The greatest challenge when traveling to Yosemite Valley is deciding what to climb. When you enter the Valley you are overwhelmed with fantastic-looking rock in all sizes, from the one-pitch climbs at the cookie climb to the 30+ pitch mega-routes on El Capitan. So, how do you choose what to climb with only a limited amount of time?
The answer is simple: look for the classics.
The definition of "classic," however, is not that easy. Allen Steck and Steve Roper had to wrestle with the questions, "What makes a route classic?" when they wrote Fifty Classic Climbs of North America. They found that classic routes usually met three criteria (listed in order of importance):
1) offer excellent climbing
2) the peak or route should look striking from afar and
3) should have a significant climbing history.
While I agree with these three criteria, my rule for what constitutes classic is even simpler: classic routes are those few climbs that you want to climb again and again and again.
While there are thousands of routes in Yosemite, relatively few meet either of the criteria above. To help climbers identify classic climbs I have listed over 100 classic routes on my SuperTopo web site. Even this list, however, can be daunting to the traveling climber with only a week or two of holiday. So I have listed five classic climbs above that should not be missed. I have started with an easy single-pitch climb and listed progressively harder climbs all the way up to a multi-day big wall. For each climb I have provided both history and a description of what makes this climb special.
To get even more history and beta on these climbs, as well as a detailed SuperTopo, visit www.supertopo.com. While these climbs are not necessarily the "five best climbs in Yosemite," they are archetypal classic climbs that capture both the rich history and fantastic rock of the Valley. A SuperTopo for all these routes is available in the SuperTopo ebook, Yosemite Ultra Classics.
|
