South Chimney

Starts off of the far right side of Jungle Ledge so it’s suggested to start on the South Face or South Cracks. The climbing is fun and engaging. A nice treat for chimney fans. It is sustained at 5.8-5.10, though a few bits of aid can keep it a little more mellow.

Bumping cams or leap-frogging cams is sometimes an option. It’s a good size chimney, sometimes squeeze like to get pro in. It takes the big stuff so if you wanna sew it up like we did, two 5’s, 6’s and one 9 will get used.

P1: 90’ 5.10a. From far right side of Jungle Ledge, climb dirty blocks to get into the chimney. Head up to some chock stones and a small, tight ledge. Careful not to kick the chocks down the chasm. Belay takes a #5 cam and #11 hex.

P2: 150’ 5.10b/C1. Four star pitch. Up from the chocked ledge, where amazing feet edges keep coming, gets steep and tight to place pro. The 5’s, 6’s and the 9 work well here. Commit to a memorable and airy run up and out of the chimney to knobs, some med. pro at a crack. To a spacious ledge. Fun!

P3: 100’ 5.10b/C1. From the spacious ledge, it’s thin, balanced moves off the deck with a wide 3,4” crack. Dirty and awkward up to another hard bit at chocks, then a dirty gully past trees to a belay under the oak trees.

*From here the original route goes right to a slab then traverse, above the climb Slowburn, and under a roof bulge. Then a second pitch up an oak filled gully. We chose a straight up variation that is one pitch and probably a better option.

P4: 210’ 5.9. Straight up in a wide crack to knobs, a traverse out right on knobs to a cool arete, then slab. Knob tie offs at the arete and before the slab run. Step over a gully and up the easy slab to a big ledge. Another fun pitch.

500’+ of 3rd class to the summit.

From Moro rock parking lot, take the same East gully approach for South Face. It’s 60’ down the Sugar Pine trail then down hill past the giant fallen trees. 45-70 mins for the approach. Do the first two pitches of S. Face or climb South Cracks to Jungle Ledge. Scramble 4th/5th over the right side and the obvious chimney.

A standard alpine rack with doubles in the medium and big stuff plus stoppers and slings.

A 70m rope is suggested to do it in 4P’s. The 4th P is long. A 60m could be used if breaking up P4 into 2.