The Chimney

1 pitch of about 5.6 R (You REALLY don't want to get hirt up here!) getting past THE chockstone, with several "pitches" of class 3/4 that leads directly to the notch between Pamola Peak and Chimney Peak. I climbed this way back in 1966 or 1967, but hesitated to put it in to Mountainproject because telephoto pictures I took from near Baxter Peak (across the basin) in 2015 just didn't look right. I had remembered traversing directly below the huge first chockstone (like maybe I even had to duck in places) and making one or three "sketchy" 5.5 (old school) moves to get around its left side. The 2015photo(s) I took looked like there was nothing under the chockstone.Both observations have been confirmed by a recent report on the climb by Robert O'Brian who reported in an e-mail :"I climbed it as a high school student (’72) and remember it the same as you… now we climbed about 60-70 feet down hill from the chockstone itself… I think something washed out the gully. " His description of the 2019 climb is as follows: A very short technical climb (perhaps 80 ft) with a fair distance bushwack approach and regular short (10-50 ft) class 4 going around chockstones 2-4. We also had to 4th class the small 20 ft headwall beneath the first chockstone. Conditions were wet, but the rock was good and not slimy. The crux is on left side of the 1st chockstone, and had a 20 foot vertical bit that is very well protected (including fixed nut) up to 15 feet, but poorly thereafter (5.6R at the top of the crack, before the angle eases off). You can stem (hard) or wide hand/foot crack (easier) the first 20 feet. The remainder is a long, gradual rising horizontal crack system with vegetation and loose choss (beware to belayer) which meets with the upper left side of the chockstone itself. This upper crack protects poorly and offers both the leader and second a ground fall. 5.6 seems right. 4th class is inappropriate (5.6 solo is still 5.6). Based on the beta from many websites and BSP, it seems like the route is rarely climbed in summer.

See photo of the whole Chimney Pond Basin. The climb is not visible from the pond. Circle the pond follow the main drainage up. (See Photo) When the gully narrows, be sure to stay on the left, lest one wander right into the "Wrong Chimney".

Std Rack