Tenaya Peak
August 2024
The Northwest Buttress of Tenaya Peak has been on my tick list for some time now. It is well known as one of the more accessible alpine adventures in the Yosemite high country—14 pitches of easy-to-moderate trad climbing in a spectacular setting. Zach—who has quickly become my go-to trad climbing partner—and I caravanned out to Hardin Flat on Friday after work. We drove separately since I’d be staying a few extra days after our climb to get my Sierra fix.
Unfortunately, it rained on us all night, dashing our plans for a Tenaya ascent on Saturday. Nonetheless, we dutifully rose at 4:45 a.m. to enter the park before the bureaucrats would turn us around due to our lack of day-use permit. Once in the park, we inspected the roadside granite to see if there was any hope of climbing at all that day. Our prospects looked soggy and dim. We drove to the Tuolumne Grove trailhead and slept for a few more hours. Around 8:30, we lazily rose, made some breakfast and coffee, and pondered our predicament. It seemed we wouldn’t be climbing until at least the afternoon, and the prospect of climbing Tenaya even on Sunday seemed unlikely. Zach suggested we hike to down to the Tuolumne Grove which actually was exceedingly pleasant. Huge old grown Sequoias loomed large above. These impossibly old and wise trees always fill me with a sense of peace and humility.
Dense, low-hanging clouds stubbornly held fast as we drove up to Tenaya Lake to scope the conditions. The clouds were so thick that we couldn’t even see half of the route, but the lower half was covered in snow. That certainly wasn’t a good sign. We decided to crag up at Stately Pleasure Dome for the afternoon, then made some food, drove to Puppy Dome, and climbed some more there. We crashed out in our cars after checking the weather forecast which predicted more rain and snow overnight.
To our happy surprise the next morning, the dark pre-dawn sky was clear as could be. All stars, no clouds. We weren’t sure if the route was melted out, but we decided to run up the approach and see anyways. After eating and sorting gear, we hiked to the toe of the buttress. A trail gave way to bushwhacking which eventually gave way to clean granite. We put on our climbing shoes and started soloing some low class 5 terrain. After a few pitches, the angle steepened considerably so we roped up.
About nine pitches of moderate alpine fun ensued. A few runout friction slab sections kept us quite literally on our toes, but overall the climbing felt pretty secure. We got off to an early start, which was good because as we reached the upper pitches, we could see throngs of climbers working their way up towards us on the buttress below. Towards the top, we did the standard traversing finish off to the left of the summit, and the exposure on the traverse was wild. Thousand foot drops right below your feet!
At the summit, we were treated with views of Matthes Crest, Mt. Starr King, Half Dome, Mt. Lyell, and many other notable landmarks. It was as overwhelming as it was beautiful. After some time soaking in the views, we descended the southwest ridge to the lake. A short jaunt along Tenaya Lake’s shore saw us back to the car. We dropped our climbing gear off at the cars and jumped into the ice cold water to freshen up. Zach then drove west back to Santa Cruz while I headed east for two more days of high alpine adventure.
