South Face of Charlotte Dome: Worth the hike.

Last week Jen and I motored over Kearsarge Pass to climb a backcountry classic that has always interested me, but has deterred many of my potential climbing partners with a stout 12 mile, uphill-both-ways approach.


Luckily for me Jen doesn't look at the map before these adventures, so I can pretty much rope her into anything!

After getting to the plush bivy in the forest next to the dome we conked out for the night amidst a haze of mosquitos.  Upon waking I found out one of the buggers had found its way through my bug net and bitten me near the eye, causing my eyelid to swell up and give me a case of the dreaded Pirate-Eye!  This would make the first couple pitches more interesting as I had limited depth perception!


















Once we got on the route it was just about as good as it gets; fun slab pitches with finicky protection, great cracks and some unique water runnels forming grooved pitches called the Furrows.  All in all, it is a spectacular route in a very beautiful setting, made even better by the fact that we had it to ourselves.

A couple cups of coffee before hitting the road back over the Pass helped get us through the end of the day.  Doing this in 2 days was a bit of a stretch, since you end up gaining just as much elevation going back as you did coming in!  A quick stop at Carl's Jr. in Bishop and it was back home to Mammoth.