Higher Cathedral Spire | chossclimbers.com

The Regular Route.

Though we were supposed to have some 1.5 days of climbing tacked on to Shirley’s work conference in SF, we ended up with two semi-useable half days instead thanks to Alaska’s 3 hour delay departing PDX. What was supposed to be a midnight-ish arrival in Oakdale, turned into 3am. Finally started the approach hike at 11am on the following day – too late for anything long but plenty for the Regular Route on Higher Cathedral Spire (5P 5.9+). Pretty fun route: 5 varied pitches with pitch 2 being sandbagged relative to others. Fantastic summit offering one of the best panoramas in The Valley…from The Sentinel to Lost Arrow Spire to the big El C and of course Middle and Higher Cathedral Rocks. Killed off the half day on Sunday with some tourist bullshit in San Francisco (dim sum was good though not HK good).

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Photos

Higher Cathedral Spire (and its Lower cousin) as seen from NE Buttress of HCR.

Higher Cathedral Spire as seen from the notch of Higher Cathedral Rock (taken some years ago when we did either Braille Book or NE Buttress). Most of The Regular Route is visible.

On the crux of the route – a short, leftward traverse on pitch 2 (June 2018).

Pulling the “5.9+ bulge”. In fact the bulge felt trivial; the real kicker (crux of route) is the short traverse to reach the bulge (June 2018).

Looking back at Shirley from the lead to pitch 2 above all the cruxy stuff (June 2018).

View of El Cap and the “backside” of Middle Cathedral Rock on the left (June 2018).

Shirley on pitch 2 above the difficulties (June 2018).

Leading pitch 3 of Regular Route (June 2018).

Looking down pitch 3 (June 2018).

Close up of the short traverse on the same pitch (June 2018).

Shirley topping out on pitch 3 via the 5.7 chimney (June 2018).

Starting up pitch 4 (June 2018).

Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 4 of Regular Route (June 2018).

Airy traverse at the end of pitch 4 (June 2018).

Views of El Cap from high on the route (June 2018).

Shirley on the final (traverse) moves of pitch 4 of The Regular Route (June 2018).

Higher Cathedral Rock (with its uber classic NE Buttress) from Higher Cathedral Spire (June 2018).

Almost done with the pitch (June 2018).

Starting up the flake crack on the final pitch. There’s a party rapping in the background (June 2018).

Higher on the same pitch (June 2018).

Looking back at Shirley from the lead of the final pitch (June 2018).

Almost on the summit (June 2018).

Shirley on the “steep 5.9 hands” (a flake really with thin hands behind it) of the 5th and final pitch of The Regular Route (June 2018).

Shirley topping out on the Regular Route (June 2018).

Shirley admiring the view of The Valley from the summit (June 2018).

Shirley (right) and El Cap (June 2018).

A self portrait on the summit (June 2018).

Shirley getting ready to rap off the summit (June 2018).

First rap off the summit (June 2018).

Hiking down the loose bit of the trail (June 2018).

Cool flora in the forest at the base of the Spire (June 2018).

San Francisco (June 2018).

San Francisco: in search of some dim sum in Chinatown (June 2018).

Maybe here?

Found it (not quite the HK quality but in a pinch…).

A veggie grocer in Chinatown (June 2018).

San Francisco’s Chinatown (June 2018).

Tiger (June 2018).

Filbert Street (June 2018).

Filbert Street – reportedly the steepest (one of two) grade in the city clocking in at 31.5% or ~18degrees (June 2018).

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