Pronounced "ounce", this Tuolumne classic ascends the steep 500' north face of Drug Dome, forging its way up through flakes and difficult face towards the obvious beautiful 120' 5.10c right-facing dihedral. I'd climbed Oz with my friend Ross in 2007, but this route is definitely worth doing over and over just for that dihedral pitch. The top of Drug Dome pretty much brings you right to the base of Mariuolumne Dome, which has some nice routes on it, so Dow and I linked up Oz with Hobbit Book on Mariuolumne Dome.

We had initially planned on climbing Serrated Edge on Mariuolumne (try pronouncing that!) Dome, but due to the ominous clouds to the east we wanted to run up something that would be quicker and easier. Hobbit Book was a great choice. This popular route ascends the obvious steep left-facing corner system on Mariuolumne Dome. It's pretty easy climbing, but the third pitch ascends about 100' of patina face, with only one bolt (at about 30 feet up) to protect the entire face! The face is quite steep, but the patina jugs are large and positive, so it's mostly just really exciting rather than overly scary. This route made a great encore to Oz. We climbed it quickly in two long pitches—Pitches 1+2 led by Dow and Pitches 3+4 led by me—with some simulclimbing at the end of each of our leads. 

It was another day where the forecast was "50% thundershowers" but for some reason (probably an innate desire Dow an I have to make everything an adventure) we chose to climb a route that becomes a watercourse when it rains. Aqua Knobby is a slightly runout knobby adventure climb on the north side of Pywiack Dome. The route gets 4 stars in the guidebook, but I give it 1.5. I just didn't enjoy the climbing much I guess. Dow liked it better than I did, giving it 2.5 stars. Fortunately, it did not rain on us during the climb, although it would have been quite exciting to be climbing up a runnout knobby waterfall.

After Aqua Knobby, the thunderclouds had grown to the east but we still had blue skies above us, so we decided to run up Dike Route. Dike Route follows the system of dikes on the west side of Pywiack Dome that are quite obvious from the road. Climbing a dike is really unique climbing. For gear on this route, all you need is 3 quick draws and an anchor, as the first five pitches have, respectively, 0, 1, 3, 2, and 0 bolts. Hence the "R" rating to the route (which turns into an "X" if you don't find the second bolt on Pitch 4!). Apart from Pitch 1 which we both soloed, Dow led this route. Runout face climbing - even at the 5.6 grade - is just not my thing! But I quite enjoyed following this route. Way cool and unique. And I always like a route with a line that you can identify from the base. 

On the third morning of our Tuolumne trip, we awoke to an unclimbable drizzle. I didn't expect to be battling cold and rain when I came to California in July! Dow and I spent the day in Mammoth Lakes browsing used book shelves, eating Schat's Bakkery goodies, and drinking way too much coffee coffee in Mammoth Lakes. The next day we awoke to a dry morning, but when we drove into Tuolume we found it a winter wonderland with somewhat wintery temperatures. Another day looking for things to do besides climb. I photographed birds chasing files at Mono Lake.

After two days of coffee, books, and birds, the weather was favorable enough to climb again. Hooray! In the morning we climbed American Wet Dream, a route we had spotted a few days previous when we were climbing on Pywiack Dome, which is just across the road from Mountaineers Dome. American Wet Dream is a bit of an undiscovered gem of a route, despite the fact that the route is fully visible from the road and has only a 5 minute approach and is a warm south-facing choice for a cool day. The route pretty much stair-steps up the dome, with spacious flat ledges at each belay and steep 5.10 crack climbing between ledges. Dow and I both really enjoyed this climb, and agreed that the climbing is 4-star in quality. We swung leads. A note on the descent: There are two main options: (1) 4th class off right and then walk off to the left or (2) go down and left and descend an exposed 4th to low 5th ramp. We initially opted for Option 2 since it is definitely shorter and could be quite quick, but we found the ramp to be a bit wet from the recent storms; so we went with Option 1, which was a reasonably nice cross-country stroll, as long as you resist the temptation to descend left too soon and get caught in cliffs.

After a morning climbing American Wet Dream, we hopped back in the car and drove to Lembert Dome, where we climbed the Direct Northwest Face, which follows a splitter crack up the NW face of the dome. We climbed this 400' route in two long pitches, where I led the first two pitches and Dow led the second two pitches. Pitch 1 was easy 5th, Pitch 2 had a lot of climbing up 5.9 pin scars (offset cams fit great) and a fun undercling move, Pitch 3 was a great crack with a fun 10a steep section, and Pitch 4 was also a great 10b crack (unfortunately not as fun as it could have been since it was a bit wet from the recent storms) ending with a committing 5.9 slab move. I thought it was a pretty high quality route and enjoyed it. A note on the descent: There are two main options: (1) walk off the tourist trail or (2) descend the slabs on the west side. I opted for Option 1 while Dow opted for Option 2. I wish I'd followed Dow. The trail was boring and long and the slabs were fun (according to Dow) and direct.

The previous day we had eyed the southwest face of Lembert Dome as we passed by on our way to climb the Direct NW Buttress route. One route that caught our attention was Truck'N Drive. So the next morning we returned to climb it. The rock had a slightly insecure feel to it (must have been high humidity in the morning), making the climb seem a bit more difficult than it probably was, but nevertheless we highly enjoyed the route. Definitely worth doing. Just make sure it's a dry day — I wouldn't want to be on this route when it was raining.

Next on the docket for the day was On the Lamb on Lamb Dome. Dow likes to climb new routes so part of the motivation to go over to Lamb Dome was to check out Little Sheeba, a raved-about 1-pitch 10a fingercrack located on an outcrop on the lower right end of Lamb Dome (just below and right of the right hand end of On the Lamb). Both Dow and I led this route — me first, and then Dow. It was indeed a really fun climb. The finger locks were concisely bomber and the protection was plentiful. My only complaint about this route is that it is too short. 90' of this kind of crack is just a tease!

Finally it was time to climb On the Lamb, which I had convinced Dow to climb with me even though he had climbed it once before. On the Lamb is a classic route in Tuolumne, following a ~300' horizontal crack across the face of Lamb Dome. The crack maintains its juggy nature throughout, keeping the climbing at 5.8 with a 40' section of 5.9 where the feet disappear for awhile. I've never climbed anything like it. The exposure was phenomenal and the climbing just super fun and unique. The is my favorite Tuolumne route to date. Instead of climbing the last easy pitch of On the Lamb, we finished by climbing a combo of Sleeper Pitch 3 (5.8 R) and Jailbreak Pitch 2 (5.9 R-) to reach the summit of Lamb Dome on clean and steep slab. A 10 pitch day!

A few days earlier we had done an Oz-Hobbit Book link-up of Drug and Mariuolumne Domes. Now we were back to do another link-up of the two domes, this time Crystal Meth-Serrated Edge. Crystal Meth climbs the face to the right of the giant black waterstreak on the right side of Drug Dome. This route gets 3 stars in guidebook, but I'd probably give it 1.5. It was a bit grungy and just not fun or physically challenging enough to do again. But I suppose it's still a better option than hiking up to Mariuolumne Dome. 

Our main objective for the day was Serrated Edge, a relatively new route on Mariuolumne Dome. This route gets its name from the fact that it climbs a right-facing corner system with several roofs that jut out like the teeth of a serrated knife. This route features burly 5.10 adventure crack climbing. I really enjoy this kind of climbing, so I really enjoyed this route and I'd definitely climb it again. Dow and I swung leads.