A brutal loose adventure in the index area.
Chutang, Pav and I started from the Barclay Lake trailhead. The trail is in good shape despite the 2022 Barclay Lake fire. The turnoff for the stream bed isn't obvious, and we had to use the GPS track to find the exact point. Even then it's bushwhacking until the brush clears and the stream bed widens.
Check the CalTopo map link above, where I have more annotations.
We followed the stream bed to the first waterfall, which is easily bypassed on a ramp to the left.
The second waterfall comes soon after. The bypass is on the right, where you can either go up the slab or find a loose ramp further right. Both finish with steep bushwhacking on a ledge, veggie belay required.
There is another waterfall just below the crux third waterfall. You can either pull a bouldering move on left or climb some slab ledges on the right.
Then comes the third waterfall, which is also the technical crux. A big stuck boulder with an overhanging wall to its left. Some people say the grade is mid fifth, others say at least 5.8. I was curious about the true grade, so I brought my rock shoes to test it. I used the existing fixed purple rope with a microtraction as backup but never weighted it. The first few moves are hard, an overhanging crimp wall with small footholds. I'd call those first two or three moves 5.8. The steepness eases after that, closer to 5.6. I don't think the average person can free climb it in trail runners without weighting the rope.
At the top I inspected the purple rope. It bends flat easily, and I'm not sure I'd trust it after another season. But the cords on anchor are new. I then belayed Chutang up on my own rope, also in rock shoes, and she agreed the section is at least 5.8. The last member aided the first overhanging section and climbed the rest.
Above the third waterfall the terrain gets looser. You need to make a right turn at the cave. On the way up we picked a super loose gully to reach it, but we found a better line on the way down. A solid-ish ramp about 10 ft uphill of the obvious loose gully. The tradeoff is a short exposed traverse to the cave, still better in my opinion.
Past the cave it gets worse again. Steep loose gully bushwhacking with mandatory veggie belays for 400 vertical feet. We had to move carefully because rocks were easy to kick down. We stuck to the wall on the left side, which felt better.
At 4360 ft we dropped right onto the slab, which we thought was preferable. At 4800 ft we made a short traverse into another stream bed, also better. Above 5000 ft the slope gradually turns to heather, finally something decent to walk on. At 5400 ft a boot path shows up and the terrain finally turns cruiser. From there it's almost smooth sailing to the summit, with a really short class 3 scramble for the summit block.
As expected, going down wasn't any faster. We rappelled the third waterfall, and there's rappel webbing at the small waterfall below it. When we finally got back to the trail, it was such a relief knowing we never have to come back.
