Lone Peak Cirque is an amazing place. Once in the cirque it hard to believe that you are so close to a metro area. The approach, a steep four hour hike with a little bit of route finding involved, generally keeps the riff raff out. Travis and I headed up there with no specific goals aside from enjoying pristine alpine granite in a spectacular location.
After pounding out the approach we set up camp and melted some snow for water. We were glad to see that there was still a snowpatch since it was late in the season. We decided to climb Center Thumb 5.9, a direct line up the “thumb” on the south summit wall.
Center Thumb climbs up the center of the "thumb" feature that seems to be leaning against the wall. Seen here from the North summit.
Travis heads off on the 2nd pitch. Super fun moderate climbing.
Classic moderate climbing leads to the crux, a fun and exposed hand crack which leads to the top of the thumb. One more pitch of slightly loose 5.7 leads to the top of the south summit wall.
Looking down from about the midway point on the last pitch. Travis is belying from the top of the thumb in the upper left corner of the photo.
Travis on top of the south summit.
Tired and hungry we descended back to camp to make dinner. Scoping lines and topos over dinner we decided that tomorrow we would first climb Vertical Overhangs 5.10-, a link up of the crux pitches of two classic lines: Vertical Smile and Triple Overhangs. Then we would see how much time we had left and go from there.
Travis heading up the first pitch, enjoying the awesome granite that abounds in the cirque.
I had climbed this route before so Travis agreed to lead the pitches that I had lead the first time so that I could lead the pitches I had followed the first time. Everything went smoothly and soon enough we were topping out…
Travis following the last pitch.
North Summit. Travis with a mouthful of Clif Bar.
Next we headed to Question Mark wall to climb Doomsday Book 5.10b…
- Question Mark Wall. Doomsday Book climbs the prominent green corner centered in this photo.
We were looking for something quick and easy. We found something quick. Doomsday book is three pitches, two of which are short and easy and the crux pitch that is 150+ feet and maybe a little sandbag. I can’t really say how hard the crux pitch is I was too busy mumbling as I made insecure move after insecure move over less than ideal gear(mostly my fault, I had placed some key pieces down lower thinking that the crack at the top was wider and easier when in fact it is thinner and harder all the way to the top). I made it, but not before a bunch of screaming like a 5 year old girl. Travis followed the pitch cleanly and shot up the last pitch quickly since we were in a bit of a hurry. We descended to camp and packed up quickly trying to get as much of the hike to the car done before dark.
One last shot before we go. North summit wall is left. South summit wall left center. Question Mark wall far right.
