief and clip the anchors with a smile.

This is the thin finger crack to the left of

Crimson Cringe

. Start by climbing up the ramp. Place some gear with a long runner then turn the corner and bust up the thin crack to the anchors. Theres a rest along the way. Theres a photo of this route on the back cover of the Super Topo Yosemite Valley free climbs guide.

A super clean and long splitter on the right side of the Cascade Falls Area (its hard to miss). It starts and ends with interesting knob climbing up a steep face. Start by climbing up a ramp then traversing right across the knobs passing a bolt to the beginning of the crack. Fingers in the beggining, stacks in the middle then lieback/underclinging up higher. Lower off the bolts.

Another classic crack climb along the 140! If you want more climbing but no walking do Fish Crack as well, the finger crack just to the left. Have fun!

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Cascade Falls - Left