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Tuolumne 2024: Daff Dome West Crack, Lembert Dome Northwest Books, Phobos, Lucky Streaks

3 Days in Tuolumne

Routes:

- West Crack (5.9, 4p, 700')
- Northwest Books (5.6 or 5.9, 2p, 300')
- Phobos (5.9, 3p, 300')
- Lucky Streaks (5.10c, 6p, 600')

A 3-day 4-route late spring climbing+camping trip to Tuolumne.

Region: California
Elev: 9,000-10,000 ft
Rock type: Granite
Type: 
Date(s): June 10-12, 2024 (Mon-Wed)
Partner(s): Nate Arganbright

Related trip reports:

Route Overlays

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Daff Dome, West Crack
Lembert Dome, Direct Northwest Face & Northwest Books
Phobos & Demos
Fairview Dome, Lucky Streaks
Fairview Dome, Lucky Streaks
Fairview Dome, Lucky Streaks

Intro

For the last two years, I had been working full-time as a data analyst. While I enjoyed some of the benefits of working a full time job (house, security, etc.), I missed the longer climbing road trips of my younger years. So, when I decided to temporarily leave my job to take a full-time 6-month coding bootcamp from mid-June to mid-December, this was the perfect time to build a couple of weeks of climbing road trip into my schedule. Sunny Californian granite was calling. Nate had never climbed in California (!), so it wasn't too hard to twist his arm to join me on a two-week climbing road-trip to experience some sunny Californian granite.
  1. Our first destination of the trip was Whitney Portal, where we enjoyed four days climbing multi pitch routes on the gleaming white granite and hanging out at camp at the Whitney Portal Campground.

  2. The plan for the second destination was The Needles in southern Colorado, where I had climbed in 2017 and 2018 and deemed it one of my favorite places to climb. But when we arrived there after a 4-hour drive from Whitney Portal, we found the gate was closed to access. Dejected, we headed back towards the Sierra East Side and decided to crag in the shade of Pine Creek Canyon for a few days. The rock and quality of the climbing was superb and fun and Nate probably enjoyed this area the most of any destination on our trip, but I found myself craving bigger, higher routes.

  3. Then, Tioga Pass opened for the season, so for our third destination of the trip, we decided to head to Tuolumne for a few days. I had been there a few times before and was happy to return to this land of the granite domes. We climbed in Tuolumne for three days.

  4. Our fourth and final destination of our California adventures was Charlotte Dome. The South Face (5.8, 1500') is a Fifty Classic, and this route had been on my to-climb list for a long time. My friends Erin and Cara (of the Grand Traverse the previous summer) had just climbed it and had a blast, said there was no snow on the approach, and encouraged Nate and I to climb it.
The following page gives route overlays and pitch by pitch photos from our climbs in Tuolumne.

Climbs We Did

CLICK ON ROUTE TO DROP DOWN CONTENT

West Crack on Daff Dome is one of the earliest Tuolumne climbs first climbed in 1963 by Frank Sacherer and Wally Reed. This route climbs a 400-foot crack splitting the west flank of Daff Dome. Except for a few face moves off the ground which are protected by a bolt, the entire route is 5.8 or easier. This route is quite popular due to its moderate grade, fun well-protected climbing, and short approach. But being opening day for Tuolume for the season, we were first on route. This was a good first route of our Tuolume adventures.

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd
Opening day at the Tioga Pass entrance to Tuolumne.
Handy carabiner sign marking the start of the approach to Daff Dome.
The wet log at the creek crossing looked a bit hazardous....
..so we waded across.
Big pinecones.

Pitch 1

5.9
Nate starting up Pitch 1. This is the 5.9 crux of the route: a slick few moves to gain the crack. Fortunately there is a bolt to protect it.
Piton en route. This is a historic route. First ascent in 1963.
Bolted anchor at the top of Pitch 1. This is the only bolted anchor on the route. Photo by Nate.
A climber from the party behind us leading Pitch 1. He had forgotten one of his climbing shoes, so he led this pitch wearing one approach shoe and one climbing shoe. That must have made the crux at the start difficult!

Pitch 2

5.8
Start of Pitch 2.
Midway up on Pitch 2.
Wider crack near the end of Pitch 2.
Steph following the wide crack at the top of Pitch 2. Photo by Nate.

Pitch 3

5.8
The fun finger crack of Pitch 3.

Pitch 4

5.5
Nate leading the final easy pitch to the top.

Descent

Rappel + Scramble
One rappel with a single 70
On top of Daff Dome.
Looking down at the parking area. Probably all climbing the West Crack route.
Fairview Dome across the way (a bit of trivia: Daff dome stands for Dome Across From Fairview).
The bolted rap anchor is just below the tree.
Bolted rap anchor. One rappel with a single 70 or 60, and two rappels with a single 50 (there is a second bolted rap anchor below).
Bolted rap anchor.
Hiking back down to the road.
Pretty tree on the descent. I don't really know my trees well, but maybe a Western red cedar? Photo by Nate.
Scrambling down some slabs towards the road. There might be a better way but this is the way we went.
Indian paintbrush.
Phlox.
Lizard. Photo by Nate.
Back at the roadside pullout that is parking for Daff Dome.

After climbing West Crack (5.9, 4p) on Daff Dome, we still had the entire afternoon. We tried to crag at Low Profile Dome but backed off due to runnout knob climbing we were not accustomed to. We decided that the 2-pitch Northwest Books on Lembert Dome sounded like a fun couple of pitches to add to the day. This route was one of the first techincal climbs in Tuolumne (FA Warren Harding and Frank de Saussure in 1954). Two pitches of varied climbing, moderate grade, and easy access make this a popular route. But we got lucky and no one was climbing it. To add some more challenging climbing to the route, we opted for the 5.9 lieback variation on Pitch 2.

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Heading towards Lembert Dome.
A 3rd class ramp leading to the start of the route.

Pitch 1

5.6
Looking up Pitch 1.
A lone bolt protecting a 5.6 mantle move on Pitch 1.
Steph following Pitch 1. Photo by Nate.

Pitch 2

5.9 or 5.6
We chose to 5.9 lieback option rather than the 5.6 to the right. Photo by Nate.
Looking up the 5.9 lieback.
5.6 climbing above the lieback.

Descent

Scramble off
View. Cathedral Peak has the distinctive profile.
Scrambling off.
Scrambling off.
Some flowers on the descent. The pink ones are penstemon.

Phobos is a 5-star 3-pitch sustained 5.9 at Phobos/Deimos Cliff. It has an intimidating start, but there are lots of holds and gear placements. The second pitch's perfect double hand cracks on a near-vertical wall are the best steep cracks at the grade in Tuolumne. Sharp hand jams, wild stemming, steep jugs, and endurance climbing make Phobos both feared and sought-after. This is exactly the type of climbing I love, so I led all three pitches of this route. It was a blast. We finished before noon, but I had some bootcamp work to catch up on and Nate needed to work on some estimates, so we spent the afternoon at the Mobile station in Lee Vining using their seating, power, and our hotspots.

Route Overlay

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

2nd
Phobos/Deimos Cliff from the road.
Helpful carabiner sign marking the start of the trail up to the cliff.
Cute flowers. My dad read my trip report and identified these with his Seek app as Whiskerbrush.
Whiskerbrush.
Phobos follows the weakness behind the tree.

Pitch 1

5.9
Pitch 1. The roof is the burly crux of the route.
Looking up from the base.

Pitch 2

5.9
Looking up Pitch 2. A stellar pitch of 5.9 crack climbing.

Pitch 3

5.9
Looking up Pitch 3. More crack climbing fun.

Descent

3rd
Scramble back to base of route
The descent is well-marked by cairns.
Nate plowing through some annoying shrubbery on the descent.
We went and looked up Deimos (5.9, 3p), another fun-looking 5.9. I wanted to climb this route but we were not psyched about doing the descent again.
Phobos/Diemos Cliff.
Looking up Blues Riff (5.11, 2p), which follows an awesome flake feature. I would love to climb this route too.
Moss on tree.
Bark art.
Cute white flowers. My dad read this trip report and identified these as Cut-leaf Fleabane.

For our final route of our Tuolumne adventures, we decided to climb Lucky Streaks on Fairview Dome. I had climbed Lucky Streaks in 2007 on my first trip to Tuolumne. Looking up from the base, Lucky Streaks may look intimidating. However, the rock is covered with knobs making the climbing easier than it appears. The quality of this route rivals the Fifty Classic Regular Route also on Fairview Dome. The pitches are long and the protection bomber. I was happy to climb this route again with Nate.

Route Overlays

Pitch-by-Pitch Photos

Approach

Starting the 30 minute approach to the base of the route.
We had to kick steps up a short snowfield to get on the rock.
We had to kick steps up a short snowfield to get on the rock.

Pitch 1

5.9
Nate leading Pitch 1, at the "delicate 5.9" move.

Pitch 2

5.10a
Looking up the 5.10a fingercrack on Pitch 2.
Nate nearing the top of the fun pitch.

Pitch 3

5.10c (crux pitch)
Nate starting the crux pitch.
Fun sustained 5.10 climbing on Pitch 3. The pitch protects well with small cams.
Piton en route.
Steph following the crux pitch. Photo by Nate.

Pitch 4

5.9
Steph leading Pitch 4. Photo by Nate. A fun steep fingercrack with lots of knobs for the feet.
Nate nearing the top of Pitch 4.

Pitch 5

5.9
The 5.9 traverse at the start of the pitch. This protects well with small cams.
Nate just after the traverse. You can see the crack of Pitch 6 above.
The final half of the pitch.

Pitch 6

5.8
Looking up Pitch 6. A fun final crack romp to the top.
Nearing the top.

Descent

2nd/3rd hike off top
Descending the slabs of Fairview Dome. Cathedral Peak in distance.
After the climb we relaxed a bit at the van - I downloaded photos and began making a route overlay while Nate read a book in the sun.

Camp at Lower Lee Vining Campground.
I ate a lifetime worth of cantelopue on this trip. You just cannot get a good cantelopue back in Colorado!
The first evening, Nate cooked a frozen pizza. Yum.
The next evening, he made his own "pizza" with flatbread and cheese (I questioned that it was actually pizza without a sauce =).
Hanging out charging and hotspotting at the Mobile gas station in Lee Vining, a few miles from our campground.
Filling up our water jugs at the Mobile gas station in Lee Vining. The price of gas in California....about double the price back in Colorado at the time of this trip report....ouch.
The Lee Vining campground is great, but they need to find a shadier spot for the quartet of outhouses. Let the daily cooking begin....
At the end of the trip, Nate treated himself to a burger at the Mobile gas station in Lee Vining. Yum!
Diving in....

Previous and Next Adventures

Cragging in Pine Creek Canyon, CA
Charlotte Dome (South Face), CA

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