Tokopah wall - Snow Boots - 3 star adventure with 1 star climbing

 I met with Christopher for a day of adventure climbing in Sequoia National park. Chris is one of those special few climbers who enjoys a solid bushwhack and isn't afraid of a bunch of hiking to get out climbing. My kind of guy. We saddled up to give the moderate adventure "Snow Boots" on the Tokopah wall a go.  

The approach takes the pleasant and popular Tokopah falls trail out of Lodgepole. We hiked to the end of the trail, past the Watchtower right to the falls themselves.

The mighty watchtower

Tokopah falls

From the falls it was a short and bushy scamble up to the base of the slab/wall. From the trailhead I believe it took us somewhere in the range of 2 hours. Finding the start of the climb was surprisingly easy. Chris headed off and we swung leads up the wall for a total of 7 pitches. The climbing on the first 5 pitches was very easy, nothing harder than 5.6, and we quickly dispatched those.

Chris heading up a nice moderate crack on P3

Big comfy ledge at the top of P5

 

The last 2 pitches were the only parts of the climb that had any real climbing. Pitch 6 started out with a  short beautiful hand crack, which quickly gave way to a wide low angle crack (reminiscent of some 5.8 off-widths in Yosemite). As the pitch progressed, the crack became increasingly wet. Eventually it was rather difficult to avoid the wetness, and my shoes were soaked. Placing your feet on wet granite with wet shoes is rather exciting. 

Looking down from the top of P6

P7 - the crack was very wet inside!

 

The top of P6 was a semi-hanging belay in a puddle. This made exiting the belay rather difficult, luckily we had packed two #4 cams, so despite the slipperiness and wetness we always had reasonable pro.

We found are way to the summit and enjoyed some snacks, and excellent views of Alta peak and the Watchtower.

wonderful views

Christopher on the summit

We had vague instructions on the walk-off to descend down the Horse creek drainage. We expected a heinous, difficult descent, but it really was not all that bad. It only got bushy near the bottom of the drainage. It was fairly obvious where to go, and was pretty pleasant for most of it. 

Christopher eyes the way down

A bit bushy at the bottom, not too bad

Back at Lodgepole we hit up the store and grabbed a beer! Luxury! A great day out with a competent, fit and adventurous partner.