The climb starts in the gully high on the left side of Shadow Rock.  It's base is just before the gully gets steep.  Ascend the line of bolts to the crux at the third bolt.  Run it out on easy ground to the shared anchors for Swallow, 1st Offense, & Easy Street.  Anchor is setup for Rap.

I Love a Mystery

Desperado

Diamond

Inner Sanctum

Shadow Traverse

1st Offense

Shadow

Thin Man

Fields of Fire

Three To Get Ready

Eat Mo' Possum

Swallow

Lycra

Powerplay

Middle Man

Fat Man

Pressure Drop

No Offense

Battle of the Bulge

I Love a Mystery follows the line between Shadow and  Lycra. Try your hardest to avoid wandering into either of these other routes. It's most commonly done as a top rope from the Shadow anchors.

My first leader route on Bishop Peak, fun for those who are slab fans. Kind of choose your own adventure after the first bolt, you can go past one of the cruxy areas by going left and around. Kind of a soft 5.9

Calf work out! The crux comes before the first clip, and many 5.9 climbers have slid off. Well worth it.

Have you climbed everything on Shadow? At least everything but Inner Sanctum? Well, now it's time to do the Shadow Traverse. This unusual, but creative traverse, crosses every line on the lower, right side of Shadow.

This route has a mixture of old bolting ethics and those from Owen's River Gorge. This means the first bolt is about 20 ft off the deck but the ones following are almost on top of each other. That said, it is still a classic, good enough to be placed on Hans Flourine's top six routes below 5.12! It starts on the left side of the block in the middle of the wall and goes up until you are just below and left of the first bolt. Traverse right, clip the bolt, and then follow the bolt line up to the anchors. Great for those days when Cracked Wall is packed and you need some shade.

The last route to the left of Shadow before you head up a thrid class ramp.  Head up past a bolt, two more mark the crux, then the hard physical part is over, and the hard mental part begins.  Its easy climbing as that thrid bolt dissappears out of sight, and there seems to be nothing ahead.  Keep going up and eventually you will come across a fourth bolt, then continue up to the anchors.

This route was put up as a logical 2nd pitch to Desperado. It follows the same path of climbing up and trending left, with the munge always on your right. It's a friction slab, much like Shadow or Desperado with similarly sparse protection. It is possible to do Desperado and Fields of Fire in one pitch, but breaking it in two gives the leader a physical and mental break. Climb accordingly.

NOTE: If you want to climb Inner Sanctum (but don't want to lead it), you can lower your partner to the ground & belay from the top in one long 180' pitch. Or bring two ropes and an extra friend to help pull the rope.

This is a multipitch adventure of dubious quality and safety. Due to the potential for rock fall, DO NOT CLIMB IT unless you are certain there are no climbers below on Shadow Rock.

Pitch 1 (50 ft, class 4): Climb an easy slab and grassy ramps 50 ft to a double-bolt anchor at the base of a slab.

Pitch 2 (90 ft, 5.6): Climb 90 ft up the left side of a lichen-covered slab protected by two bolts and two small cam placements (one marginal) to a double-bolt anchor just below the overhanging Crescent Moon Flake. Pitches 1 and 2 can be linked.

Pitch 3 (100-200 ft, 5.0-5.9): The overhang is highly fractured and looks as if a cascade of rocks will start popping out at the slightest touch, but if you're fearless you can apparently climb through it somewhere (don't ask me where) at 5.9 (has anybody actually led through it?). Otherwise you can traverse right under the roof on 5.0 jugs (protected by cams) and then either (1) climb the right side of the formation (5.6?), which looks very brittle and unprotected, or (2) wimp out like I did and ascend grassy ramps farther to the right, work your way back to the left, and continue up brittle class 4 rock (one medium cam placement) to the final double-bolt anchor. The anchor looks like it is about 100 ft above the roof, but if you take the hike to the right you'll be covering about 200 ft of terrain.

This 5.7 route has 1 "hard" move with the rest of the route going at 5.5/5.6.  This would be a great 1st lead for a 5.7 climber.  The lower portion takes small nuts & cams while resting on good stances.  There are two holes in the rock that can be threaded with a long draw before stepping up to clip a bolt.  At the bolt, go straight up or move right slightly for an easier time.  Once you're above the bolt fiddle in some small gear or run it out on easy ground to the anchors.  The rock is clean & solid on the 1st pitch.

From the Swallow belay, you can go up Eat Mo' Possum (5.6R), top rope THC (5.10a)or top rope 1st Offense (5.10a).  If you go all the way to the summit and rap back, be extremely careful about knocking rocks off on your fellow climbers.  The fall line is directly over the very popular Shadow.  I dropped my water bottle while rapping & found it at the base of Shadow.

If you want to get in some more top roping, from the Swallow belay, you can easily swing right & hit the anchors shared by Fat Man (5.8) and 3 to Get Ready.  Move a bit further right & you can top rope Thin Man (5.9R).  Don't try & rap to the base of Thin Man.  You won't make it!  Thin Man must be top roped from the top.

Friction your way up to the first bolt.  Stay left of the bolt and go up.  It's pretty thin for a couple of moves above the first bolt.  Shallow monos & pasty feet.  Move up into the hole and go straight up from there.  It will hit you with a second cruxy section around the third bolt.

Climb the broken trough between First Offense and Swallow, past a softball sized hole. At the upper headwall stay to the right, continuing up to Swallow anchors.

This is not a separate route but a new start variation to Fat Man. I believe it has enough and different climbing to warrant a separate listing. You'll clip 3 bolts on the right side of the gully then you'll join Fat Man at bolt #2 (8 bolts total).

The crux for me was dealing with the lichen after clipping bolt #3. I'm sure it will clean up over time and may settle in at 5.9 instead of 5.10a.

Fat Man (5.8/5.9) sits near his antithesis, Thin Man (5.9 really run out).  Scramble to the top of the 4th Class Gully left of Thin Man and start off the small block. You'll clip six, well placed bolts on 80'(+/-)of clean, solid rock.  The climb can be done as a single pitch or you can continue on up to Eat Mo' Possum (5.6). From the same anchor you can easily top rope Three to Get Ready (5.9). Other options include a move to the right to top rope Thin Man (5.9R) or a move to the left to top rope Swallow (5.7) or First Offense. Fat Man makes a great climb for a new leader. Most of the moves are 5.7 with a couple of 5.8s (and maybe a well protected 5.9) thrown in to make it fun. Great views for both the belayer and climber are a plus! Bring a 200'/60 meter rope if you want to rap this route.

Start the route about 5-10 feet left of shadow.  You can see the first bolt 20 or so feet up,  you can get a .2 piece of pro in this section but its maybe 10ft up so more mental than anything.  However this section is quite straightforward.  You get to a stance and clip first bolt.  Make hard moves (crux) for the next 15-20 feet until your second bolt.  You get a good rest here and either traverse right to the shadow anchors or go to the top via 1 more bolt (5.7) this route has the most technical  5.10 climbing on the wall its a blast.

Start with three bolts- crux is about the same difficulty as the two neighboring routes which comes right where you'd expect it after the first bolt. After that you can trend naturally left to link into the second two bolts of First Offense (5.8 R) or you can climb straight up the original route of 60' of ~5.5 climbing that protects with with small, narrow head-width cams in pockets (tips to knuckle sized) to the Fat Man anchor. Route is top ropeable from either anchor.

I love slab. I love this route. One really key foot is just below the first bolt, I found it was easier to do a single biner rather than a draw in order to hit it. Once you pull the bulge, go up Despreado. You can go over left to lower it a few letter grades.

Description

Protection

Routes in Shadow Rock