I had just arrived in Yosemite at the start of what I hoped would be about a month in the Valley. Since I was a day ahead of my partner, I posted on Mountain Project to find someone to climb with and quickly lined up a partner for the next day. Her name was Shae, and she sounded fun. We decided Serenity–Sons would be a great objective. I had climbed Serenity Crack in 2007 and the full Serenity-Sons linkup in 2015—definitely worth repeating. As Eric Sloan notes in his guidebook, "Arguably the most classic multipitch 5.10 route in the world, Serenity to Sons is popular because it’s the best.”

A set of Totems and/or BD offset cams takes the spice out of the runout on the first pitch.

Recently, climbers reported a new crack in the cliff on the western side of Royal Arches, near Super Slide. Subsequent investigation revealed that the crack had partially detached a large pillar of rock and that movement was still occurring. As a precaution, the National Park Service implemented a temporary area and trail closure starting August 30, 2023. Despite the closure, climbers have continued to venture onto the route.

Shae and I met at 6:30 a.m. in the Church Bowl parking lot, aiming to beat both the crowds and the heat. We were first to the base, but another party arrived just as we started racking up, followed by a steady stream until at least half a dozen teams were queued below. No thanks! We were glad to be first on route and gradually pulled ahead. By the time we topped out just under 3 hours after we started up Pitch 1, the next party was four pitches below.

We climbed the route fix-and-follow style. I took the first block—having never led the opening pitch and wanting to give it a go—and Shae kindly let me lead the entire route. (After I wrote this trip report, someone asked whether the trailing rope from this method might get in the way of a party below. That’s definitely something to keep in mind when using the fix-and-follow technique if there are climbers directly beneath you—it always makes me rethink my plan when another party shows up. Fortunately, in this case, the rope hung off to the side for the first couple of pitches, and after that we’d pulled far enough ahead that it wasn’t an issue.)

We chose to rappel the independent rap line just right of the route and were back at the base shortly before 11 a.m.—car to car in 4 hours and 53 minutes.

What an awesome day. Thanks, Shae—let’s climb something else together later this trip!

This page includes an overlay, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos from a great day on a Yosemite classic.