Sierra Winter Climbing

Over two days of effort Mike Pond and a couple of accomplices put up a new multipitch route on the left side of The Narrows in Lee Vining Canyon and named it after a bad yacht rock song. Lawyers, Guns, and Money starts immediately right of a unnamed 5.8 crack, where the ice climb Womp Rat has formed in the past. Photos and topo by Mike Pond

Approaching the Torre. Photo by Jack Cramer. Since we had a good time on the Torre De Mierda last year, Jack invited me to go up and check out the other line he spied on the face in the middle of February. Last year we started the day with fun, fast, and frightening skiing across a frozen Convict Lake. With an even warmer and drier winter that wasn't a realistic option this time, so we started skinning around the lake and up into the hanging valley below Morrison. Questing on Pitch 1. Photo by Jack Cramer. We were aiming for a ramp system left of Jamaican Lager. The system starts a few hundred feet off the ground, and at first it looked like we could traverse in from the left. After screwing around there for a while we found the climbing and protection wasn't to our liking and dropped down a couple hundred feet, closer to the front part of the face.  Jack nearing the pitch 1 belay. Moderate but runout and wandery climbing took us to the snow ledge at the bottom of the ramp. Jac

Over the last month or so (early 2022) the Wheeler Crest has seen a flurry of winter climbing action. Much of this has been spearheaded by Richard Shore, who may be the the current expert on climbs in this area. He and Joel Kaufmann put up Scottish Astronauts on the Rocketship a few years ago, and an extension/variation to this route was one of the first things to go down this season.  In late January Tad McCrea, Jack Cramer, and myself hiked in to have a look at the route. On the first ascent of that route Richard and Joel bypassed a not-quite-fully-formed ice strip with some cool looking wide climbing on the third pitch. Richard had shared a photo of the strip looking much longer this year, and Tad had spied more ice above the top of the Rocketship.  Tad climbing the snow blobs, as viewed from inside pitch 1. Photo by Jack Cramer.   The route got off to an interesting start. Instead of the moderate mixed climbing the first ascentionists experienced on pitch 1, we found a tricky squee

This is a primer on pitons (or "pins") for a modern climber who has maybe only occasionally clipped one but never placed one. Pitons are heavy and take more time and energy, and a better stance, to place than a nut or cam. They're not necessary on classic summer routes being climbed in the winter. They can be somewhat useful on new winter routes, and they're especially helpful on the rock in the Mount Morrison area and on Blue Crag. Black Diamond is the number one seller of pitons in the US, so I'll reference them a lot here. Camp, Petzl, and Moses pins can be found online and occasionally in shops. Moses and Singing Rock pitons can be found at the Fixe store in Bishop. I've only seen Krukonogi pins for sale online. Camp and Petzl also sell soft iron pins, you can tell these by their more silvery color. They can work better in some non-granite rock types, but don't have quite as long of a life as the chrome-moly options. They're also better for fixing.

This list is totally subjective and (hopefully) evolving. You might disagree with the order, which is fine. What do Californians know about M-climbing anyway. If you think there's a major error please contact me! Routes are sorted by overall difficulty, not just the hardest technical move (kinda like the French Alpine Grades or IFAS), and are fairly close in difficulty with their neighbors on the list. Here's a grade reference from Alpinist Magazine . Ian McEleney on Justification. If you climb to the top of the chimney this is your exit onto the summit slabs. Photo by Kevin McGarity. Crystal Crag - West Face (3rd) or South Ridge (low 5th). A "mini-alpine" winter day (though it could be long if you're a slow hiker/skier. In the winter park at the end of Main Street where Tamarack Cross Country ski area begins. Both of these routes are good for figuring out how to be in the backcountry in the winter but don't need to be very technical. Mammoth Rock - Justifica

The north face of Mount Morrison. Photo by Jack Cramer. This imposing peak has attracted winter climbing attention for a long time*, and the current era is no exception. Preston Rhea is the modern scholar and activist on this peak, doing a ton of research on the old routes and putting up a number of new winter (and summer) climbs for us to try. The metamorphic rock in this area is waaaaayy different to climb on than the stone on say, Mount Russell or the Hulk. The north face of the peak is almost 2000 feet high. These two factors mean that Morrison requires a slightly different mindset from winter climbers than other peaks in the range. It reminds me a bit of alpine climbing in the Canadian Rockies. The following beta can be helpful for folks climbing on Mount Morrison or the Torre De Mierda for the first time. Approach (distances are approximate and measured from the picnic area on the east side of the lake) I think that if you're any climbing routes on the north side of the peak