Slab Happy Pinnacle, Center

All of the routes on Slab Happy are quite excellent, and the Center Route is no exception. It features two pitches of mostly face climbing, but also some offwidth, before joining the Dihardral for a final pitch to the summit. The original aid route I believe took a more direct line to the bottom of the crack, while the free variation wanders off to the left after the second bolt and then goes up. All of the bolts were replaced by the

ASCA

in 2012.

The first pitch is one of the best pitches of 5.10 face climbing in the Valley. Start in a corner near the left side of the slab. Precise route-finding is necessary to find easy passage out of the corner and up to the first bolt. Micro cams provide some protection at the start but you will want to back clean them or suffer rope drag. After the second bolt traverse left across a dike to the third bolt. Large knobs lead up and right past two more bolts to an anchor.

Pitch 2 traverses right along the ramp to a bolt. Tricky moves gain a fist and offwidth crack. Follow the crack past an intermediate bolted anchor and belay at the second bolted anchor near the right side of the formation. There is also a variation to this pitch called "The Happy Ending" which, from the belay, climbs up and left to the arete before angling back over to the right to join the Dihardral. Guidebook calls it 11a and it looks quite thin.

Pitch 3 (same as the

The Dihardral

) climbs up and left across flakes to reach a small right-facing corner/flake. A tough lieback with glassy footholds leads up this to the top of the Pinnacle.

With the newly replaced bolts at the anchors I believe it is now possible to rap to the ground in two double-rope raps. Stop at the mid-way anchor on pitch 2.

You'll want a handfull of cams ranging from tiny to .75" plus a few big cams (4"-5").