Once Bitten

In the Monolith Cirque east of the Cirque of the Towers, several obvious buttresses spill from the true summit of Dog Tooth Peak (12,488')—Once Bitten takes an enjoyable and relatively moderate path up the Dogtooth Pinnacle, which is the prominent tooth-shaped tower on the left side of the massif. We could find no previous history of climbing on this formation—we encountered no fixed gear and left the route in the same condition. A few of the upper pitches were quite long and could easily be broken up if you had a shorter rope.

Pitch 1 (5.10, 35m): start up the prominent chimney system, but break left after 20ft to the obvious flake. Bust a move into the flake and climb OW to the top of it. Take the right-trending flake back into the chimney and belay.

Pitch 2 (5.10, 35m): Take the right-most crack above the chimney. Hand jams in the corner lead to a bulge where the crack widens. Step left or continue straight up via OW moves. Jamming and stemming leads to a belay below a massive flake wedged in the chimney.

Pitch 3 (5.10, 50m): Bridge across the chimneyuntil you can step onto the giant flake. Once established on top of it, take your helmet off, go right side in, and engage the bombay slot. Exit the slot and trend up and right, belaying on a comfortable ledge around the corner.

Pitch 4 (5.10, 60m): From the belay, face climb up and left via cracks, toward the arete, to the left side of the hourglass-shaped pillar. Tackle the corner on the left side of the pillar, stemming between face holds and carefully dancing left around a precariously wedged block. Climb cracks and face up and right to a right-angling ledge system. Bust a lieback move with thin gear and belay somewhere in the rampy corner.

Pitch 5 (5.10, 70m): Continue up and right through vegetated lieback cracks. Instead of heading right to seemingly easier terrain, head up and left on a flake system that pinches down to fingers and requires some creative stemming. Lieback around the bulge above and follow the right-trending ramp to a short section of vertical flakes.

Pitch 6 (5.9, 70m): Follow the obvious path of least resistance up toward the right side of the roof, which becomes a low-angle, right-facing corner. Continue up and left on easy low-angle terrain to a spacious ledge below a giant V-shaped gully.

Confident parties should feel comfortable unroping here—it's about 200-250m of easy 5th-class terrain to the ridge. From the ridge scramble easy ground to the summit.

To descend, continue along the sidewalk-like ridgeline to a broad plateau below the true summit of Dog Tooth Peak. Purists can take it to the chains from here with some causal hiking. Descend north down the idyllic Lizard Head Meadows to an obvious game trail that circles back into the cirque proper.

The Dogtooth Pinnacle is in the Monolith Cirque above Papoose Lake, a few miles down the North Fork Trail from the Cirque of the Towers. The route begins in an obvious chimney/cleft on the lower right side of the Dogtooth Pinnacle's east/northeast face. It would be possible and probably not a big deal to daytrip this route from a basecamp in the Cirque of the Towers.

Doubles to #3, one #4