Sands of Time

Pitch 1 climbs through some funky wide stuff, 5.8. Has big bolted anchors.

Pitch 2 goes through a roof to a bolted ledge. Fun double-crack jamming up higher in the slot and sweet face climbing over the roof characterize this pitch.

Pitch 3 ends at a big ledge above.

Pitch 4 is a short pitch w/ chimney.

Pitch 5 reminded me of an upgraded version of the p3 finger crack on West Crack in Tuolumne. Has bolted anchors at top. One more pitch to the twelve o'clock ledge.

Pitch 6 reminded me of various sections on Crying Time Again in Tuolumne.

From the 12 o'clock ledge, you'll want to move the belay up onto the small ledge above you. There is a brush-filled ramp that heads up and right and then walk back left across the ledge to belay below a white flake.

Pitch 7 (variation going up West Tibetan Tower) is a long pitch of mostly 5.5 and 5.6 with some 5.7 moves up a corner. Anchor in less-than-great rock.

Pitch 8 up East Tibetan Tower is a 5.8 squeeze chimney. Somewhat hard to protect and stays tough for quite a ways. Eat your food, Tina.

Climb up the flake about 20 ft, place some gear and then make a cruxy traverse right. There is a slopey softball sized knob which I used as a handhold. You are aiming to get to the small corner/flake up and to the right. The first couple moves are the hardest (5.9) but it stays somewhat sustained in the 5.8-5.7 range higher up. Don't blow any of the moves or you will take an ugly swing back into the big flake below.

At the small corner you can get a solid .5" TCU. Climb straight up the face to another small left facing corner. The gear here is tricky (micro cams help) and the stances aren't very good for fiddling with gear. Climb to the top of the corner and then follow a dike up and left. From here you just wander up the face, taking advantage of the numerous knobs and features. There is no gear however, so don't blow it in the upper regions of the pitch or you will crater on the ledge 150' below. I found a way through that felt about 5.6, but there is potential to make it harder if you don't route-find correctly. Even at 5.6, it feels sort of "out there" as you pinch slopey knobs and smear your feet while looking at a death fall. The pitch ends at a ledge/ramp that diagonals up and to the left. Gear anchor.

From here, we got off-route for the next two pitches so I can only speculate at pitches 9 and 10. Pitch 9 looks like it wanders across the face up and right to belay beneath the big left-facing corner above. It also looks like another ass-puckering pitch of 5.9 face, like the previous one, or possibly even worse. Pitch 10 climbs the left facing corner, with probably some chimney climbing. The topo calls it 5.8 and it doesn't look bad. This will take you to War Lord Ledge.

The variation we did was actually quite nice and I recommend it. From the top of p8, wander up about 40ft of easy face climbing to a bolt. From here you follow a line of bolts along a dike that angles up and to the left. Probably 5.8. Some of the bolts are a bit rusted, but they're fat ones and the hangers are nice and fat too. Belay at a bolt anchor above the dike. Pitch 10 continues following the bolted dike with a section of 5.9 near the end. This will take you to War Lord Ledge. The dike (and bolts) continue on, and this is probably the best way to finish the climb, but we were pressed for time and decided to just finish up the moderate final pitches of Sands. But first a 5.0 pitch along War Lord Ledge is necessary to link up with the top of p10 of Sands.

Pitch 11 climbs up a left facing corner to a ledge. Traverse along the ledge to the right and then climb up the right side of a flake to a small ledge at the top of the flake. 5.5 maybe.

Pitch 12 follows the obvious dike above the ledge through the low angle and lichen covered face. There's no pro, but only the first couple moves are maybe 5.6, and then it turns to easy 5th/4th class. From the top of this pitch you can unrope and 3rd class it to the top of the dome.

If you walk over to the far left side of the ledge you will find some wrap anchors that drop you into silk road which you can wrap to the base of the route. NEED 2 60 METER ROPES! Or you can stay on route through 5 more pitches of run out slab climbing. We climbed two more pitches up the right side of Tibetan towers which is found on the left side of 12 o'clock ledge. The first pitch is easy 5.6 and second is dirty 5.8 chimney. The top of the second is really dirty. You will find wrap anchors for silk road at the top of Tibetan tower which you can take to the ground, or you can link back to the original route on war lord ledge which heads right.

One short single rope rap to the top of West Tibetan Tower and then four double rope raps to the start of the route IIRC.

Leave adequate time to find the rap anchors on War of the Walls, if that's the way you're descending. We ended up heading straight to them by pure luck, but there were times as we headed down the increasingly steep slabs that I was questioning if we were going the right way. It's not very obvious and the drop off below you gives the feeling that you're walking off the edge of a cliff.

Climbs up the left side of the hour glass buttress. Starts just to the right of silk road.

Standard rack to 4.5" plus nuts.